An off-duty male police officer was arrested on Tuesday in the confines of the 49th Precinct, which covers the neighborhoods of Allerton, Morris Park, Van Nest, Pelham Parkway, Eastchester Gardens, and Pelham Gardens.

 

Police said that on Tuesday, Oct. 2, at 10.53 p.m., NYPD Auxiliary Police Officer Marciel Mojica was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in the third degree. Details for auxiliary police officers do not appear to be listed in the NYPD’s online database so we do not know to which precinct Mojica was assigned. We’ve asked the NYPD and will share any updates we receive.

 

According to the department, the NYPD’s auxiliary police program is the largest auxiliary police program in the United States, with thousands of volunteer officers contributing more than one million hours of public service each year. The NYPD say auxiliary officers are trained to observe and report conditions requiring the services of the regular police. They say whenever possible, auxiliary police officers assist in non-enforcement and non-hazardous duties.

 

An extract from the NYPD’s website reads, “They are civic-minded men and women who volunteer to assist their local police precincts, housing police service areas, and transit districts by serving as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the neighborhood through foot, vehicle, and bicycle patrols.”

 

According to the NYPD, auxiliary police assist the NYPD by, for example, patroling housing developments, residential, and commercial areas, patroling subway entrances and stations, maintaining order at parades, festivals, street fairs, and other special events, patroling houses of worship, assisting in crime prevention activities, performing traffic control at motor vehicle accidents and fire scenes, and performing various other non-enforcement duties.

 

Some Bronxites we’ve spoken to in recent times have called for more police presence on subways, and in certain Bronx neighborhoods, to deter subway crime, and to curb or prevent killing and injury. Close to the scene of a fatal shooting of a 40-year-old man on Oct. 2 at East 198th Street and Bainbridge Avenue in Bedford Park, one female employee of a local supermarket said she saw a huge decline in public safety in New York.

 

“I’ve never felt as scared as I do now to live in the City of New York,” she said. The woman added that she only sees police in the neighborhood if something happens when she said, officers arrive quickly. “But there’s no [habitual] vigilance,” she said.

On the other hand, the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) is seemingly opposed to police presence on subways in light of a recent police-involved shooting in Brooklyn. The group is organizing a series of rallies in the coming weeks to get “cops off our subway.”

 

The group wrote on social media, “Let’s get the cops off our transit system already!! Join the NY Alliance for an escalatory series of events beginning Oct. 19th which will lead to a large rally on Nov. 9th! We will be speaking out against the heinous police shooting at the Sutter Ave station, bringing attention to policing of our bus system, speaking out inside the subway cars, and rallying at major transit hub Jay St. Metrotech. Join us in our struggle against police crimes!”

 

On Sept. 27, we reported that a Bronx police officer was charged with assault of a suspect and for allegedly lying about a patrol car striking and injuring a motorcyclist.

 

Mojica is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.