Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Police Department today unveiled the site for the new 116th Precinct located at 242-40 North Conduit Avenue in the Rosedale neighborhood of Queens. The siting of the future 116th Precinct is a decades in the making accomplishment, born out of calls from local communities to cut down on response times and better allocate public safety resources across the 105th Precinct’s vast geography.
“Thanks to the tireless efforts of the NYPD, New York City is the safest big city in America. Every New York City neighborhood deserves the same quality of service and safety we’ve come to expect from the NYPD. That is why we are making unprecedented investments in establishing high-quality precincts,” said Mayor de Blasio. “The future 116th Precinct will help reduce current response times in Southeast Queens and expand coverage throughout the community.”
The 105th Precinct is the fifth largest in the City, covering 12.43 square miles and 354 miles of roadway in Southeast Queens. The new 116th Precinct will assume over half of the 105th Precinct’s territory. While the citywide average emergency response time is approximately seven minutes, the 105th’s response time averages closer to nine minutes. The addition of the 116th Precinct, which will be located at the 105thPrecinct’s satellite building, will allow officers to respond more quickly and maintain a significant police presence in the southernmost part of the jurisdiction. Last March, the NYPD created a satellite precinct to assist with its coverage and service in the 105th Precinct, which included 18 new officers, two new sergeants and a 24-hour operation to aid with the case loads and stretched jurisdictions.
The NYPD will conduct an analysis to determine the precinct’s eventual borders. The study will consider factors such as geography, population, 911/311 calls, crime and quality of life issues with the goal of increasing services while distributing workload as equitably as possible. In connection with this analysis, stakeholders – including residents and elected officials – will be consulted.
Staffing levels and operating costs for the 116thPrecinct will be determined as the process moves along, boundaries are determined, designs are completed and construction gets underway.
"We are excited to be here in Queens as we announce the site of the new 116 Precinct," said NYPD Commissioner James P. O'Neill. "This new investment will reduce response times and inevitably enable us to even further reduce crime."
Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner O’Neill also announced that the City will invest $1.3 million to retrofit all 72 command vehicles following the death of Officer Miosotis Familia, who tragically lost her life while on duty in the Bronx. The retrofits will be funded by a combination of City Tax Levy funds and asset forfeiture funds.
Following the tragic deaths of two NYPD officers in late 2014, the City allocated $6.8 million to outfit the NYPD’s 3,813 patrol cars with bullet-resistant panels to protect the doors. To date 2,100 vehicles have been installed with bullet-resistant door panels and the City is on track to have bullet-resistant door panels installed in every patrol vehicle by end of 2017. After an initial bullet-resistant window pilot program, additional funding of $10.4 million dollars was allocated for the installation of bullet-resistant window inserts for patrol vehicles. The first 500 NYPD patrol car bullet-resistant window insert installations are expected to be completed this month.
