Two weeks after parishioners at a North Fordham church were angered by the absence of police brass at a packed meeting about area crime, the 52nd Precinct’s commander, his top lieutenants, a narcotics detective and captain showed up to take their lumps, answer questions and generally make amends.

In turn, residents reacted positively.

“Two weeks ago you didn’t show up, but I know now you are interested in our community,” said Maria Cruz, a longtime neighborhood resident and community leader, in comments typical of the exasperated but respectful crowd of about 125 people. Echoing others, Cruz said drug dealers had taken over the entrances of local buildings. “No queremos!” Cruz shouted first in Spanish. “We don’t want that!”

In an interview in his office after the second meeting, Deputy Inspector James Alles, the precinct commander, said church leaders had left him a message inviting him to the first meeting on the previous Friday evening, and he didn’t get it until the Monday after.

“There’s no way I would have missed a meeting of that magnitude if I had known about it,” he said.

The second meeting was led by a small group of church and community leaders, and, in a measure of how serious the situation had become, four elected officials were present and spoke at some length: State Senator Efrain Gonzalez, who reportedly drew cheers at the initial meeting when he lambasted police for missing it (officials from borough command were also reportedly invited); State Senator Jose M. Serrano, who wrote to Alles expressing concern about his absence; Councilman Joel Rivera; and Assemblyman Jose Rivera.

The biggest news of the follow-up meeting seemed to come at the end when Alles agreed to resume monthly meetings at the church, which were discontinued a couple of years ago amid a strained relationship between the church’s pastor, Msgr. John Jenik, a longtime critic of police policy in his neighborhood, and the commander at the time, Joseph Hoch. At the most recent meeting, Jenik was only present for part of the meeting and stood at the back of the room while his parishioners and elected officials presided.

“I have no problem having a monthly meeting,” Alles said. “The more information we gather on robberies and [other] problems, the better. [It] will only help us combat the crime.”

The first meeting was precipitated by a recent string of robberies of local Mexican immigrants along East 196th Street as they came home from doing restaurant work in Manhattan. Alles told the crowd that he was “disturbed” that many of the victims had not come forward and were apparently afraid that they would be reported to immigration authorities.

“No police officer will ever ask that question when you’re reporting a crime,” he said.

And while attack victims spoke eloquently and pleaded for greater police presence and response, the meeting was as much about drug sales, a chronic and persistent complaint in the community over the past two decades.

In terms of greater police presence, Alles said that “manpower is always an issue,” but he would “supply as many officers within my means.” At the later interview, he said he would be meeting with his executive officer, Capt. Derrick Corrado (who was also at the interview), and Steve Phalen, his special operations lieutenant, to see “what we can put over there.”

Despite the lack of sufficient police presence, Alles and other brass at the meeting said that residents wouldn’t notice the significant undercover work going on there. Capt. Kevin Nicholson of Bronx Narcotics said cops had put away 11 people from a narcotics gang operating at 198th Street and Bainbridge “who are going to do a minimum of 15 years in jail.” He said 50 search warrants had been executed in apartments in the neighborhood this year.

But by their presence and comments, residents conveyed that they still felt unprotected and unsafe.

Some also alleged in public comments and in typewritten notes given to police by meeting organizers that some crime complaints were going unrecorded in an effort to keep statistics down.

In response, Alles said, “If I knew that any cops were not investigating a robbery complaint, I can assure you they would no longer work in my precinct.”

Asked about the frequent complaint that the police don’t respond to callers reporting drug dealing in and around apartment buildings, Corrado insisted that they wanted residents to call, adding police needed detailed descriptions of alleged drug dealers.

Alles encouraged supers and others to come in to the precinct to share information.

And Corrado said he would love to have access to the cameras that record crime in progress, such as the apparent drug activity witnessed and reported by the Norwood News in the last issue.

John Reilly of Fordham Bedford Corporation told the Norwood News recently that he had tried, with no luck last spring to get in touch with the Five-Two to ask officials there to come view some of the footage caught on his buildings’ cameras.

Told this, Alles gave the Norwood News the direct line of his special operations lieutenants and his own cell phone.

Reilly said he would use the numbers.

Ed. note: This article has been changed from the original. An earlier version mistakenly reported that the monthly meetings at Our Lady of Refuge were discontinued during the command of Deputy Inspector Raymond Rooney. They ended at the beginning of the tenure of Rooney’s successor, Deputy Inspector Joseph Hoch. The Norwood News regrets the error.