New 71st Chief Begins Work

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Israel Belizovski

He’s focused, determined and appreciates a nice scented candle.

Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon, the new Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct of the New York Police Department, has a firm handshake and doesn’t like to kid around.

He’s been trusted with policing the southern end of the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, an area that often makes headlines and is home to African Americans, Lubavitch Jews and Caribbean Americans.

And since taking on the new post, he’s been relentlessly combing over reports and statistics to learn about his constituency. In addition, he’s been meeting key community members to get a first-hand account of local needs and struggles.

“Community involvement is a tremendous factor,” he told COLlive.com in an interview this week. “I don’t live here, so no matter how much I work it’s the community that knows everything that’s going on.”

Speaking from behind a desk lined with picture frames, the captain often repositions his rimless eyeglasses to emphasize a point. But it is a lit scented candle on his desk that catches a visitor’s eye and nostrils.

“This scent is fresh balsam and it reminds me of the holiday season,” he says, breaking into a smile. “Officers come in here just to take in the smell. I find it soothing and I choose the scent based on the time of year. In the summer I might choose a tropical Hawaiian scent.”

Yet he is well aware that until summer comes around, there’s lots of work to do.

“I’ve been a Commanding Officer for 6 years at the 69th Precinct and I will take care of this community,” he says firmly. “I’ve had a very good success rate. I am 28 years on the job, 9 of them as captain. I have good faith in myself, I am fairly confident and I will try my hardest to serve with the officers here.”

The NYPD has been quick in the past to provide the neighborhood with additional officers in high seasons, but some residents complained of what they called excessive ticketing on Fridays and on the eve of holidays.

Captain Fitzgibbon responded: “I am in my short tenure of 4 days here. I will look into it and get a breakdown of why they are being issued. If it’s safety or hazard issues, we will weigh it and come to some conclusion. We also have to find out if they are really excessive…”

Asked about the snatching of iPhones, he points out that it is a city-wide problem but admits that the crime is “tremendous here” in Crown Heights, especially in the south end of the precinct jurisdiction.

“It’s happening all throughout the 71st Precinct,” he says, and shared some good news that “the weekend prior to when I got here, they arrested 2 individuals (suspected of this crime) and today we arrested another 2 suspects on Clarkson Avenue.”

Fitzgibbon, who does not own an iPhone himself, says the new mobile devices being released by Apple will have a code to activate them. “It will make the phone useless” for perpetrators who want immediate usage and profit from the stolen goods.

Another recent problem in the neighborhood is the break-ins of Jewish homes on Friday nights, when families traditionally rest following a full week of work.

He said the precinct has been working with the District Attorney’s office to detain a suspect with an infamous crime record. The man was finally caught on camera providing enough evidence to make an arrest, the captain said.

He shared additional information about another suspect which cannot be publicized at this time due to an ongoing investigation. (One arrest has indeed been made on Monday, as reported on COLlive.com).

The captain, assuring he will continue to pursue the burglars, recommended that residents keep silverware and other valuable possessions away from windows and the public eye if the shades aren’t closed. “In most of the recent cases I have studied that occurred here, visibility of the items was a factor, and that entices people,” he notes.