FORGOTTEN HISTORY: RIVERSIDE PARK

Riverside Park, just like Central and Prospect Parks, once had its very own precinct.

In 1939 the NYPD created a new command and named it the 26th Precinct. It covered Riverside Park from West 72nd St. to today's northern boundary of the park.

The one story station house, which was very small, was located under the West Side Highway at West 135th St. and 12th Ave. The department abolished the old 26th Pct. command in 1954 and split up Riverside Park, assigning its respective area to today's 20, 24, 30, and 34th Precincts.

Notice that today's 26 Precinct wasn’t included as patrolling the park.

The 26 Precinct, as we know it today, was established on January 7, 1959. Prior to that the 24 and 30 Precincts boundary was the center line of West 125th Street.

The old Riverside Park Precinct station house may still be in existence today. Until a few years ago it was still being used as a P.A.L. facility.

(Thanks to PD Historian, Ret Sgt Mike Bosak!)



ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY: RECOGNITION SOFTWARE

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and other facilities across the country are developing behavior recognition software that, in conjunction with video surveillance systems, alerts authorities to suspicious behaviors.

This research has applications in security, anti-terrorism, and surveillance, among other sectors, and the Homeland Security Department and Pentagon have taken notice.

The software developed by Johns Hopkins allowed authorities to arrest robbery suspects during an armed robbery that occurred near the campus of Johns Hopkins in June 2006. During the incident, the Hopkins software singled out an image from one of the campus's 89 security cameras; the software highlighted the image because it recognized that one of the suspects was engaging in suspicious behavior on the street, with aberrant movements.

The security system automatically alerted an on-duty security guard, placing the image of the suspect on the security guard's computer screen, allowing the security guard to zoom in on the image and record a license plate number.

You can read more about this technology at the following web site:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-hs.gait05jan05,0,1884420.story? coll=bal-health-headlines


ANOTHER ONE FOR THE BOOKS

Who’s the Detective who was complaining about coming down with
“Corporal Tunnel Syndrome”?



INTERESTING WEB SITE

Click here: BrooklynPix.com - Old Brooklyn Photos Pictures Books -- The Most Comprehensive Collection of Old Brooklyn Photogra

Great old photos of Brooklyn neighborhoods!


INVITATION TO A STICK-UP

Would anyone, especially anyone who has been involved in this line of work, accept an invitation to a stick-up?

I doubt it – unless you were conducting some kind of a decoy operation. But I’m not talking about that.

Let’s set the stage.

You like playing poker. In fact, you’ve become pretty good at it, maybe as good as anyone could expect to become at a game of chance like poker. Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments about developing skills, etc, but in any event, it’s still really a game of chance (unless, of course, if you can cheat really, really well).

So you play poker. You win more than you lose, so you look for a good poker game.

You find yourself playing a game of poker for some pretty high stakes; money’s going all around, when all of a sudden the hammer strikes.

A knock on the door results in your worst nightmare – four armed and masked gunmen, announcing a robbery, taking everyone’s money while roughing up a few players along the way to make sure everyone knows they mean business.

Maybe you’re armed, because you can be. Let’s say you’re a retired cop, and you carry for protection. You rightly assess the odds of going against four armed thugs with your 5-shot weapon, hope they don’t search anyone, and breath a sigh of release when the bad guys make their exit without anyone getting hurt, and chalk up your losses and move on.

An ideal situation for a robbery, because – of course – no one cares to report a robbery at an illegal gaming den, so everyone picks up and leaves – going on their way. It’s only a material thing; no one was hurt, let’s move on, you say.

Just a very bad night.

Except, and here’s the catch. You knew that this same location had been robbed several – and I emphasize several – times before. You knew this before you went there. You went there anyway. You went there with a lot of money, knowing that other people with a lot of money would be there, and it had been robbed several times before – never being reported, leaving the crooks in essence to have gotten away free and clear with a lot of money. You basically were walking into someone else’s “bottomless well”.

But you go there anyway.

You basically accepted an invitation to a stick-up.

Congratulations, you are the chump we all used to laugh about.

When’s the next game?


SECURITY WATCH

I know at least one retired MOS that might be interested in this:

World Game Protection Conference
Date: February 8-9, 2007 Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Website: www.worldgameprotection.com

The World Game Protection Conference (WGPC) is a 2-day international summit dedicated entirely to casino game protection. Conference features information on latest scams, new game protection technology, experts on casino and gaming security and a place to network with end-user peers. Bellagio is the host for 2007.

Maybe you could get some of that money back from that great invitation to a stick-up?


FROM THE MINISTER…

Holiday and workload have caused some lapse in posting to this site. My apologies to those who have missed it. I’ll try to do better!

Also, I know I have some e-mails backed up that need answering and/or posting here; I will try to do that this week.

Part of the problem is that I am no longer able to access on-line to post on this site from my workstation – and continue to try and do so from home when I remember and/or have made copies of the posting to carry home and complete. I know – nobody really cares, but figured I’d try and explain anyway. Please bear with me!




“LEST WE FORGET…” THE NYPD MEMORIAL

January 30, 1930 Ptl Maurice O’Brien, 28 Pct, Shot-arrest
January 30, 1956 Ptl Benny Bruno, GCP Pct, Auto pursuit
January 31, 1901 Ptl Thomas Fitzpatrick, 29 Pct, Explosion-rescue
January 31, 1901 Ptl Edward Mullin, 29 Pct, Explosion-rescue
January 31, 1927 Ptl James Masterson, 18 Div, Shot-robbery in progress
January 31, 1928 Ptl Patrick Fahey, Traffic C, Fall from horse
January 31, 1928 Ptl William Kelly, 37 Pct, Shot-robbery in progress
January 31, 1931 Ptl Harold Conway, 27 Pct, Drowned
January 31, 1959 Ptl Michael Talkowsky, 23 Pct, Shot-robbery
January 31, 1968 Ptl Stephen DellAquila, Safety B, Scooter accident on patrol
January 31, 1984 PO Angelo Brown, 84 Pct, Shot-robbery, off duty
January 31, 1992 PO Hilario Serrano, 43 Pct, Shot-robbery, off duty
January 31, 2004 Sgt Keith Ferguson, ESS7, LOD Heart attack

It is noted that the eleven line of duty deaths recorded on January 31 represent the date with the most line of duty deaths for members of this department.

February 1, 1935 Sgt George Nadler, ESU, Explosion-investigation
February 2, 1975 PO Frank Bugdin, Midtown North, Shot-investigation
February 4, 1933 Sgt Eugene Monahan, 34 Pct, Shot: Robbery pursuit
February 6, 1864 Ptl John Hoffman, 25 Pct – Accident, runaway horse
February 6, 1864 Ptl Austin Easterbrook, NFI
February 6, 1914 Ptl Edward Murtha, 147 Pct, Shot-Robbery investigation
February 6, 1944 Ptl Eugene Mahoney, 5 Det Sq, Auto accident on patrol