About 17 miles from Norwood, in Manhattan’s Battery Park, a familiar face in the neighborhood was awarded a gold star.

For Nilda Hofmann, the former commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct who was formally promoted to Chief of Community Affairs on Jan. 18, the gold star symbolizes an expansion to familiar territory—managing the fraught bond between the NYPD and communities.

Just how to keep that bond between communities and the Police Department stands at the heart of her objective.

“You have to reach out to people that are not comfortable talking to the police,” Hofmann said at a news conference shortly after the formal, though preppy promotions ceremony. “You have to be open to listen to people that you don’t agree with. And we need to reach out and that’s one of the things that I did when I was at the Five-Two.”

Much of those interactions came at the monthly 52nd Precinct Community Council meeting, where Hofmann was a regular. In each instance, even in an incident where she was confronted by critics demanding more transparency when it came to Civilian Complaint Review Board matters, Hofmann extended a level of respect. She was also a regular at the Community Board 7 meetings.

Hofmann, now a three-star chief, replaces the now retired Joann Jaffe. The promotion puts Hofmann back in uniform, which wasn’t required when serving as executive officer for the NYPD’s Risk Management Bureau in 2015. It also etches her in the annals of NYPD history, serving as the first Latina chief at Community Affairs.

“I met Nilda when she was the second platoon tour commander up in the Four-Four Precinct,” NYPD Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill said at the news conference. “She went over to Patrol Borough Bronx as a Community Affairs lieutenant so her experience is going to help us move forward in Neighborhood Policing.”

O’Neill is credited in implementing the Neighborhood Coordination Officer program, which takes two officers out of radio runs and assigns them to one sector. O’Neill has attempted to embed the crimefighting model into the NYPD’s DNA, hoping to produce a more relatable Police Department. With community relations placed higher on O’Neill’s priority list, Hofmann’s position is more pronounced.

Hofmann’s rise is 27 years in the making. Hofmann became a cop in 1990, the year homicides were at 2,245, the highest in recorded history for the city. She was raised on East 196th Street and Decatur Avenue, where drugs and violence were rampant. Before the NYPD, Hofmann graduated from Walton High School and shortly enrolled at John Jay College, graduating with a degree in Forensic Psychology. She later served tours at the 23rd, 25th, 43rd and 44th precincts.

Things came full circle in 2013, when after serving a variety of commands across the city (she commanded the 42nd and 25th precincts) she was handed the reins at the 52nd Precinct, replacing Inspector Joseph Dowling. She admits the 52nd Precinct stands as one of her favorites.

“I grew up in the Five-Two,” said Hofmann.

Her inclusion reflects a more diverse group within the NYPD’s high ranks. The observation of the higher echelons of the NYPD being all white males has long been criticized for not reflecting the demographics of New York City.

“We have to have an executive staff that represents the diversity of this city,” O’Neill said. “That’s how you build trust.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.