The new commanding officer of Park Slope’s 78th Precinct assumed his position the same day a motorist killed two kids when she drove into the youngsters after running a red light as the they navigated a neighborhood crosswalk. But Captain Jason Hagestad — a self-proclaimed born-and-bred Brooklynite who officially introduced himself to locals at the precinct’s community-council meeting last night — said he and his men in blue are already working with the city to beef up traffic enforcement in the nabe, and shared other plans he has to keep crime down in the Slope and the parts of Gowanus and Prospect Heights he now oversees as top cop.
Colin Mixson: Congratulations! This is your first command?
Jason Hagestad: Correct. It was a long time coming. But my first day, unfortunately, was on March 5, when the tragic crash occurred on Ninth Street at Fifth Avenue. It happened within my first 45 minutes: I signed in at noon, and by 12:45 pm I was rushing to the scene. It was absolutely horrible. I can’t imagine what those parents are going through.
CM: Can you share any details about the city’s response?
JH: There are a lot of working parts, but as far as redesigning certain sections of the precinct, anything that can possibly be done to make things safer for drivers and pedestrians. And my officers have conducted a lot of enforcement there. That intersection has a history of collisions.
CM: Do you do a lot of traffic enforcement by handing out tickets?
JH: I have a team of guys doing that. Normally, the executive officer runs the traffic program, but we don’t have one, so we deploy cops in the places where we see most collisions occur.
CM: Will you get an executive officer?
JH: I would love to have one, but it’s not my decision. There’s a shortage of captains in the borough right now, but eventually we’ll get more assigned, and hopefully I’ll get an executive officer.
CM: What’s your take on other major issues in Park Slope?
JH: It seems like it’s a property-crime command, and then you have your occasional burglaries or robberies, which are up, but it doesn’t look like there are any patterns. A lot of times kids from other places are involved, and other times, it’s domestic. They aren’t glaring issues, but are still things we need to address to continually keep crime down — we’re down in crime for the year so far.
CM: Can locals expect any new policing strategies?
JH: I’m still figuring out what I’m going to do by monitoring trends and other possibly evolving patterns. Then I’ll deploy personnel in the way I see fit to continue that downward spiral in crime.
CM: Is there anything else you want the residents of your precinct to know?
JH: Just that I’m thrilled to be here. It’s a dream come true, and I’m going to put my heart and soul into the job. I’ve lived nearby, in Bay Ridge, for my entire life, and I’m very familiar with Brooklyn — I went to Xaverian High School, then St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill, and worked across the borough in my career with the Police Department, which I joined in July 2003.
CM: Where did you start?
JH: I started in the 67th Precinct amid “Operation Impact,” which called for filling high-crime areas with as many cops as possible. The 67, which covered East Flatbush and Brownsville, was very busy — after six months, I joined a task force as part of the second phase of Operation Impact, and that force went through high-crime neighborhoods in a van doing the same type of enforcement. I then transferred to the 66th Precinct, which includes Kensington and Borough Park. I learned a lot from the different cultural communities there. It was at the 66 when, in my fifth year with the Police Department, I made sergeant.
CM: You have to test into that position?
JH: Yes, and there are different schools that offer weekly classes to prepare for the exam, which is very difficult to pass. There are tests to make sergeant, lieutenant, captain — it’s tough. I’m fortunate, however, because I’m not married, and I don’t have kids, so it’s easier to just stay home and study. I went to the 13th Precinct in Manhattan after becoming sergeant, and then moved to the Police Department’s auditing unit, the Quality Assurance Division, where I would go to precincts throughout the city and review their complaint reports to ensure the forms were classified accurately. I did that for about a year and a half, then I made lieutenant, and came here to the 78th Precinct, where I served for a couple of months before returning to the auditing unit and eventually making captain in January 2015.
CM: Is that when you got your first command?
JH: No, when you become a captain, your first position is as an executive officer. So I was the number two guy in the 76th Precinct for six months, and then I moved to the 61st Precinct — Sheepshead Bay, Gerritsen Beach, and parts of Manhattan Beach — for a little more than two years before spending another six months in Coney Island’s 60th Precinct, where, roughly a month a go, I got the call naming me as the new commanding officer of the 78. — Colin Mixson
