New Commanding Officer of Hate Crime Task Force Provides Prevention Tips

By Yehudit Garmaise

    Today on a pre-Pesach Zoom call in which leaders of the NYPD and the community met to discuss the safety of the Jewish community over Yom Tov, Deputy Inspector Jessica Corey, who took over three weeks ago as the department's new commanding officer of the Hate Crime Task Force, provided some useful tips on how to prevent hate crimes and better catch those who commit them.

   Hate crimes are down for the second year in a row, Dep. Inspector Corey explained, but those numbers may have been affected by COVID.

   “As we are talking about Passover and the 'threat landscape,' I just want to make sure that everyone thinks about crime prevention,” said Dep. Inspector Corey, who first emphasized the importance that New Yorkers install good lighting outside buildings. 

   “To prevent crime, you need to have good lighting out there,” explained Dep. Inspector Corey, who added that video cameras that are installed both inside and outside of buildings are also crucial tools of crime prevention.

    “Video surveillance is so important to us, it is what we really use to catch those perpetrators, so to make sure you have both internal and external video surveillance,” explained Dep. Inspector Corey, who added that New Yorkers should make sure that their video cameras are both “up to date and that someone is checking them.”

  Another way New Yorkers can help the police to catch perpetrators is to make sure that crime scenes are not disturbed before the police can arrive.

    “When there is a crime, you should make sure that you reserve that crime scene for us,” explained Dep. Inspector Corey, who has spent 29 years on the NYPD. “Timely reporting also is so important to us. The faster you report, the faster we can get someone to the scene.”