Park Slope has a new top cop.
Capt. Frank Digiacomo started this week as the new commanding officer of the neighborhood’s 78th police precinct, replacing Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri. Digiacomo, a 21-year veteran of the NYPD, pledged to continue the Vision Zero road-safety initiatives Ameri became known for this year.
“I plan to take steps forward, not backward,” said Digiacomo, who comes to the precinct from a detective bureau command post serving all of Brooklyn above Prospect Park. “Everything the inspector did, I plan on carrying on.”
As commanding officer Ameri made allies of road-safety activists by pushing Mayor DeBlasio’s driver-pinching efforts in a bid to reduce traffic deaths to zero by 2024. Digiacomo has spent his first week in office pressing the flesh, meeting with local clergy and civic leaders. So far, at least one new constituent has reacted positively to Digiacomo and his New York Rangers-centric taste in office decoration.
“Great meeting new @NYPD78Pct CO Frank Digiacomo today,” wrote Park Slope Street Safety Partnership founder Eric McClure on Twitter. “Man after my own heart — his office is like a mini-Hockey Hall of Fame.”
Detectives working under Digiacomo puprortedly solved some of the most lurid cases that have riveted the borough during the past several months, including the kidnapping and murder of Williamsburg landlord Menachem Stark in January, and the stabbing murder of two children in an East New York elevator in June. Digiacomo said he is anticipating his new job to offer a calmer tenure with a whole other set of demands.
“The dynamics here are very different,” Digiacomo said.
