Deputy Inspector William Taylor has been the commanding officer at the 60th precinct for 13 months and has overseen the most significant reduction in major crimes so far this year than any precinct across the city. All major crimes — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and car thefts — are all down, and collectively they are down just under 40 percent. We spoke with Taylor about his approach and the unique challenges of a unique precinct that covers Coney Island and most of Brighton Beach.
Dennis Lynch: The obvious question is how have you reduced crime by 40 percent?
William Taylor: I’m a big believer in recidivism. You focus on the recidivists — recidivists being a guy who commit the same crime over and over again. Everybody in precinct is aware of the top 30 violent people that live in the command, and we maintain a list that we distribute to everybody. The main focus of anti-crime personnel and narcotics personnel is to focus on these people — we call them the “Dirty 30.” Why on them? Based on what they’ve done in the past.
DL: Do you have an idea of the number of crimes committed in the 60th Precinct that are perpetrated by repeat offenders?
WT: I don’t have the exact numbers, but I can tell you that, as far as shootings go, in most instances, detectives are able to prove and even in instances where we aren’t able to prove it that every single shooting comes back in some way connected to one of these 30 or so recidivists, if not necessarily the trigger man, one is somehow or another involved. I believe — and I’ve told my personnel and especially my anti-crime people that having an interaction — it doesn’t have to be a criminal interaction. We’re not putting our hands on him — but when we see him in the street say ‘Hey Jimmy, heard your girlfriend had a baby, everything okay?’ They might say ‘F— off” but just the interaction — not even enforcement on the guy — lets them know we’re there.
DL: So you create a presence, let them know you’re watching?
WT: Yeah, and there are certain things that these people aren’t allowed to do that the average citizen is — things that are against the law that you wouldn’t think of enforcing on your average citizen, such as jaywalking, riding a bike without a helmet, or riding a bike through a red light. With these people its no-holds-barred enforcement, no discretion on anything, if we observe that, we take them in. What that does is it makes them less apt to carry a firearm, or what have you. And crime goes down.
DL: One thing that’s been a hot topic here is the alleged misconduct by costume characters on the Boardwalk, like aggressively asking for tips and inappropriate contact. How have you responded?
WT: I would like nothing more than to be on the cover of the Bay News taking Batman away in handcuffs, believe me, I would love that. I went up there on at least 10 occasions in civilian clothing and observed and I never observed any such thing — any inappropriate touching or asking for tips. I queried all my officers up there, especially now that we have fixed posts, they also haven’t observed it. Nobody has ever come to us and I find it very interesting that these people this allegedly happened to, they’ll tell the store owner but never reported it to a cop. That’s very interesting.
DL: How can the precinct react and roll with the expansion of Coney Island — more people, more crime right?
WT: I don’t know about more crime. There’s the opportunity for more crime. Now that we’ve put this thing in place, I think we can break even and keep crime down by just doing what I said, focusing on the right people. If someone is going to be coming to the Amphitheater to pick pockets, if and when that happens, we would put a plan in place to deal with that and cut it off at the neck expeditiously.
DL: People have mentioned that there needs to be more attention paid to the Brighton Beach end of the Boardwalk — that a lot of people selling booze on the beach and there are illegal vendors there — what do you think of that?
WT: I deploy my people based on where the reported crime is happening. If have X happening on Mermaid avenue in the 30s, then whatever extra personnel I have is going to be deployed to Mermaid Avenue in the 30s until that issue is corrected. If something pops up on Brighton Beach Avenue area, we will move heaven and earth to take care of that problem.
DL: So you haven’t gotten as many complaints on that side of the Boardwalk?
WT: Not anywhere close. We’ve made a lot arrests for alcohol sale and consumption, including in Brighton Beach — certainly not with volume that it is where the rides are, that’s the hot zone. I believe that Brighton Beach has adequate police coverage. Do they have same coverage as west end of Coney Island? No, because they don’t have near the amount of crime happening there as its happening on west end. I’m not favoring one community over the other, I’m going where crime is happening and that’s what I’m going to continue to do unless something happens that dictates me deploying differently.
