A crowd of more than 200 community residents turned out for a public safety forum organized by Congressman Adriano Espaillat of the 13th Congressional District and held on April 3 at Our Lady of Refuge Church on East 196th Street in Bedford Park. The event brought NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, whose attempts at forging stronger community relations prompted him to hold open forums.

Topics covered in the more than two-hour meeting included gangs, crime, the local opioid epidemic that’s crushing Bedford Park and Fordham.

The meeting was held within the 52nd Precinct, covering Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights. A September 2017 report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board showed the Five-Two received 76 complaints filed against officers stationed at the precinct, which ranked it sixth out of the borough’s twelve precincts with CCRB complaints.

CLICK HERE FOR RECENT 52ND PRECINCT CRIME STATISTICS 

So far, crime within the precinct’s borders has sharply risen by 13 percent. Cases of rape have risen to 175 percent, according to NYPD crime statistics. Cases of car break-ins have also jumped to 71 percent this year so far, according to the statistics. One upside has been the lack of homicides so far, as opposed to a reported homicide made around the same time last year.

Joining Espaillat was Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., City Council members Vanessa Gibson, Andrew Cohen and Jeff Dinowitz, O’Neill and Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. O’Neill, who had a stint at the 52nd Precinct, is credited as the architect behind the Neighborhood Coordination Officer program, where two officers assigned to a sector get a greater sense of the state of a neighborhood by attending meetings instead of the responding exclusively to radio calls.

Espaillat, who represents Norwood, said he plans other such forums in the near future, in the surrounding neighborhoods of Bedford Park.