Mid-Town South Pct Gets New Commanding Officer

The new commanding officer of mid-town South could walk to his new post from his former one on the other side of town.

Deputy Inspector Aaron A. Edwards, who was tapped to fill the vacant commanding officer spot in the mid-town south precinct was most recently running the 17th precinct covering the mid-town East neighborhoods.

He takes over a precinct that has had a mixed bag on the crime scene in recent months. Through April 16th, overall crime incidents were up 15.6 percent in the period, with 1,152 incidents reported this year compared to 997 in the same period a year ago, according to Comstat figures.

But it is a decidedly mixed bag. Rapes are down, from five in the same period a year ago to two in the most recent period and the two murders last year in the period dropped to one this year.

Felony assaults were up 88.2 percent, however from 85 incidents a year ago to 160 in the most recent period. Burglaries were down 28.3 percent but the more serious grand larceny cases jumped 24.2 percent to 694 incidents through April 16th, compared to 559 a year earlier.

But auto thefts which are rising in many other parts of the city, were actually dropping in the mid-town South area which includes Times Square, Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, Koreatown section, and the Manhattan Mall Plaza. There were 16 grand larceny auto thefts reported in the precinct this year, a 27.3 percent drop from the 22 reported in the same period a year earlier.

Edwards, is a 20 year veteran and before landing at the 17th had served stints in the organized crime control bureau and narcotics in the Bronx.

His appointment was part of a flurry on Manhattan CO assignments in recent weeks that finally saw movement filling an unusually high number of vacancies in Manhattan. Deputy inspector William Gallagher who running the Central Park Precint return to his old stomping grounds on the UES’s 19th Pct, where he had once been the number two officer.

Anthony Lavino, who was executive officer and acting commanding officer of the 19th since last August, then walked across the park to take over the vacated Central Park post as its new commanding officer.

But there are still openings in the 13th precinct which covers the usually low crime neighborhoods around Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town and the 17th where Edwards was previously posted.