__________________________________________Ask the DA
 

Question: What is the DA’s “Neighborhood Office?”

The “neighborhood office” is the DA’s office in your neighborhood. The neighborhood offices allow Brooklyn residents access to the DA’s office and services, without their having to travel to the DA’s central office in downtown Brooklyn.

Each neighborhood office is open one day a week and staffed by trained counselors who offer assistance to visitors on a variety of issues. These include elder abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug or gang activity, prostitution, burglary or robbery, gangs, identity theft, fraudulent loans and other frauds, and even Medicare, Section 8 and landlord-tenant disputes.

When a complaint is civil, counselors will refer the visitor to appropriate government or private organizations where they can seek to resolve their problem. Counselors will often help pave the way for the visitor by mailing a letter or placing a phone call. When a complaint is criminal, appropriate referrals are made to the police department or bureaus within my office. 

Thanks to the generosity of community organizations that have lent us their space, we’ve been able to enhance our ability to reach out to crime victims. Many people are reluctant to visit large, impersonal government offices to share their concerns, but may feel more comfortable doing so in a more intimate, informal setting in their neighborhood. For example, some time ago a woman who was the victim of identity theft came into one of our neighborhood offices. It took her a while to open up, but eventually we learned that the woman’s son was using her identity to steal from her to fund his drug habit. When she learned my office puts nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than jail, she was able to share her story with us. Her son is now in treatment and she has her identity back. Neighborhood offices have also provided a safe haven for immigrants to come forward and report crimes committed against them.

There are 18 neighborhood offices located in Bay Ridge, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Bushwick, Canarsie, Coney Island, Cypress Hills, Dyker Heights, Flatbush, Greenpoint, Mill Basin, Park Slope/Gowanus, Sheepshead Bay, Sunset Park and Williamsburg. An additional office will open soon in East New York.

To increase our outreach, we recently added a van. So be on the lookout for our “mobile” office, coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

I believe our neighborhood offices are an important tool in my efforts to fight and prevent crime. By being out in the community, we’ve learned much more about problems like predatory lending and abuse against the elderly. Armed with this information, we’ve been able to educate the public on how to avoid becoming victims of predatory lending schemes and other financial frauds.

THE BROOKLYN DA IS COMING TO AN OFFICE NEAR YOU 
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