West Village NYPD Precinct Gets A New Commanding Officer

WEST VILLAGE, NY — The police precinct that patrols the Lower Manhattan neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and the West Village has a new commanding officer.

Captain Stephen Spataro took over this week in the NYPD's 6th Precinct, succeeding Deputy Inspector Robert O'Hare, who is leaving to take a role as the commanding officer of the Midtown South Precinct.

We welcome Captain Spataro as our new Commanding Officer. We also say goodbye to Deputy Inspector O’Hare, the new Commanding Officer of @NYPDMTS Precinct. Congratulations, you will be missed! pic.twitter.com/Vd45obWiND
— NYPD 6th Precinct (@NYPD6Pct) September 23, 2020

Spataro was most recently a captain in the 72nd Precinct, which covers Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn. He has been in the New York Police Department since 2004, and was made a captain in 2016.

Civilians have made 16 complaints against Spataro in his over 15 years career with the NYPD, however, none of the complaints were found to be substantiated, according to police misconduct data released to the public last month by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Spataro has also been named in five known lawsuits during his time as a police officer. One of the lawsuits, names Spataro as one of four officers who aggressively took a video camera from man, stole the camera, and charged him with a crime.

The case was settled in 2015 for $40,000.

Crime reports in the neighborhood are up by about 40 percent from the same type last year, with the biggest influx seen in a 400 percent increase in the number of burglaries that have happened recently.

Path reporter Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.