The appointment of a new NYPD Brooklyn precinct commander makes a mockery of the city’s recently adopted policy of giving local residents a significant say in such appointments, some community members charge.
On Monday, Capt. Krystin Suarez will take over as the new commanding officer of the 72nd Precinct, covering Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace.
But some local residents complain they weren’t given a chance to properly vet Suarez for the job — leading their local City Council member to blast the process in an angry letter to NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and Deputy Mayor Philip Banks.
“Not only has this process been a complete mockery of community engagement but it has deeply insulted the very community members who volunteer their precious time and energy to liaise between the community and the Precinct,” Councilwoman Alexa Aviles (D-Brooklyn) wrote in the fiery Jan. 10 letter.
In January 2021 then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that starting immediately precinct community councils, which are made up of local civilian volunteers, would start having an advisory role in picking new NYPD precinct commanders, including interviewing candidates.
“This is unprecedented in the history of the NYPD,” de Blasio said at the time. “We’re bringing the voices of the community forward to determine who would be the right leader.”
NYPD community councils, meant to serve as a bridge between precinct brass and local residents, have been around since the 1940s.
Aviles said a video community meeting was announced to interview candidates with only a few hours’ notice — and was attended by only 15 people. Local residents who joined the meeting found they were muted and the video chat feature was disabled.
NYPD brass gave the precinct council president a handful of prewritten interview questions to choose from, according to Aviles, and police did not allow follow-up or clarifying questions to candidates.
Leadership of the community council did not respond to requests for comment last week.
“This process was not fair,” said Ray Acevedo, a former NYPD sergeant and the leader of a local community nonprofit. “When you don’t allow the public to speak and then you put the questions in their mouths, what do you have here? It’s not a process. It’s a farce.”
The group submitted its votes privately to the police department, which did not disclose the results. The meeting ended without any clear idea how the council’s input would be taken into account.
Aviles wrote she was “deeply disturbed” when NYPD Assistant Brooklyn South Commanding Officer Chief McEvoy told her the following day the community and internal process for the selection had concluded. In a follow up meeting with McEvoy, Aviles and community members demanded a full redo of the community interviews.
But by Friday, the 72nd Precinct’s web page was updated to show Suarez had been named to the top job.
Asked about the meeting, an NYPD spokesperson said: “The NYPD adhered to the Commanding Officer Selection Process in accordance with City Council Resolution 1584.”
The resolution, passed by the City Council in March 2021, formalized de Blasio’s plan for the NYPD to allow community councils to interview candidates for precinct commanders and provide advisory feedback.
“Community engagement is not a box to be checked,” Aviles said. “It’s actually a process. And when you offend your greatest allies and you show them that this process was really not meant for them and their voices it’s an offense and it’s a breaking of trust.”
When de Blasio first rolled out the policy he credited then Brooklyn Borough president Eric Adams for the idea. As a mayoral candidate, Adams expressed his intent to expand the community’s influence by giving the community councils veto power via a supermajority vote but that idea has not come to pass.
The city’s website boasts that “the community preference” has been accepted in every precinct hiring since the plan launched in April 2021.
But Aviles says attendees at the 72nd Precinct interview meeting polled one another afterward and found they preferred Captain Tony Wong over Suarez.
Local residents had hoped to have actual input into the appointment. “We were really looking forward to it,” said Julio Pena III, the chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 7.
“Lo and behold, when the process kind of happened, there was no process.”You want to build trust with precincts and neighborhoods. But you can’t really do that if you’re not building that collaboration in the hiring processes.”
With Rocco Parascandola
