Hikind asks: Why wasn’t F train attack video released sooner?

April 8, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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The suspect arrested in the attack on a woman in the F train station on 18th Avenue in Borough Park might have been nabbed sooner if the Police Department had released the video that showed the shocking crime sooner, an angry Assemblyman Dov Hikind said this week.

Hikind (D-Borough Park) said he is puzzled as to why the video, which the NYPD released on April 2, nearly a month after the attack took place, wasn’t made public sooner.

The lawmaker has contacted NYPD Transit Chief Joe Fox to ask why there was a delay in releasing the video.

“We spent more than $1 million to protect our community and the people who come here by installing video surveillance cameras,” said Hikind, who secured state funding to put 120 security cameras in the nine stations in his assembly district.

The cameras, which have been installed in D, F, and N train stations in Borough Park, are designed to give police an added advantage against criminals, Hikind said.

“There have been nearly 4,000 robberies in New York City this year but apprehending criminals and terrorists is much easier when video is available. That’s why it’s concerning that this crime in our community took place on March 9 but that the video was not made public until April 2. What happened during the three weeks prior?” Hikind asked.

An arrest was made just two days after the video was released.

The stations where security cameras were installed with money obtained by Hikind are: the N train stations at Eighth Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway; the D train stations at 62nd Street, 55th Street, and 50th Street; and the F train stations at Ditmas Avenue, 18th Avenue, Avenue I and Avenue N.

Last year, Hikind announced another wave of installations of security cameras in the Borough Park community. The Leiby Kletzky Security Initiative, which is still in the planning stages, will blanket Borough Park and Midwood with cameras in an effort to prevent street crime, vandalism, terrorism and kidnappings, he said.

Leiby Kletzky was a nine-year-old boy killed in 2011 by a man he had stopped on the street to ask directions. Leiby stopped the suspect because he got lost while walking home from a summer day camp, authorities said.