Standing on Fordham Road across the street from the military recruiting center where he signed up for the United States Navy more than three decades ago, Sammy Ravelo announced his candidacy for the Bronx borough presidency on Dec. 30. Before a small crowd at the busy intersection of Grand Concourse, Ravelo addressed the mostly, Spanish-language media covering the event.

 

In reference to the building where the Bronx borough president’s office is located, speaking in Spanish, Ravelo said, “The time is now for a person who has served his community for more than 25 years, like I did in the police [department], that one of our sons represent us in the borough hall building.” He added, “I want to be that person that represents all the citizens of the Bronx.”

 

Ravelo, 51, has special ties to some of the neighborhoods in the North Bronx, having attended Walton High School, located just under a mile northwest from where he launched his bid for the borough presidency.

 

With the formal announcement over, Ravelo then answered questions from the media on a wide range of voter issues affecting the community, including how to keep residents from littering (“implement stricter enforcement”) and how to convince skeptical Bronxites to get vaccinated against COVID-19 (“get people of influence to set the example”). For his part, Ravelo then spoke to the main issues on which he hopes to connect with voters. These were education, housing, and the latest spike in crime.

 

With a 25-year career in the police department behind him, Ravelo said, if elected, his law enforcement experience would help serve as a guide when making decisions on how to combat crimes such as murder and burglaries, both of which were up in 2020, compared to 2019. Murders saw an increase of 28.4 percent, while burglaries saw a climb of 33.2 percent across the borough.

 

Locally, the 52nd precinct has also seen spikes in the same categories, with murders up from eight in 2019, to ten in 2020. Burglaries, similarly, rose from 174 in 2019 to 231 in 2020, up by almost a third at 32.8 percent.

 

Again, Ravelo has unique insights into the needs of residents within the 52^nd  precinct’s boundaries. He shared with Norwood News, in English, some of the special memories he has of working at the Five-Two. “When I got promoted to lieutenant [in 2011], I was assigned to the 52nd precinct,” he said. “The Five-Two had almost everything and everybody,” he added. “I used to call it the, ‘piece of America,’ the ‘piece of the real America.’ They were very supportive of the police, and I like that.”

 

Given that, clearly, periods of last year were marked by mass protests against police brutality in New York City and across the world, we asked Ravelo for his views on how trust in the NYPD can be improved so that all residents have faith that they will be treated fairly when interacting with police.

 

Ravelo said he had high praise for the Neighborhood Coordination Officers [NCOs] who are described by the NYPD as, “your local problem solvers.” He wants to see that same support and appreciation for law enforcement [seen in the 52 precinct] extended throughout the borough.

 

The NCO program was launched in 2015 with the goal of strengthening non-emergency contact and community relations between the public and police officers, with the goal of improved communication and collaboration. “With the introduction of the NCO program, [the NYPD] has closed the gap even more in community police relations,” Ravelo said. “We are very far along compared to other agencies.”