First Woman Named Commanding Officer Of Brooklyn North Patrol

BROOKLYN, NY — The first female commanding officer for the NYPD's North Brooklyn patrol bureau says she is ready to tackle what has become a "critical time" for the northern half of the borough.

Assistant Chief Judith R. Harrison — who was officially sworn in as borough commander in Brooklyn North last week — is the first woman and 24th person to be named commander of the patrol bureau, which stretches from Crown Heights to Greenpoint.

She is the fourth African American woman in department history to rise to the rank of assistant chief, according to the NYPD.

Harrison steps into the role at a time when north Brooklyn faces a more than 600 percent surge in shootings and, like the rest of the NYPD, calls for major police reform.

"There’s a fractured relationship right now between police and the community — we know that and we acknowledge it," Harrison said during a press conference Thursday. "The way we’re going to heal that is to communicate with each other."

Brooklyn North has seen 22 shooting incidents in just the last week, up from just three in the same time period in 2019. Citywide, there has been a more than 50 percent increase in shootings, including 74 in the last week, many of which happened on a violent Fourth of July weekend.

Harrison said the shootings, including one this week in a Crown Heights park, are personal to her.

“I was standing in the park where there was a 27-year-old male shot, killed. I have a 28-year-old son. That resonated with me,” she said at the press conference.

"There is just a small number of people in Brooklyn north that are responsible for the bulk of the violence, and we are laser focused at turning our attention to those individuals and making sure that we build strong cases against them,"she said.

Harrison, who has been with the NYPD since 1997, served most recently as the commanding officer of the department’s Special Victims Division.

She replaces Jeffrey B. Maddrey, who is being promoted to chief of the NYPD's ;Community Affairs Bureau.