Avella suggests adding police precincts

From Bayside Patch:

Fed up with being too far from their designated police hub, a group of Bay Terrace citizens declared gehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifographic independence from Flushing last winter.

A symbolic Declaration was even printed, and signed. It bore the main complaint that police presence and response times are critical to safety, but Bayside’s 111th Precinct was half the distance from their assigned station, Flushing’s 109th.

The 111th Precinct’s Community Council hinted at that time that they were open to incorporating the neighborhood under their protection, and were tepidly contemplating the logistics and extra manpower needed.

The office of Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, said they were offering up an even better solution: cut the other precinct in half.

Avella and Assemblyman Ed Braunstein, D-Bayside proposed legislation to divide Flushing’s 109th Precinct into North and South.

Bay Terrace, Whitestone, College Point and Clearview would inhabit the North. The proposal would also divide the neighboring 105th Precinct the same way.

Those two, he said, have been tasked with overseeing the safety of twice as many people as some other Queens Precincts.