By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — The Guardian Angels and Inwood Safety Patrol announced they would team up to monitor the neighborhood with daytime and nighttime foot patrols starting this week in an attempt to fight rising crime in Inwood.
"We always prefer to work with the community," said Benjamin "E.Q" Garcia, the Guardian Angel's New York City operations director, who lives in Washington Heights. "They know what’s happening in the community."
The combined group of between five to 10 people will patrol the neighborhood's parks and surrounding streets. They declined to specify the exact day they would begin the joint patrols.
The groups began policing the neighborhood separately after a recent spike in crime, which has seen an increase in murders, rapes and felony assaults according to NYPD data, including the sexual assaults of two women and the mugging of a mother walking with her 17-month-old son in Inwood Hill Park.
Both groups reached out for volunteers to join the foot patrols, via Twitter, in the case of the Inwood Safety Patrol, and through taped up signs throughout the neighborhood for the Guardian Angels.
For Inwood resident Jamilia Moises, 33, seeing the signs in the neighborhood along with seeing the actual foot patrols was comforting.
"Having a presence like this in the community drives home that people care and aren’t going to take the status quo anymore," Inwood resident Jamilia Moises, 33, said.
Founder of the Inwood Safety Patrol Angel Figueroa, 36, said he was happy that the Guardian Angels were interested in helping the community.
"These guys have been doing this for a long time, anything we can learn from them will be a benefit to our community," he said. "Our community deserves this."
Those interested in participating in the patrols can contact the Guardian Angels at 917-560-2236 or the Inwood Safety Patrol through its Facebook or Twitter page.
