Lawmakers Call For Beefed-Up Enforcement On Roosevelt Avenue Corridor

As reported by the Gazette:

A pair of western Queens lawmakers last week called on Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to bring his “Zero Tolerance” crime strategies back to the Roosevelt Avenue corridor by re-establishing a Roosevelt Avenue Task Force to police the commercial strip.

State Sen. Jose Peralta and City Councilmember Julissa Ferreras made the plea in a January 14 letter to the city’s top cop, asking Bratton to commit additional resources to “rescue the economic heart of the community” from the pimps, prostitutes, counterfeiters and others who have stymied efforts to revive the struggling strip.

Peralta and Ferreras made mention in their letter of the highly effective Task Force established in November 1993 by Bratton and then-NYPD Queens Borough Commander Asst. Chief Robert Burke. The enforcement effort was described in a July 1995 New York Times article as “one of the most visible and effective assaults on criminal activity in Queens – and in the city.”

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