Decades in the making, Southeast Queens’ 116th Precinct opens

After decades of advocacy, the new 116th Precinct in Southeast Queens opened this week. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

By Ryan Schwach

After a four-decade campaign filled with starts, stops, delays and broken promises, Southeast Queens residents celebrated on Wednesday the opening of the new 116th Precinct in Rosedale.

The new precinct is the first major police station to open in the five boroughs in a decade, and puts to an end a 40-year push to address slow response times in several Southeastern Queens neighborhoods.

“I am so happy and extremely proud to say that we worked as a team and advocated on behalf of our community,” said local Bess DeBethem, who had been behind the push for the precinct for the better part of the last half century. “The result is this brand new, beautiful, 116th police precinct.”

Officers in the precinct – Queens’ 17th – will soon begin patrolling the neighborhoods of Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, Brookville and Laurelton, and will aim to address those longstanding issues with police response times in the community dating back decades.

The officers will come under the command of NYPD Captain Jean Beauvoir, the former commanding officer of the nearby 105th Precinct who was selected for the job after winning over residents at a public forum earlier this year.

But beyond Beauvoir, questions about staffing at the precinct remain.

The NYPD has not detailed how many officers will be assigned to the 116th, nor have they specified where they will come from. The NYPD did not respond to the Eagle’s questions regarding staffing.

Residents in the precinct’s new borders were previously patrolled by officers in either the 105th or 113th Precincts, both of which are stationed several miles away from the heart of the Southeast Queens area.

Response times, particularly in the far reaches of those Southeast Queens communities, were a key reason – if not the main reason – locals advocated for a new precinct in the area. The 105th Precinct has for many years seen some of the slowest response times in the city given that its station house is anywhere from five to six miles away from some of the furthest corners of the new precinct’s boundaries.

“If the house is being burglarized, your response time will be challenging in an emergency,” said Queens Borough President Richards. “We have had one of the most egregious response times in our city.”

Richards, along with several local elected officials, the mayor and NYPD brass helped cut the ribbon on the city’s first new precinct since 2013 on Wednesday.

“The new command will reduce NYPD response times to emergencies and other calls for service, increase the visibility of police officers throughout Southeast Queens and deepen the bond between the NYPD and the community,” said Mayor Eric Adams.

Locals and elected officials, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, celebrated the ribbon cutting of the 116th Precinct in Southeast Queens on Wednesday.  Eagle photos by Ryan Schwach

The 45,000-square-feet station house is located on North Conduit Avenue, adjacent to the Rosedale LIRR station and the pre-existing 105th Precinct satellite station.

“It's a fulfillment of a promise the city made to improve service, increase public safety and enhance everyone's quality of life here,” said Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. “From the very beginning of this process, the local community has been working with us to plan, build and to staff this new precinct, and the people It now serves are at the very center of its purpose and its design.”

The precinct’s opening is a major win for community members, who dealt with a long, tenuous road to the ribbon cutting on Wednesday.

Conversations about the precinct began in the early 1970s, but it took until 2017 for the precinct to get approved by the city.

As the project began to move forward, another hurdle emerged. The funding for the precinct was cut in 2020 as the city dealt with the pandemic and racial justice protests over the death of George Floyd, sparking a new conversation about the role of police in the city.

The city restored the funding in April 2021 and broke ground on the project later that year.

“I can absolutely attest that sometimes government doesn't listen, sometimes government doesn't act – this one makes so much sense,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the groundbreaking. “The simple message is that Southeast Queens deserves this, Southeast Queens has a right to public safety and reform.”

But residents would have to deal with one other delay before the ribbon cutting on Thursday.

Initially, the city planned to open the precinct in early 2024, which came and went without a ribbon cutting.

The Eagle reported in January that “unforeseen circumstances in the construction process” would be pushing the opening back until the fall, a deadline the city again would miss.

Worth the wait

Despite the struggles to get to the ribbon cutting, locals and elected officials celebrated the effort that predated most of them.

“It’s a long time coming,” said State Senator James Sanders. “The people have been advocating for this since the days of Edward Koch.”

DeBethem said there was “no question” the opening of the precinct was worth the wait and the decades of advocacy work.

“We didn't give up after trying for so many years,” DeBethem said.

The fight for the 116th has taken so long, it's become multigenerational.

David Pecoraro said he serves on the same 105th Precinct Police Council that his mother, who “always dreamed that we would have a more responsive precinct that could serve our area” once led as president.

“Took too darn long, but I'm glad it's here,” Pecoraro said of the 116th Precinct on Wednesday.

Because it was fought for by the community, the precinct will have a number of features geared toward the community, officials said. It’s outfitted with a food pantry and a community facility space.

Bess DeBethem, who was among the loudest fighting for the new 116th Precinct over the past four, got a standing ovation at the ribbon cutting ceremony from the crowd, including Mayor Eric Adams, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

“There is no contradiction in asking for safer streets and quality and better policing, and that's why, when we negotiated the terms of this precinct, we included a food pantry, community room and a beautiful plaza that will truly bridge the gap between the police and our community,” said Richards.

Brooks-Powers echoed similar sentiments.

“The establishment of the 116 Precinct is more than just the construction of a building, it is a critical investment in the safety, well-being and future of our community,” she said.

The opening of the 116th is the second expansion of policing in the borough in the last few months.

In November, the mayor announced that 54 new police officers and 12 supervisors would be deployed to a satellite precinct in College Point to expand the reach of the 109th Precinct.

“The community spoke, and we listened — and now, we are putting the needs of working people first with the opening of the 109th Neighborhood Satellite Command in College Point,” Adams said. “The launch of this neighborhood satellite command will help improve emergency response times in a precinct that faces unique challenges due to its geographic size and population density.”

Local leaders in Whitestone are hoping that the satellite could lead to a new precinct of their own.

“We’re thrilled we’re getting this first step to getting a new precinct in our district,” Community Board 7 Vice Chair Chuck Apelian told the Eagle.