Queens community leaders plead for NYPD to extend anti-brothel operation along Roosevelt Avenue
NEW YORK - Community leaders in Queens are begging the NYPD to extend its three-month crime crackdown along Roosevelt Avenue.
They say the situation is still dire.
The special operation involving state police was slated to end next week.
It's a problem CBS News New York has been reporting about for months.
State police and the NYPD stepped up enforcement along Roosevelt from 74th Street to 111th Street since October as part of "Operation Restore Roosevelt." A command post has been set up in the heart of it, and there have been raids on brothels and unlicensed vendors.
"This is unacceptable"
A week before the crackdown is set to conclude, community leaders have written a letter to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch alerting her to 14 alleged brothels that are still operating.
"From Elmhurst to Jackson Heights. This is unacceptable," Ramon Ramirez-Baez of Let's Improve Roosevelt Avenue said.
"We have a school over here - PS 89," said community leader Ramses Frias. "There is a brothel two blocks away from there."
"The initiative has fallen short," 35th Assembly District leader Hiram Monserrate said. "We think it's outrageous this is still occurring with the amount of resources placed here... there are streetwalkers one block away, on 83rd. They are so brazen that they are there in broad daylight."
NYPD responds to community's concerns
CBS News New York's took those concerns to the NYPD.
"How do you explain why are they still seeing these women out there?" Rozner asked.
"That's a very good question. So we have our vice team. We have our undercovers in the area," NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said. "We're developing other ways to get inside location and get the sale, so we can get in there and shut the place down."
There are also cameras along Roosevelt Avenue that are monitored inside the NYPD's command center, and Daughtry says if they see suspicious activity, they alert officers on the ground.
So why, when there's enforcement, do some alleged brothels reopen?
"Many of these homes of prostitution are reopening because the city didn't do step two, which was obtain a padlock order signed by a supreme court judge," Monserrate said.
"What is preventing the NYPD from doing that?" Rozner asked Daughtry.
"We submit these locations for nuisance abatement. We have to wait for the judge to hear the case," Daughtry said.
The NYPD says it has submitted more than two dozen applications to padlock locations and that, alongside agencies like the FDNY and the Department of Buildings, it has conducted 248 building inspections.
"There are some locations we are making progress in and some locations we have to do better," Daughtry said. "We're not going to leave Roosevelt avenue until the place is restored to its original condition."
Daughtry says he's meeting with Tisch next week to brief her on the progress. He wouldn't say if he recommends the operation be extended, but said the final decision will come from Tisch.
