By Forum Staff
City Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park), City Police Department brass, representatives of the Mayor’s Office, and community leaders met on Tuesday in Cityline to discuss ways to improve quality of life in the neighborhood that lies on the border of Brooklyn and Ozone Park.
The conversation was a productive, Ariola said, with law enforcement officials promising to begin rolling out new measures aimed at enhancing public safety in the District 32 community.
“For far too long, this area has fallen through the cracks when it comes to proper law enforcement,” the councilwoman noted. “This meeting is just one step of many when it comes to bringing safety and security to the people of Cityline. By working with the Mayor’s Office, the NYPD, and various local leaders, I am confident that we can hammer out solutions and make the neighborhood a better, safer place for residents to enjoy.”
“We are in an area between three precincts, and it gets to where sometimes we ourselves don’t even know who to call,” said Khairul Islam, secretary of the Cityline Ozone Park Business Association. “There’s lots of crimes happening here, and the community is concerned, so as community activists we are trying every single day to make our community safer.”
Photo Courtesy of Councilwoman Ariola
Cityline civic member Khairul Islam said activists “are trying every single day to make our community safer.”
Daniel Hill, communications director for the Cityline Ozone Park Civilian Patrol, added, “There have been a lot of crime spikes here in the area. One of the problems is that it’s split up into three different precincts, so what we’re seeing is someone will commit a crime in Queens and then cross the border and go into Brooklyn. So what we’re asking for today is better communications with the precincts and maybe even some kind of deterrent here in the Liberty Avenue Plaza, because there’s not enough of a police presence around in the neighborhood.”
