QUEENS — The NYPD is expanding its new community policing program to include Jamaica this fall, local police officials said.
Under the program, several “neighborhood coordination officers,” or NCOs, will be trained in the 103rd Precinct and then be assigned to specific geographic beats in Jamaica and Hollis, where the same officers and patrol cars will monitor the same area every day, authorities said.
The intention of the program is to get officers to connect to an area and have a better feel for the every day problems of those who live and work there, officials said.
"Residents and business owners will get to know the officers that patrol that particular beat and they are going to develop a relationship and hopefully issues are going to get solved," said Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, at a precinct council meeting Tuesday night.
For one-third of their shift, these officers will not be responding to 911 calls, and instead use that time attending community meetings, visiting local businesses and talking to local residents, Cappelmann said.
“The goals of the neighborhood policing model are basically to have the police officers become stakeholders specifically in [the area] where they are working,” he added.
Cappelmann said the precinct will have to go through some changes, including a revised patrol schedule, before implementing the program, which is expected to happen in October. It will also need to acquire more officers and police cars, he said.
By the fall, Cappelmann noted, about 40 out of 77 precincts in the city will be included in the program.
The program, meant to improve relations between the NYPD and the community, was initially launched last spring in the 33rd and 34th precincts in northern Manhattan, and in the 100th and 101st precincts in the Rockaways.
It was later expanded to several other neighborhoods, including the 113th Precinct in South Jamaica, where it was introduced last September.
