QUEENS — Security cameras won't be installed in problem-plagued Forest Park for several months — even after a jogger was robbed there last week — because of delays and a mess of red tape in Albany, officials said.
Elected officials had hoped to have the cameras placed in the greenspace some time this summer, but this week Assemblyman Mike Miller's office revealed the process is taking longer then expected.
Part of the reason is that the NYPD has to file two separate applications — one for the state Legislature and the second for the State Dormitory Authority, according to Miller's office.
Both the Legislature and the Dormitory Authority must review the application, even though money for the cameras has already been set aside by local elected officials.
Last year, following a string of sexual assaults in the park, Miller and state Sen. Joseph Addabbo allocated $250,000 for 14 cameras to be placed in seven locations around the 500-acre park.
Initially, the NYPD told Miller it could not guarantee the funds would be used to place the cameras in Forest Park. But in December, the department agreed to install them.
The process for getting the cameras, Miller's office said, also required the NYPD to file a preliminary application to the state Assembly's Ways and Means Committee.
But Miller's office also said that brass at NYPD headquarters did not send the application to Albany until early August.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The request is now in the final approval process with the Ways and Means Committee, according to Miller’s office.
Once approved, the committee will send the application to the Dormitory Authority, which will conduct an independent review.
The NYPD also has to send a separate application to the authority — a grant proposal — before it can be considered, even though the money has already been set aside. The NYPD can only submit this document after the Dormitory Authority receives the Ways and Means committee's application.
"The review process is very diligent," Miller's representative said. "It’s out of our control."
John Chirlin, a spokesman for the DASNY said that he could not comment on the issue because the agency has not received the request yet.
According to the DASNY's website, the agency's role is to work with the Legislature to administer grant programs, including community improvement projects, and to make sure that the public funds are spent for the purposes set in a specific legislation.
Officials and local residents said that security cameras would serve as a deterrent to crime in the park and also help identify suspects.
"One of the ideas about cameras is that they serve as a preventive measure," said Ed Wendell of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association, who utilizes the park on a regular basis, adding that if criminals "know that there are cameras around, they are going to behave.
"Everyone agrees that [installing cameras] is a good idea, but it has to go though all this red tape," Wendell said. "This bureaucracy takes forever."
Most of the cameras are slated to be placed at the entrances to the park, near the playgrounds and main trails used by joggers and bicyclists, Miller said in February.
Each location will include two 360-degree, fish-eye cameras that will retain the recordings and stream the images to police.
Police are still searching for a man they linked to six sexual assaults in the park between 2011 and 2013.
On Sept. 16 this year, a 28-year-old woman was robbed in the park while jogging around 6:15 p.m. The suspect ran up to her from behind, grabbed her by the mouth, stole her headphones and fled, police said.
It was at least the second robbery this year in the park, according to the 102nd Precinct.
On July 24, around 9:30 p.m. at the corner of Forest Park Drive and Woodhaven Boulevard, a man approached a cyclist, pushed him off his bike and fled with the bicycle, police said.
Following the most recent attack, the NYPD beefed up patrols in the park, adding more than a dozen officers to monitor the green space.
