Nov. 6, 2014 By Christian Murray
The commanding officer of the 108 Police Precinct—which covers Sunnyside, Woodside & Long Island City—has been transferred to head up a larger more crime-ridden Queens precinct.
Captain Brian Hennessy, who has spent just 18 months as the commanding officer of the 108, started today as the commanding officer of the 115th Precinct, which covers Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and the north section of Corona.
That precinct is larger and has more problems–such as gang activity, prostitution and drugs. The move represents a promotion, since gaining experience in a tougher precinct is often viewed as the way captains climb up the NYPD ladder.
While the 108 has had some high-profile crimes recently—such as the robbery of an 81-year old at a Chase ATM and a wave of burglaries in Sunnyside—the precinct is still viewed as a low-crime area.
The crime rate—based on the number of reports—is flat so far this year, compared to the same period in 2013. The number of murders and reported rapes are down—although the number of burglaries are up about 7 percent.
Hennessy said he enjoyed his time at the 108 Precinct.
“I love this community and its leaders,” Hennessy said. “There are so many people who care and want to get involved,” he said. “It was an honor to be there.”
The NYPD has yet to appoint a new commanding officer. In the interim, Capt. Richard Hellman, the executive officer of the 108th Precinct, is in command.
However, Hennessy’s short stint did disappoint many—since most commanding officers stay at a precinct for two-to-three years.
“I am very upset that he is leaving us so soon,” said Diane Ballek, the president of the 108 Community Council.
“He is the best captain we have had in a long time,” Ballek said. “If you needed to reach him he was always there,” she said. “He would talk to people [with quality-of-life issues] for an hour some times.”
His predecessor Capt. Donald Powers was viewed by many as less responsive and not so much of a people-person, several people said.
“I am disappointed [that Capt. Hennessy has been transferred] since I believe he was doing a good job,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. “I appreciated working with him and thought he was responsive and a straight shooter who cared about our neighborhood.”
Van Bramer said he would be asking NYPD officials whether Hennessy’s short stint represents a new policy or whether what happened was an anomaly.
Van Bramer also said he wants a new commanding officer to be named soon. “We cannot have a prolonged absence of leadership,” he said.
Crime Numbers 2014 by Queens Post on Scribd
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19 Comments
apparently this is the only photo that exist of the man. Maybe when he’s transferred someone one will take a new pic.
Learn to use google.
https://www.google.com/search?q=brian+hennessy&espv=2&biw=1168&bih=629&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=CutfVJmMFa_7sATDkYGgDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw#tbm=isch&q=%22brian+hennessy%22+nypd
He’s being transferred to the Jump Street program.
I love the naivete of all you police commentators. It’s cute…deluded, but cute. If the police act like police, you yell and scream about abuse, and if they do the community policing routine, you yell and scream that they are not effective. Streets are mean, yes even streets in glorious Sunnyside. Grow up. A precinct commander has almost nothing to to do with crime invrstigation- detectives do not work for him/her. The last Chief of Detectives for the NYPD made it just it just about impossible for detectives to do their job. So, all of y’all, take a deep breath, do a little research, and maybe you can hold an intelligent discussion on this site. I know that’s a scary concept for some commentators here, but the effort might be worth it.
No shit Sherlock.
The 108 is now and always has been understaffed for the very large geographic area that they cover. That is not the CO’s fault and if he brings it up in public it is career suicide. Good luck in your new command.
Oh please, what a joke. I guess like in Hollywood you fail up in a cop career as well. Nothing was done in Sunnyside, you only pushed around a few cops AFTER all the burglaries and guess what??? all the cops are gone again and the criminals are back. People are smoking weed out in the open because they know there’s NO police presence.
Nobody lasts in this precinct! For the record I worked for somebody whose husband was co-captain many years ago and they remember the “cat people” vs. the “dog people” posters that used to go up in Sunnyside Gardens. They considered the are to be “very strange”. Oh, and he ended up working eventually in a very high crime rate area. And then there was the police captain who had the nerve to say, “What drug problem?” when I mentioned the open air drug bazaar on 48th Avenue until “Operation Snow” took of and shut most of it down.
Such a great CO he was! He cared about us so much. Talk about big shoes to fill for the next one…He said family got a chuckle out of earlier comments on his youthful appearance:) May his youthfulness continue and I hope we did not age him too much.
Capt Brian Hennessy left high profile murders go unsolved in a really safe neighborhood. Now he’s moving to a “larger and has more problems–such as gang activity, prostitution and drugs.” Good luck?
Just hope we get another captain that actually cares about the neigherhood he works in. He may be young but he actually cares. Good luck captain Hennessy
Jimmy V B
Your a prolonged absence of leadership not the cop.
The neighborhood is losing a good guy. Capt. Hennessy in his too brief time heading the 108 demonstrated he cared about the community.
hey, that kids got some halloween costume!! nice!! even got the chair and desk
Next time all you guys are crying about how bad the neighbourhood is check out the stats for 1990 .
Crime has gone down 78.88% throughout NYC in that time frame. All Queens North precincts are down over 80% over the same period. With the reduction of crime, the number of officers and patrols have been reduced. By no means is Sunnyside a high crime neighborhood but crime has increased by over 6% in the last five years in the 108.
Residents are concerned by the lack of a visible police presence. It seems the only time I see a patrol car is when they are getting coffee at Starbucks or pizza at Marabella’s. With the recent assault at the Chase bank, people have a reason to be concerned.
“I appreciated working with him and thought he was responsive and a straight shooter ….”
Hahaha.
Hope that post doesn’t require any crime solving abilities…
Wow wow wow!!! What is going on at the 108 precinct??? We finally get a captain who cares and he gets transferred in such a short time??? So who are we going to get now? Congrats captain Hennessy but we are going to miss you. You are one of the few captains that actually listened to your community .