NYPD Must Improve Relationship With Queens Community, Locals Say

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS – Karen Dennis grew visibly passionate as she stood before the Civilian Complaint Review Board, insisting something needed to change if police officers hoped to bridge the gap between themselves and the Queens residents they serve.

"Talk is cheap is what I'm saying," said Dennis, president of the NYPD's PSA 9 Precinct community council, who joined the council to improve police engagement, but who claims that so far she's not impressed.

Her comments were met with a round of applause from the crowd that had gathered inside the Queens Library in Long Island City for the CCRB's first meeting of the year. The board met on Wednesday evening to discuss police-community relations in Queens, something Dennis and other residents made clear was still very much a work in progress.

Dennis, who works with the precinct serving New York City Housing Authority Developments throughout Queens, claimed residents of the borough's public housing apartments live in fear due to a spike in crime and what feels like a lacking relationship with police officers.

"What we see is that they’re managing people, but they're not connecting with people," she said. "Over the last six months the four developments here have experienced an extreme amount of crime - public shootings during the day, people losing their lives, young people on the streets living in a chaotic manner. The quality of life has just gone through the door and out the window."

Dennis said she wanted to see a more open dialogue between residents and police about those issues, and while the NYPD precincts have community engagement officers to do just that, she felt it still wasn't enough.

These public housing units that shelter tens of thousands of residents basically operate as small cities, but there's nothing being done to serve them as such, she said.

"You go on the website and you read all these initiatives that are out there for the communities that the police are supposed to engage, but they’re not showing up to the communities and talking," Dennis said.

Kenny Carter, founder of Fathers Alive In The Hood, echoed a similar sentiment to the board.

"We need more officers that are actually out and really trying to aggressively form a relationship with the people they’re policing," said Carter, also a member of Queens Community Board 12.

He also pointed out that special units coming in from other boroughs to police Queens neighborhoods can harm community relationships already being built by police who know their residents.

"You'll have these officers coming in from the Bronx or wherever to the 108th precinct and they'll harass, they'll violate some kind of rights, they'll do something that will infringe upon the relationship already being built."

But Carter said he doesn't blame officers coming in from outside boroughs, they likely just are weary of policing a community they don't know. He suggested local precincts come up with a system to keep outside units informed on the neighborhoods they're visiting.

Officers from NYPD's 103rd, 110th and 114th precincts filling two rows of chairs in the back of the meeting, listening to Dennis' and others' concerns, but gave no response when prompted by the CCRB.

Jonathan Logan, vice president of the Cambria Heights Civic Association, also took the stage at the board meeting to suggest having an "honest dialogues" on issues like implicit bias, officer quotas and police-civilian interactions.

He claimed having such talks, though they may be tough, would be the first step toward real solutions to the disconnect residents talked about.

"We don’t want this to be a formality and everyone just comes and goes home," Logan said. "We want to create solutions."

In his first board meeting as CCRB Acting Chair, Frederick Davie assured residents the board hears their complaints and considers them for future policies, but reminded them change would still take time.

"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Davie said. "Things got to where they are not in a short time but over a long time...We're committed to this, but it's going to take some time."

Lead photo via Patch Reporter Danielle Woodward.

Caption: Karen Dennis, president of the Precinct PSA 9 Community Council, speaks before the Civilian Complaint Review Board at its board meeting in Queens on Jan. 10.