New cops will patrol high-crime areas

Eight new 50th Precinct police officers will be hitting the streets of Marble Hill and Kingsbridge Heights this week. 

The Five-O is still down six officers since it lost about 14 in October 2009, but this week Capt. Brandon del Pozo introduced a new crop of cops to members of the community at the 50th Precinct Community Council meeting on Jan. 13. 

Although the precinct hasn’t been able to replace all of the cops (many of whom transferred or retired), Capt. del Pozo said new officers will target high-crime areas within the precinct. 

“These cops will be going to where our crime is, and our crime has been shown to be in Marble Hill and Kingsbridge Heights, and for that reason they will be paying more attention to those neighborhoods,” he said. 

The precinct used to have two or three officers patrolling Kingsbridge Heights by foot in the evenings and none in Marble Hill. Now that is set to change. 

New officers assigned to those neighborhoods will spend “a fair amount of time on foot,” Capt. del Pozo said. 

The new cops are not rookies just out of police academy. Every one of them, Capt. del Pozo explained, has worked for at least a year-and-a-half in a high-crime area in the Bronx. 

Officer Oscar Sosa, 29, has worked in Fordham, University Heights and the South Bronx, and said he is looking forward to protecting the residents of Marble Hill and Kingsbridge Heights from the crime that affects both neighborhoods. He hopes to use his experience in other neighborhoods toward that goal.

“Those areas were very busy. There was a night when we got 17 shootings”, he said. “And although here it might not be as busy as those areas, I’m hoping to bring the same tactics and the same mentality.”

Capt. del Pozo said Kingsbridge Heights accounts for 15 percent of crime in the Five-O and Marble Hill accounts for at least 19 percent. 

In 2010 a total of 379 crimes were committed in Kingsbridge Heights and Marble Hill, according to NYPD statistics. In 2009, 409 crimes were committed in those areas.

A Marble Hill resident who did not want to be named out of fear for her safety, said the area definitely needs more officers.