Borough Park Shomrim Patrol, Often Called Before 911, Led Search for Boy

The disappearance of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky who was found dead this week unleashed a vast volunteer search effort by the ultra-Orthodox community in Borough Park, Brooklyn — an effort spearheaded by the Borough Park Shomrim, a highly organized citizens watch brigade that works as an NYPD auxiliary.

Many in Borough Park and other ultra-Orthodox communities such as Williamsburg and Crown Heights, both in Brooklyn, turn to shomrim for help first, before calling 911 and reaching out to the police.

The word means "guards" or "protectors" — and like many Hebrew or Yiddish phrases, it has both an everyday sense and Biblical, spiritual overtones.

It turns out that on Monday, when Leiby Kletzky went missing, it was 2-1/2 hours before the NYPD was notified.

Commissioner Ray Kelly, speaking on Thursday, said there's a "tradition" in neighborhoods like Borough Park to call shomrim first.

Kelly also said he didn't think anything could have been done to save the 8-year-old boy with quicker notification.

The shomrim have long prided themselves on being more responsive than the NYPD and getting to crime scenes more quickly. They're required to alert police immediate and limited in their ability to intervene.

In a promotional video, the shomrim depict themselves as thwarting would-be criminals – one Latino and one African-American – and finding a lost child quickly. The police show up much later, if they show up at all.

There have also been allegations over the years of shomrim treating members of neighboring communities less delicately than their fellow Jews.

In 1996, several were arrested after getting in a fight with a black man.

And the Daily News has reported that the Borough Park Shomrim have a list of suspected pedophiles and molesters who they keep an eye on but don't report to the police.

For several years, sexual abuse — both among families and perpretrated by rabbis and educators — has been a taboo topic among the ultra-Orthodox, with many powerful rabbis arguing against going to secular authorities and only a few saying it's permissible to go to the police.

Kelly continued another shomrim tradition on Thursday: whenever the subject comes up, the NYPD and shomrim praise relations between them.