By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

DUMBO – He may have come straight from the scene of a shooting, but Capt. Mark DiPaolo had good news at Tuesday night’s meeting of the 84th Precinct Community Council.

He announced that in the precinct, which includes Downtown, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill and DUMBO, crime overall is down 18 percent since the beginning of the year. He further broke it down into particular crimes: robbery is down 30 percent; felony assault is down 16 percent; burglary, 27 percent, grand larceny, 9.2 percent and more.

The captain also recapped the news of the recent arrest, covered in the Eagle, of young graffiti writers “Rex� and “Guder,� who went on a “tagging� spree in the Heights. He recounted how graffiti incidents are tracked by the Vandal Squad, who take photos of all “tags� and have them on file. They also follow previous graffiti arrests for patterns.

One member of the duo, DiPaolo recounted, was actually in custody a month before the Heights spree in connection with vandalism elsewhere in the area.

The captain also congratulated the community on a safe and event-less Halloween – a holiday in which young miscreants have historically gone forth to do their mischief.

About the only problems mentioned during the meeting were a car vandalism spree in Boerum Hill, talked about by Community Council President Leslie Lewis; and several incidents in which homeless people apparently misrepresented themselves as Transit employees in the subway. One of them was seen inside the Borough Hall station, opening the doors of offices used by real transit workers, but he was soon spotted because he used phrases that aren’t normally used by MTA employees.

This month’s “Cop of the Month,� who was honored by Capt. DiPaolo, was Police Officer Teressa McAllister. On Friday, Oct. 2, she was assigned to a post at the entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge. At around 9:45 p.m., a local woman told McAllister that she had just seen another woman being robbed on Jay Street. As the witness was describing the attack, P.O. McAllister saw a woman screaming and running.

McAllister drove up to the victim and interviewed her, getting a description of the attackers. Suddenly, she saw two young women fitting the description and drove toward them. As she approached them, they started running. McAllister gave chase, and was able to block them with her car and arrest them.

At the meeting, she accepted her honorary plaque while holding her young son, who was admired by many in the audience.

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