Huntington Station violence targeted with zone defense

During the last month, Suffolk police have begun increasing pressure in newly designated "enforcement zones" in Huntington Station, hoping a beefed-up, more focused presence will stem violence in a community many there say is beset by gangs and guns.

Within the zones - one of which is around the now-shuttered Jack Abrams School - uniformed and plainclothed officers have been assigned to "increase interactions with the public and with known gang members and their associates . . . as an intelligence-gathering tool, who is affiliated with who," said Insp. Edward Brady, commanding officer of the Second Precinct in Huntington. "These are the known hot spots."

Brady said precinct officers, backed by gang unit detectives, have increased "challenges" - questioning people about their behavior and activities - to those who congregate at known gang hangouts and have been asked to increase the sharing of information within the precinct about specific people and addresses.

Too early to know impact

While it is too early to know what long-term effect the initiative may have, a Newsday analysis of crime data from Huntington Station shows the effort is happening in locations where concentrations of attacks have occurred.

Information provided by Suffolk police on locations of reported violence - assaults, robberies and homicides - shows the majority of attacks since 2008 in Huntington Station occurred within three-quarters of a mile of Abrams.

More than 20 attacks happened within two blocks of the school between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31 of this year. The data do not include shootings in which no one was injured, or the locations of incidents in which records are sealed, as in cases involving juveniles.

In addition to the blocks directly surrounding Abrams, the enforcement zones include a 10-block area south of the train station, and a third neighborhood between West Oakwood Road and Eighth Avenue.

Despite ongoing violence - an unsolved shooting last week in Huntington Station left a 25-year-old man dead and three others wounded - police say Huntington Station has seen a 29 percent decrease in violent crime for the first seven months of this year compared to that period in 2009, from 72 incidents to 51.

This follows a year in which violent crime in Huntington Station was steady - 137 incidents reported in 2008 and 131 in 2009.

Brady said increased police visibility and the federal sweep of a particularly active Latin Kings clique in March have helped reduce violence. But he acknowledged tensions remain and said gang members were likely behind several area attacks last month and early this month.

"There have been many instances where there has been a serious lack of cooperation, including with the victims themselves," he said.

A series of shootings near Abrams - among them daytime gunfire later attributed to Latin Kings members and the wounding of a 16-year-old just off school property - prompted the Huntington school district to vote to close the well-regarded school in July.

"I can't tell the police what to do, I trust that they're the experts," said town board member Glenda Jackson of the enforcement initiative.

"We can't pretend there aren't issues there, and if we're going to clean up the neighborhoods, some of us are going to be inconvenienced," said Jackson, who opposed the Abrams closure.

Disproportionate violence

Huntington Station is being disproportionately affected by violence compared to the rest of the town. Of 537 incidents in the 75-square-mile precinct in 2008 and 2009, 268 were in 5-square-mile Huntington Station - 49 percent.

Abrams is located in what has long been the precinct's second most active sector and just north of its busiest. For decades, the precinct has deployed two-person patrols in those sectors alone, a tactic employed in the county's highest crime areas, including parts of Brentwood, Wyandanch, and North Amityville.

Two weeks ago, the precinct assigned an additional one-officer car on the afternoon and night shift to the Abrams area.

Twenty-one precinct officers are now temporarily assigned to work extra hours in Huntington Station, and the department will in the coming weeks reassign two officers to work in community outreach.

Last month, police said an officer would be based in the town's Community Outreach Center, a block from the school, to monitor surveillance cameras. Additional officers have also been assigned to foot patrols at shopping centers.

County Executive Steve Levy pledged after the Abrams closure that "the heightened presence of the police in that area will remain."

Officer John Chiquitucto, Huntington Station's newly appointed community liaison officer, said at open precinct meetings begun in April that community members have been largely positive about the crime situation around the school.

Over the last decade or so in Huntington Station, "we've had some dicey times but I think it's better now in the area around the school than it's been, with the increased presence," said Chiquitucto, a Huntington Station native. "People's biggest concern seems to be that we don't turn around and leave."