NYPD Using App, Basketball & Theater To Make Brooklyn Safer

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Brownsville is the focus of three neighborhood NYPD initiatives —involving basketball, virtual reality theater and an app — that seek to make the neighborhood "as safe as Brooklyn Heights," Commissioner James O'Neil announced.

"Brownsville can and should be as safe as Brooklyn Heights," O"Neil said during his State of the NYPD address Wednesday morning.

"We get there when we all come together, talk frankly, and recommit ourselves to this mission."

Brownsville, home of one of six precincts where crime levels are twice the citywide average, has already seen innovations in local policing, but it's about to get more, the NYPD commissioner announced.

(Keep up with NYC events and news by subscribing to the Brownsville Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

After the success of the Brownsville Cornerstone Basketball League, which brings public housing kids together with cops for games and conflict resolution training, the 73rd Precinct launched a virtual reality and scene-writing program to take community policing a step further.

"Young people are working with police officers to craft virtual-reality scenarios – writing and acting together – that realistically explore the relationships between cops and kids on the street," O'Neil said.

"Cops and kids are learning from each other; they’re building trust, and they’re strengthening these all-important relationships."

The program, sponsored and funded by the Police Foundation, will expand to 20 precincts throughout the five boroughs "in the very near future," O'Neil said.

The NYPD will also launch a Neighborhood Policing app in February that will allow cops to track the status of crimes and quality-of-life concerns on their phones, O'Neil announced.

The app will show a brief description, location, and a due date to encourage police officers to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the commissioner said.

Brownsville will also see community meetings with elected officials, community leaders and police in upcoming months to discuss new solutions, the commissioner promised.

"There will be no sacred cows or side agendas," said O'Neil.

"Just the urgent mission for everyone in these communities, and all of our city, to come together as one to ensure that every square block of New York City is free from both the threat – and the fear of – crime."

Photo by Patch photographer Daniela Kirsch/Daniela's Lens.