On his third day as the newest commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct, Deputy Inspector Peter Fiorillo emphasized the relationship between community and police can only strengthen and “better the community.”

“It’ll also probably make the officers’ work a little bit easier and more efficient,” said Fiorillo, addressing residents at the latest 52nd Precinct Community Council meeting, a public forum where residents voice crime-related concerns with the precinct’s top officers.

At the meeting, Fiorillo got a taste of everyday issues happening in the Five-Two, a stationhouse covering Norwood, Bedford Park, Kingsbridge, University Heights and parts of Fordham. Crime has stood steady this year, with 668 reported major crime index cases reported, the exact number as the same time last year, according to NYPD statistics. Cases involving rape, felony assault and burglary have seen increases so far.

“This is a functioning, a very good functioning precinct,” said Fiorillo, who’s had stints as executive officer of the 47th Precinct, a member of the Bronx’s Borough Command, and commanding officer of the Bronx’s Impact Response Team.

His latest stop was at the 88th Precinct, where he began serving as commanding officer for the Brooklyn stationhouse in 2014. There, he saw crime drop 13.61 percent in 2015 and 3.13 percent in 2014.

Fiorillo, a burly 25-year member of the force, replaces Inspector Nilda Hofmann, who accepted a promotion as the executive officer to the NYPD’s Risk Management Bureau (RMB). Hofmann deemed her promotion and surprise departure as “bittersweet,” given that she grew up within the precinct.

“The people made me feel like home,” said Hofmann, crediting the community for making her job easier. “They see what we don’t see just driving by or coming in for work for a 9-, 10-hour day.”

Speaking to the Norwood News from her office at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan, Hofmann, replacing her dress blues for a professional suit, reflected on two and a half years of pushing down violent crime, dismantling gangs, and introducing the Grandmother’s Love initiative, a support group for Bronx grandmothers whose grandchildren are absent from their parents’ lives because of drug use or incarceration. Hofmann was invited to take part in the program by Community Affairs Bureau Chief Joanne Jaffe.

“When she asked me to be part of it, she said to me you’re committing for the rest of your career,” said Hofmann, at one point one of two women commanding one of the 12 stationhouses in the Bronx. “I go there and I feel like they’re my grandmothers.”

Hofmann left the precinct in late April, handing it off to Fiorillo, who received the precinct murder-free. He also receives the precinct primed with the NYPD’s new Neighborhood Coordination Officer program, an initiative akin to restoring the cop-on-the-beat approach, where an officer’s familiar face could institute a level of trust. The precinct will be subdivided into four quadrants, with two dedicated NCO officers assigned to a quadrant and tasked to immerse themselves within the neighborhood. The program is expected to launch in June, with the number of patrol cars increasing from seven during the evening shift to upwards of 15.

“I’m going to miss that program. It would’ve been nice to see,” said Hofmann, hoping newfound trust can inspire victims to call the police. “If there’s a domestic violence occurring, that same officer is going to be responding every time to that…meaning now they could do something about it.”

Hofmann’s new role at the RMB, a nascent division working on the Police Department’s more critical arenas, functions as an intermediary between the department and Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD. The position was created following a federal court ruling ordering such a post be created as a form of accountability. By and large, the legal division is seen as the NYPD’s think tank, with a roster of 150 employees assessing and creating departmental policies to minimize legal blowbacks.

“All the procedures that get rolled out there’s hundreds of meetings on it; and lawyers going back and forth on ‘is this correct, that correct.’ Now it’s given to the federal monitor for him to look at, approve it, not approve it, send it to the judge, and the judge making the decision,” said Hofmann. “You don’t realize that being in a precinct all that it takes to roll out procedures.”

With her run as commanding officer of the Five-Two over, it closes the book on her days running a command, having commanded the 25th Precinct and NYPD Transit. It was her last.

“It’s sad,” she said. “Very sad.”

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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.