Policing in Starrett City

My sister Claudenie and I don’t always see eye to eye, but we agree that things would’ve been different if we’d stayed in our old neighborhood in Flatbush. I remember the time when somebody got shot in our old neighborhood. I always had to be alert there. Especially at night time. You never knew what might happen.

Now we live in East New York. When people hear East New York, most people assume it’s a dangerous neighborhood, where you should never relax. But my family lives in Starrett City. It’s an affordable housing complex with 5,800 apartments. It’s more than half black and the rest of the residents are white, Asian, and Hispanic.

Starrett City happens to be very safe: kids play in the park at night, everybody’s calm, even at night time. In Starrett City you rarely see NYPD. We have our own private security force and I’ve never seen them stop or arrest anybody.  Instead I see them talking to people, young and old. These patrolmen are allowed to carry guns and police the neighborhood.

Even the teenagers in my neighborhood agree, they would always rather deal with Starrett City Police over the NYPD. They know them personally and don’t feel judged by them. The young men around my age who live in other parts of East New York are regarded differently.  Not as innocent young adults but as dangerous people. It’s like there’s an assumption that we’re out to do bad.

My longtime friend Chris lives in the Pink houses, a housing project in East New York. Two years ago, he noticed that the police stopped patrolling in his community after Officer Peter Liang shot and killed Akai Gurley in the stairwell.

In Starrett City, we trust our patrolmen.  Being able to build a relationship with the community should be top priority for the NYPD. It's takes time to be able to get to know the neighborhood and how it operates. NYPD officers rarely get that opportunity.