Exclusive: NYC Sheriff: Our Presence in the Neighborhood is Educational, Not Enforcement

In an exclusive interview with BoroPark24, NYC’s top Sheriff, Joseph Fucito, said his officers aren’t here to issue summonses or enforcement, but rather to remind the community to maintain social distancing and ready their businesses to enter phase 1 when NYC is scheduled to on June 8^th.

“Our intentions are not to go there and do heavy-handed enforcement,” Sheriff Fucito told us. “In fact, quite the opposite, the complaints have been coming in and what I’ve suggested is we go there and hand out masks and educational material.”

While NYC is scheduled to enter phase 1 on June 8^th, the Sheriff said they wanted to come up with a way to spread the social distancing message, and hand out masks as retail shops are getting ready to open for curbside pickup as required once phase 1 kicks in.

“We’re not going to issue any summonses,” the top Sheriff said. “We may actually stop into each business to drop off a package of what phase 1 is going to mean.” The package may include guidance on what phase 1 means for non-essential retail shops, he added.

“Our presence there at least till June 8^th is not going to involve any type of summons issuance,” the Sheriff repeated. “Our presence is going to be educational,” which includes playing the message from the loudspeakers that encourages social distancing as much as possible.”

The Sheriff said he knows businesses are completely dependent on customers, and his officers are not looking to shut down any business. “We’re kind of like between a rock and a hard place, but I don’t want it to appear that we are coming down on the neighborhood just by our mere presence there.”

Sheriff Fucito also explained that the long caravans are due to the riots erupting across the city and to ensure the safety of its officers they are not traveling around alone.

In the last two weeks, the Sheriff officers have not issued any summonses in this neighborhood, but they still come by daily to remind the community to stick to the government regulations. “We have to go because that’s the role we’ve been given.”

Before finishing the conversation the Sheriff added a backhanded compliment saying he doesn’t want people to think that NYC Sheriff Officers are focusing on this community that’s being “very lawful” while riots are breaking out in many neighborhoods across the city.