Forum tackles safety at businesses

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About a dozen business owners and community members met last week to discuss safety concerns in the wake of the Jan. 4 murder of a McDonald’s night manager on Broadway.

Capt. Terence O’Toole, the commanding officer of the 50th precinct, took the opportunity to share advice with the attendees. 

He emphasized that updating security cameras would benefit both small businesses and law enforcement. The captain noted that the McDonald’s where Adam Garcia was murdered provided low-quality footage. 

“The cameras, when we looked at them, were useless. They were terrible and they looked like you were in a fog simply because where the cameras were placed,” he said, pointing to the issue of oversaturated lighting. “The fluorescent lighting causes basically a fog.”

Capt. O’Toole also said business owners can have footage from their private cameras synced to a feed at the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative. Almost 5,000 private and NYPD cameras are accessible for viewing at the headquarters. The captain said one area business owner had already made the request.

“They have a wall full of cameras; they can check anything out. If you leave a package in front of a location for a long time, the camera will zoom in on that and will send a police officer to check. If someone does something with a red jacket, the computer system will work on the cameras and be able to find people in red jackets,” Capt. O’Toole explained at the Jan. 20 forum, held at Bronx BBQ Pit & Gastropub, located at 170 W. 233rd St.

He also urged business owners to partake in community partnerships with the local police. The NYPD program would facilitate weekly interactions between an officer and the participating owners about persistent problems affecting business. Further, owners were encouraged to call 911 in the event of problematic visitors. 

Andrew Williams, owner of the Williams Funeral Home on Broadway, asked why the presence of foot patrol officers has diminished over the years. Capt. O’Toole explained that since the 1990s, almost 6,000 officers have left the NYPD, but said there was an excess of officers on the force at that time.

Will Speros, 50th precinct, NYPD, Andrew Cohen, Community Board 8’s Economic Development
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