Sunset Park’s Asian community gets a neighborhood watch program
Sunset Park’s 72nd Precinct is getting its own Civilian Observation Patrol (COP)—the first in the city to focus on the Asian community and the fourth to be launched in the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
The all-volunteer Brooklyn Asian C.O.P. is currently comprised of 15 Asian American men—no women have yet signed up and gone through background checks and training, although more recruits are being sought—whose responsibility is to be another set of eyes and ears for the local precinct, providing reports of any suspicious and criminal activity while helping to bridge the cultural and language gap between police and the Asian immigrant community.
“We just want to try to make the streets safer,” said Louie Liu, chairperson of the Brooklyn Asian C.O.P. “We just want to watch and make sure there is no trouble and try to help do something better.”