Cohen: assign new cops to 50th Precinct

After the City Council passed a $78.5 billion budget for 2016 including funds for 3,800 new police officers, northwest Bronx Councilman Andrew Cohen wants some of the new manpower to come to this part of the borough.

Mr. Cohen said in spite of Riverdale’s reputation as a low-crime area, the 50th Precinct that protects it should get more police.

“I think that manpower levels in the 50th have been inadequate,” he said. “Even though the 50th is not a particularly high-crime district, we have a lot of quality-of-life crime. It would be nice if we had officers to respond to those quality of life issues.”

The councilman declined to put a number on how many new police officers he would like to see here. But he said each precinct in his district, which overlaps with the 47th and 52nd in addition to the 50th — could benefit from having more forces.

Mr. Cohen said the City Council will have a say in assigning the new police officers, but the process is still being worked out.

“Commissioner [William] Bratton, to his credit, has been very accessible to the council,” he said. “It’s really about making the case that these quality-of-life crimes are important, too, and should not be ignored.”

Read next week’s Press for a look at tens of thousands of dollars in funding in the new budget for local non-profits.

High-level feuding

As the legislative session wound down in Albany, the mayor said he thinks the governor tried to hurt the city out of spite. The governor went on background just to put out word the mayor is “incompetent.”

What are local politicians to do as two of the most prominent elected officials in the state, who happen to be from the same party, trade nasty barbs?

While the locals mostly blamed Senate Republicans for an end-of-session legislative package that fell short of many progressives’ aims, northwest Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz noted, “It certainly appeared that the governor wanted to thwart some of the mayor’s plans or goals.”