The top cop at the 52nd Precinct in the North Bronx said last week that the force was looking to install security cameras in the Williamsbridge Oval Park in Norwood where 14-year-old Angel Mendoza was fatally stabbed by a group of teens on Aug. 5.
The announcement came at a Sept. 25 meeting of the 52nd Precinct Community Council following weeks of outrage, grief and questions about safety in local parks and playgrounds.
Deputy Inspector Chase A. Maneri, the 52nd Precinct’s commanding officer, said that the NYPD hoped to install three Argus security cameras that the precinct could remotely monitor and control with pan, tilt, and zoom functions “in the coming months.”
“ We don’t have any cameras in that park,” Maneri said. “We don’t have any cameras in any of our parks. We have cameras outside the parks that we can control from the precinct to look into the parks, but it’s from a distance.”
Mendoza’s family sat together at the community council meeting, wearing matching shirts that memorialized the teen in Spanish, with photos of the young boy on the front.
But the teenager’s death, along with a string of violence across the borough following the teen’s brutal stabbing, has many in the community advocating for added security, more patrols, and a refocus on youth programming.
Darlene Gomez, who brings her seven-year-old son to the Williamsbridge Oval a couple of times a week, told the Bronx Times she assumed the park would have some type of security cameras, at least at the entrances.
Gomez said that she generally feels safe when she comes to the park, but she knows that not everyone in the neighborhood shares her sentiment.
“ I have heard rumors from neighbors that this park sometimes is not safe,” Gomez said. “That’s what I’ve heard, but I’ve never seen anything bad. The times I’ve come— thank God nothing bad.”
She said that having added security, especially during the warmer months, would make the park feel safer.
“ I feel like summertime in New York in the parks, it’s always violence happening,” Gomez said. “So yes, there should be more security or more cameras.”
The city usually sees a spike in crime during the summer, with crime data showing that in NYC Parks, the third quarter reporting period covering the time when Mendoza was killed from July 1 through September 30, NYPD consistently reports more major crimes than in any other quarter.
In the days following Mendoza’s death, Bronx elected officials, including City Council Member Eric Dinowitz, State Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, and State Assembly Member John Zaccaro Jr., co-authored a letter to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch demanding an immediate boost in park security— including the immediate installation of cameras and added police presence.
Council Member Dinowitz criticized the department for its lack of communication about security in the Oval. Spokespersons for his office told the Bronx Times that more than a month after sending the letter, Commissioner Tisch still hadn’t responded, even after the council member personally pressed Mayor Eric Adams to intervene.
“We deserve a city where elected officials work collaboratively to solve problems for our constituents, and that includes addressing safety,” Dinowitz said in a statement. “Our mayor seems wholly uninterested in the safety of the residents of Norwood and the people at Williamsbridge Oval.”
City Hall did not comment on its communication with outside offices, but stated that installing cameras in the Williamsbridge Oval was necessary for the community and that they anticipated the new technology would be available even sooner than Maneri estimated. The efforts to add the cameras inside the park involved a multi-agency cooperation between NYCParks, NYPD, DOT and the Mayor’s office of Technology and Innovation (OTI).
Maneri told those at the community council meeting that before NYPD-monitored cameras could be installed in the Oval, the city had to resolve a power issue.
To attach cameras to lighting poles in the park, those poles would need a 24/7 supply of electricity, which they don’t currently have because lighting is only needed at night, while surveillance would be needed at all hours of the day.
Cop of the Month
The precinct also honored on Thursday the officer who first responded to the horrific stabbing.
Officer Klorentin Nokaj, who has been on the force for nearly 3 years, was named August’s police officer of the month for his response to the tragedy in the Williamsbridge Oval that killed Mendoza, as well as another incident that took a firearm off the street.
Residents press for more safety
But elected officials, community members, and precinct leaders agree that more lighting, cameras, and increased patrols alone will not prevent violent crimes. Officers from the community affairs division spoke about free programs for kids and teens available through the city, nonprofits, and even the department to encourage positive choices and get support.
“We need to do a better job of giving our kids options, making sure our kids have safe places to go to get them away from the things that they’re seeing in the streets, seeing in our parks, seeing every day here in the Bronx,” a community affairs officer said. “There are many places they can go, they’re just not getting the support, it’s not reaching them.”
But for some parents, the Williamsbridge Oval offered some of those free activities.
Doris Rosas, whose 13- and 8-year-old daughters took free tennis lessons at the Oval, told the Bronx Times that when she first heard of Mendoza’s death, she thought it must have happened at a different park.
“I was surprised because I never heard of something like that happening in here,” Rosas said.
She said that she had to think hard about bringing her daughters to their next practice.
“ I was scared and I said, ‘Oh my God, I don’t think it’s safe for my daughters to bring her for the tennis classes,’” she said.
Ultimately, the family decided to return to the Williamsbridge Oval, accompanied by a male family member.
