Captain Thomas Conforti speaks with residents about how crime was like nine years ago compared to how it is today. The captain was in the precinct back then and was named commanding officer of the 112 earlier this month. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.
The first 112 Precinct community council meeting of the fall season served as an introduction for its new commanding officer, who was named to the position earlier this month.
Captain Thomas Conforti took center stage at the meeting to introduce himself to residents and go over some of the crime that has been going on in their command.
The captain, who replaces Deputy Inspector Chris Tamola as lead officer of the 112, briefly went over his NYPD career before he ended up at that precinct.
Conforti has been a cop for 20 years, serving in several different precincts and having different roles in his time as a police officer. He was in the 112 precinct from 2003 until 2005 when he was a special operations lieutenant, which is a position that Lieutenant John Gavan currently holds. The role of that position is to identify certain issues or trends that are going on in the area that a precinct covers and figure out a way to resolve it.
His other career highlights include being 2nd in command at the 110 Precinct and the commanding officer of the Citifield detail, which patrols the stadium when the Mets play their home games.
The captain then delved into the crime that’s been going on in the patrol area.
Since he became captain, Conforti said that he’s often been asked to compare how crime was when he was in the 112 nine years ago with how it’s like today. He said that grand larceny is the big crime problem in the command and although crime has gone down compared to back then, property crime seems to be the major concern as it was in 2003.
“The crime is the same, it’s going down, but the same issues back then are the same issues now,” he said.
The captain announced that, from 2002 until this year, crime is down 55 percent overall, continuing the downward trend of crime.
Back then, the captain said the common type of property crime was pick pocketing, stealing head lights and air bags from cars. Now, that has switched over to rims and tires and iPhones.
He said that grand larceny is the problem in the precinct with identity theft and criminals stealing unattended bags being the most common of that crime.
Conforti said that it’s a tough crime to control because you often have to try and get the person as it is in progress.
“It’s a real opportunistic crime and it targets whoever is there at the time,” the captain said.
The Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corp (FHVAC) also attended the meeting to give residents a quick primer on how to give CPR in the case of an emergency.
FHVAC member Ron Cohen encouraged people to learn that technique and that you don’t necessarily need to do mouth-to-mouth when giving someone CPR.
Cohen said that although a professional or someone who is already trained in CPR will do both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, a bystander can do a compression to someone in duress until help arrives.
“Studies have shown that compressions only are almost as effective as compressions and breathing,” he said.
The way to do the compressions is to take both of your hands, with one hand on top of the other, and press down on the center of the chest area.
Cohen said that FHVAC’s goal this fiscal year is to train as many people as possible in CPR. He said they will do this through the classes they hold at their headquarters and appearances at community events like the 112 Precinct council meeting
By Luis Gronda
