Recently in Manhattan, at the initiative of the social-political organization Partnership of Russian-American Voters (PRAVO), there was a meeting of representatives from the New York Police Department, the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs, and the New York City Council. Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants from different regions of the city also participated in the meeting. They came together to work with the city council and police to ensure our community’s safety.

A number of people spoke of the problems in protecting older Russian-speaking immigrants and presented proposals that addressed the issue. Speakers included Susan Faks, executive director at the Shorefront YMHA, Vladimir Vishnevsky and Lyuobov Mikityanskaya from the Jewish Center of Bensonhurst, Gene Borshch from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society/Local Russian Emigrant Organization (HIAS/LOREO), Inna Stavitskaya from the Jewish Association of Services for the Aged (JASA), Mark Davidovich from Sea Side Car Service, Brighton Improvement District (BID) Director Elena Makhnina, Alik Brook-Krasny, director at the Council of Jewish Immigrant Community Organizations (COJECO), Vladimir Epshtein from the League of Russian-Speaking Voters, and Batya Brendel from the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Crown Heights.

The first item on the agenda was the presentation of the Association of Russian-speaking Police Officers, a new organization. The President of the association, Gennady Ladyizhinzky, an investigator with the special organized crime task force of the police and the FBI, gave an exclusive interview to the newspaper The Russian Forward.

Russian Forward: Gennady, when and why was your organization created?

Gennady: Of the 37,000 police officers in New York City, there’s a total of 45 to 50 Russian-speaking members in the force: most of them are members of our association. Our group was formed about two months ago as a distinctive brotherhood of Russian-speaking police officers from the city, the FBI, the federal war on drugs, the U.S. Secret Service protecting the president of the United States, the New York State Attorney General’s office, and from law enforcement in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The association will provide moral, psychological and social support for its members. In addition, we’re trying to be of service to our community.

RF: Frankly speaking, your plans are Napoleonic. Concretely, what are your plans for helping the community?

G: We’ll spend our working hours fighting crime. And we’ll spend our free time conducting seminars on different topics like how to improve the relationship between immigrants and the police, and by providing advice. We’ll participate in the assignment of Russian-speaking police officers around the city, so they work effectively in areas where there are tens of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. This idea is actively supported by activists from PRAVO, who, at the meeting with the NYPD insisted on the transfer of members of our association to Southern Brooklyn, Central Queens and other regions where there is a high concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants.

RF: Why are members of our community so reluctant to join the police?

G: There are many reasons. Unfortunately, the profession of police officer is not very popular among former residents of countries where the police was associated with a criminal regime. Many don’t want to risk their lives for a small salary. The starting salary for a graduate of the police academy is $32,000 a year. True, there is overtime and some benefits.

RF: Who is the leadership of your organization? Among the members of your organization are there any female police officers?

G: Our vice-president is Sergeant Aleksandr Adeshchenko, an immigrant from Odessa Ukraine, who has been on the force 10 years and is a specialist dealing with Russian organized crime. The press secretary is Leonid Rashkovsky, from Kishinev, Moldova, who is a transit police officer with seven years of service. The average age of our members ranges from 25 to 40 years old. There are women members, but not many.

RF: Where are you from? Judging by your accent, you emigrated a while ago from one of the Soviet Republics.

G: I’m 31 years old, and I came to the United States 25 years ago from Riga, Latvia. I can read and speak a little in Russian.

RF: What advice can you give to readers of The Russian Forward who witness or are victims of a crime?

G: As banal as this sounds, the first thing you have to do is call 911. Once the police have arrived, if there are language problems, ask for an interpreter. Police regulations require that an interpreter be provided.

RF: Why is it that police officers who respond to a call for help don’t want to try to get the details of what happened?

G: These kinds of things are meant to be taken care of not by regular patrol police, but by specially trained detectives and employees of the prosecutor.

RF: Is it true that the number of police in any given region depends on the number of 911 calls that are made and the statistics of the region?

G: Yes, it’s true. New York uses a system called CompStat which is designed in such a way as to provide resources and first-in-line police response to those regions with the highest levels of crime.

RF: Thank you very much for the interview. We wish you success in the fight against organized and non-organized crime. And of course, we wish you success with your organization. Keep protecting us!