something positive easy

at this evening's 77th precinct community council meeting,
Dep. Ins. Cosgrove kind of turned the tables and instead of fielding questions,
asked the community what the precinct could be doing to better serve us.

the first response came from Ms. Eve Porter
(president of the Crow Hill Community Association)
who responded with "bring back the beat cops".

seems that this answer fit into an approach that Cosgrove was already thinking of pursuing:
a greater reliance on community policing.
as he pointed out, discourses have been written on the exact definition of this concept,
but for now he is going to interpret it as getting officers regularly assigned to a specific beat
so that they become more part of the community.
as he put it: this is an approach to policing that relies less on comp stat & enforcement
and more on a positive relationship between the community and the precinct.

but ideas like this don't turn into reality in a vacuum,
the community is 1/2 of the battle
and to that end, Cosgrove suggested that the community voice its support in writing

so,
if you think this could be a positive approach to the public safety issues facing our community,
take a minute and drop Dep Ins Cosgrove a note, something along the lines of:

I am aware that you are interested in putting beat cops back on the street in the 77th precinct.
As a resident (and/or merchant) I applaud this approach
and wish to express my full support for a shift towards increased community policing.


please include your name & address (and add any concerns, thoughts or suggestions of your own)
letters can be addressed to:
Deputy Inspector John Cosgrove
127 Utica Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11213
in my experience this type of participation is crucial when it comes to creating change to the system