JACKSON HEIGHTS — The city's new neighborhood policing initiative will be rolled out this summer in the 115th Precinct, officials said.
The policing approach, which was introduced in 2015 at a few precincts across the city, will begin in the precinct in July — bringing the number of neighborhood policing precincts to 47 out of 77.
The 106th Precinct in Howard Beach, the 83rd and 63rd Precincts in Brooklyn will also start the program in July.
The 123rd Precinct on Staten Island, along with the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, the 76th Precinct in Red Hook and the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, will start April 24, the city announced Monday.
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“Neighborhood policing is a philosophical change in the way that we police," NYPD Chief of Patrols Terence Monahan said at an event announcing the new precincts, and touting the program's successes.
"It’s tying our cops to significant areas, to significant geography within the command.”
He, along with Commissioner James O'Neill, helped bring the ideology of the program to New York City after studying the community policing program in Los Angeles in 2014.
The goal was to re-evaluate how police officers worked, as crime reached record lows across the city.
Neighborhood coordination officers, or NCOs, are assigned to do proactive outreach in their precincts rather than wait to respond to 911 calls, according to the model. The NCOs get additional training, including getting public speaking and conflict resolution tools, to help improve their ability to build trust with locals to address crimes.
In the two years since it was launched in pilot precincts across the city, areas with NCOs saw a reduction in the seven major crimes, with the most significant decrease in shootings, newly-released statistics show.
Those were down nearly 30 percent over the last year. Shootings in precincts that aren't involved with the program saw a nearly 10 percent spike. during the same period.
But the initiative also saw heavy turnover, as officers left due to promotion. At the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway, part of the pilot launch in 2015, 15 NCOs left.
Yet O'Neill said the new approach can help continue to keep crime down.
"This new philosophy will enable us, by working collectively with the public, to further reduce crime and keep New York the safest city in America," he said in a press release about NCOs.
