Off-duty deputy arrested for criminal mischief at 49th Precinct

By SÍLE MOLONEY

An off-duty male police officer was arrested Tuesday on the grounds of the 49th Precinct, which includes the neighborhoods of Allerton, Morris Park, Van Nest, Pelham Parkway, Eastchester Gardens and Pelham Gardens.

Police said NYPD Assistant Officer Marciel Mojica was arrested at 10:53 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, and charged with third-degree criminal mischief. Details about auxiliary police officers do not appear to be listed in the NYPD’s online database, so we do not know which precinct Mojica was assigned to. We have checked with the NYPD and will share any updates we receive.

According to the department, the NYPD’s Auxiliary Police Program is the largest auxiliary police program in the United States. Thousands of volunteer civil servants contribute more than a million hours of public service each year. According to the NYPD, deputies are trained to observe and report conditions that require the services of regular police. They say auxiliary police officers assist with non-police and non-dangerous tasks whenever possible.

An excerpt from the NYPD website states: “These are civic-minded men and women who volunteer to support their local police departments, police stations and transit districts by acting as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the neighborhood on foot and by vehicle .” and bicycle patrols.”

According to the NYPD, auxiliary police assist the NYPD by, for example, patrolling subdivisions, residential and commercial areas, subway entrances and stations, maintaining order at parades, festivals, street fairs and other special events, and patrolling places of worship , assisting in crime prevention activities, conducting traffic control at motor vehicle accidents and fire scenes, and performing various other non-enforcement duties.

Some Bronx residents we have spoken to recently have called for increased police presence on subways and in certain Bronx neighborhoods to deter subway crime and reduce or prevent killings and injuries. Near the scene of the fatal Oct. 2 shooting of a 40-year-old man at East 198th Street and Bainbridge Avenue in Bedford Park, a local supermarket employee said she has seen a huge decline in public safety in New York. “I have never been more afraid of life in the city of New York than I am now,” she said. The woman added that she had only seen police officers in the neighborhood [198th and Bainbridge] If something happened, officers would arrive quickly, she said. “But there aren’t any [habitual] Vigilance,” she said.

On the other hand, the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) appears to be against police presence on subways in light of a recent police-involved shooting in Brooklyn. The group is organizing a series of rallies in the coming weeks to “get the police out of our subway.”

The group wrote: “Let’s ban the cops from our public transport!! Join the NY Alliance for an escalating series of events starting October 19th, leading up to a major rally on November 9th! We will speak out against the heinous police shooting at the Sutter Ave station. speak out, draw attention to the monitoring of our bus system, raise our voices in the subway cars, and demonstrate at the critical Jay St. Metrotech transportation hub. Join us in our fight against police crime!”

Mojica is presumed innocent until convicted in a court of law.