Three NYPD precincts in Upper West Side and Harlem tapped to get new commanders
Police sources said new uptown top police brass include Deputy Inspector Olufunmilo Obe, who is going to the 28th Precinct covering south Harlem, and Captain Marlon Larin, heading to the 24th Precinct in the Upper West Side.
Fresh faces are headed for three uptown police precincts — a day after northern Manhattanites publicly bemoaned the loss of more than half of their commanders in a vast NYPD shakeup.
Police sources identified three of the new bosses tapped to lead officers throughout the Upper West Side and Harlem. The cop slated to monitor city housing developments from midtown to East Harlem, still hasn’t been picked.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton reassigned six of the 10 precinct heads, whose jurisdictions run from 96th St. and above — part of a sweeping management switcheroo which has rankled city residents.
Upper Manhattan’s new police brass include Harlem’s first female commander in recent memory, Deputy Inspector Olufunmilo Obe, who will run the 28th Precinct, and Capt. Mike Baker, who’s taking over the 30th Precinct in the neighborhood’s northern pocket.
“I like the idea of having officers that reflect the racial makeup or ethnicity of the communities they serve. I hope we are not getting away from that,” said Harlem activist Iesha Sekou, adding that Baker, who is white, “did not make that much of an impression” when he was second in command at the 32nd Precinct in central Harlem.
The former commander of the 28th Precinct, Deputy Inspector Kevin Williams, joined the counterterrorism unit, and Obe’s move to Harlem filled a weeks-long vacancy in one of Manhattan’s busiest precincts.
“She’s awesome,” swooned anti-violence advocate Tony Herbert, president of the Brooklyn East chapter of the National Action Network.
Herbert remembered that Obe, who comes from a northern Brooklyn post, provided frequent updates to the mourning relatives of Nicholeia Taylor, 24, who was killed by a stray bullet in a Clinton Hill public housing complex last year.
“She’s definitely a community cop, very informative,” Herbert said.
Bratton’s overhaul caused widespread anxiety across northern Manhattan as residents questioned why their favorite police officials were being yanked.
The 24th Precinct on the Upper West Side has been without a leader for a nearly a month, since Inspector Nancy Barry was transferred to assist a chief in the Bronx.
Captain Marlon Larin, the former number two of the 25th Precinct in East Harlem, is moving into Barry’s old office.
“All of us in the community are relieved,” said Tom Burnett, the president of the Upper West Side police community council, whose inbox was flooded with notes from bewildered residents.
“[Larin] sounds like a good choice.”
simonew@nydailynews.com
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