Scary . ..I received an e-mail from Robert Holden, president of the Juniper Park Civic Association, the other day with an attached editorial from its newsletter headlined: "NYPD Precincts & Technology: Welcome to the 1950s."
Low-tech police precincts a shameful crime
Holden says that in the 104th Precinct - covering 7 square miles, including Glendale, Maspeth, Middle Village and Ridgewood - the cops do not even have such basic telecommunications technology as voice mail, call forwarding, call waiting, "or any other advancement made in the last 50 years."
And this is after a $100,000 telecommunications upgrade just three years ago. "For an extra $10,000, they could have had all that," Holden says. "Precinct offices that relied on answering machines bought their own with staff contributions," Holden writes. "Still, most of the 104th Precinct offices don't have any answering device whatsoever."
No wonder many times, when you call a local precinct, the line is busy or goes unanswered or gets cut off after 10 rings.
Meanwhile, the average bad guy has a smart phone that can take messages, make conference calls, surf the Net and send and receive e-mail while our police wait for the mailman to deliver crimefighting tips via snail mail.
Like every precinct, the 104th has a color-coded pin map, showing local crime patterns. "But they have no way of dispensing this to someone like me at a civic association where I can forward it to our 2,600 members who can help spot and fight crime," says Holden. "Communication is the modern way to fight crime. But our cops have no communication technology."
9 comments:
Information is knowledge, and knowledge in the hands of the public is power.
By keeping things primitive, you have the public clueless.
All they see are beaming politicos next to seniors or immigrant kids.
Everything is fine, the newspapers tell us, everything is fine....
Dear 104th Precinct Police Officer:
I am writing to report a mugging I witnessed, today, at 4pm. When you receive this letter, 2days from now, please come and investigate the matter.
Sincerely Yours,
John Doe
This disgraceful failure to adopt and maintain modern communication and technology systems is one more willful travesty is the result of more of Bloomberg's disdain for spending on the essentials.
Every precinct in the city needs to have modern phone and computer equipment - desktop and mobile, with each officer and patrol car.
The NYPD and every precinct needs the latest software to drive the latest equipment. Software that is far superior to the Department of Education's failed $80+ Million clown software that lies utterly useless because of dismal mismanagement riddled with kickbacks and incompetence.
Any 13 year old kid in this city has the equipment and the skills to communicate with friends throughout the city. Any child today can arrange to meet 20 friends at the movies in the shortest time known to man; yet, a call to a precinct is more difficult than the old 1940's overseas phonecall to a GI in combat.
More Bloomberg contempt for the responsibilities of a mayor in a large city. Plus his genetic contempt for the police - just little people who can be commanded with the snap of a finger.
Bloomberg wants to be surrounded by cops, but he detests the very existence of each one.
Thats OK. The retard cops at the 104 would have no clue how to use the technology anyway.
The 104 has been known as "F-Troop" for decades and nothing has changed.
They are a bunch of do nothings.
LOL Yep I been in the 104 when I ran after and caught a purse snatcher (they alway ran south at the time).
Upstairs doing the report with the cops. It was like an old movies set in that place. Globe lamps, prison green walls, old desks and lockers.
Downstairs the had this bank of Motorola HT-220 talkies charging.
This was in the 80s and I think they are still using them !!
-Joe
In a red-lined area such as this,
NYC first denies adequate vital services
in its stage one move to hollow out
a neighborhood in preparing it
for over development!
"Thats OK. The retard cops at the 104 would have no clue how to use the technology anyway.
The 104 has been known as "F-Troop" for decades and nothing has changed.
They are a bunch of do nothings."
I apologize for omitting the requirement that training on all the modern equipment would be necessary.
Apart from typing skills, there is really nothing so difficult about modern technology that people - men, women, young and old - cannot master it pretty quickly.
If kids can master the stuff, I'm certain that with proper training, all police officers can learn to master the use.
Most modern technology whizbang inventions include "ease-of-use" features.
Any political opposition to adopting modern technology is evidence of a willful refusal to fulfill the responsibility to see to the safety of citizens.
The 104's biggest excuse is Ridgewood. They cry that their patrol area is too big and Glendale, MV, Maspeth, etc get less protection because of the activity in Ridgewood. So what? Do you need 100 cops in Ridgwood? I don't think so. The parts where you might need more police is maybe about 2 or 3 blocks and then the 83rd kicks in.
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY AT THE 104: Dennis Gallagher aparently gave the 104 10k for a new phone system a couple of years back, I remember reading the article in the Ridgewood Times. So whatever happened to that? Hmmm I wonder.
I really liked Captain Green, he got the 104 to answer the damn phone but I hear he's leaving because he's a cops cop and is in shock over the BS that goes on there!
There's a hold-up in Metro Mall
Maspeth's broken out in fights
There's a traffic jam on Fresh Pond
that's backed up to Jackson Heights
Ridgewood's short a child
Glendale's gangs have gone wild
Precinct 104, Where are You?
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