You are reading

Queens District Attorney Forms Violent Crimes Bureau

Melinda Katz (Office of Queens Borough President Flickr)

June 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Monday that her office has formed a violent crimes bureau to prosecute street gangs, drug traffickers and firearms dealers.

The newly-created Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau combines the former Narcotics Investigations and Gang Violence bureaus. The unit focuses on identifying organized criminal activity in Queens.

“As your District Attorney, I promised to do everything possible to rid our neighborhoods of violent gangs, gun runners and drug traffickers,” Katz said in a statement.

“My Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau will stomp out crews that profit from selling instruments of death in our communities.”

The bureau will work with law enforcement and the community to gather information on gangs and organized operations.

“This reconfigured Bureau will use every resource available to ensure criminal networks, gang activity and other organized operations run by drivers of crime are dismantled and that the drugs and weapons they peddle will be taken off our streets,” Katz said.

Katz recruited long-time prosecutor Jonathan Sennett from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to serve as the new bureau chief. He had most recently served as First Deputy Bureau Chief of the Brooklyn DA’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau.

email the author: news@queenspost.com

2 Comments

Click for Comments 
Queens Lifer

Thank You!!!!!
About time someone speaks up.

No doubt “THEY” (the new Big Brother) will come after her and demand her resignation. STAY STRONG

Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Port Authority awards record $2.3 Billion in contracts to MWBEs in JFK Airport transformation

The Port Authority announced on Monday a historic milestone in the ongoing $19 billion transformation of JFK International Airport, where a record $2.3 billion in contracts have been awarded to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE).

The JFK redevelopment also demonstrates a significant focus on working with local contractors, awarding more than $950 million in contracts to Queens-based businesses to date.

Op-Ed | Hochul: Action is Imperative on Shoplifting, but Violent Crime is Just Fine

Apr. 29, 2024 By Council Member James F. Gennaro

Negotiations regarding the New York State budget have just concluded a few days ago and a budget has passed after more than two weeks of delays. But while Gov. Kathy Hochul has proclaimed this year’s ‘bold agenda’ aims to make New York ‘safer,’ there hasn’t been so much as a whisper about the safety issue New Yorkers actually care about – New York States’s dangerous bail reform laws and the State’s absence of a ‘dangerousness standard,’ which would allow judges to detain without bail those defendants that pose a present a clear and present danger to our communities. (The 49 other states and the federal government have a dangerousness standard. NY State is the only state that lacks this essential protection from the State’s most dangerous offenders.)