By Scott R. Axelrod
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island will soon have a new NYPD borough commander as Assistant Chief Joseph Gulotta moves into a new role and is replaced by the Island’s first female top cop, Assistant Chief Melissa Eger.
Gulotta, who has been at the helm since 2023, will be the NYPD chief of transit. Eger was most recently commanding officer of the NYPD Domestic Violence Unit and former commanding officer of the Island’s 122nd Precinct in New Dorp.
Eger’s career with the NYPD began in 1999 as an officer in Central Brooklyn. She was later promoted to sergeant while working in Northern Brooklyn, and a move to Staten Island brought with it the title of lieutenant at the 123rd Precinct in Tottenville.
“Chief Eger is a seasoned professional and exceptional commander,” said Ken Corey, former NYPD borough commander and retired chief of department. “She is extremely adept at developing crime fighting strategies, and also at connecting with the community and motivating her team to perform at their optimum level. Thanks to her deep experience in Staten Island, she is very familiar with the challenges here and I am very confident that Staten Island is in great hands under her leadership.”
Gulotta’s tenure with the department has taken him throughout the city, from working as a young officer on the streets of lower Manhattan, to battling gangs in Brooklyn, and later holding assignments in the department’s Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise divisions, the Advance/SILive.com previously reported.
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Detective Clarence E. Word, III, 53, had served with the NYPD for 20 years and later served with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office in Florida
The 32-year veteran moves on from his post amid a dramatic drop in crime on Staten Island, as according to the NYPD’s CompStat database, there’s been a 7% decrease in major crimes throughout the borough in comparison to the same timeframe in 2023.
“You could definitely feel that crime was up, your neighbors felt it and everyone you spoke to felt it,” Gulotta told the Advance/SILive.com shortly after taking over as borough commander. “I was lucky enough to get assigned out here, kind of have a chance to do good in your own neighborhood and knock some of this crime down.”
With crime surging on Staten Island in 2023, Gulotta was instrumental in helping the NYPD enact a tactical shift that involved the development of an intricate, multi-state system to gather and analyze intelligence as a strategy to crack down on car thefts and burglaries.
He was also a driving force behind a task force created to combat so-called “ghost cars” — vehicles with falsified paper license plates or plates that are obscured by a device that makes them unreadable to red light, speed and toll cameras.
“Collaboration is just tremendous, from Port Authority to New Jersey State Police, to the task force. And then, more importantly, to all the local police departments in New Jersey ,” said Gulotta. “We’re so plugged in with each and every one of them. The information sharing as soon as something happens is really making a difference.”
As part of the tactical shift, Gulotta and other NYPD officials developed a plan to target New Jersey crews coming into Staten Island to commit burglaries and steal vehicles, two crimes that are often connected.
Gulotta credited this approach in combatting crime as one that is building upon infrastructure already put in place by the chief of patrol, the chief of department and others.
“First of all, it’s the tremendous work by the men and women out on the street,” Gulotta said. “Our partners in the detective bureau, there’s a phenomenal collaboration of work here. I’d be remiss if I don’t talk about the great partnership with the Richmond County D.A. as well. I think all those things come together, and some of the processes we’ve put in place have really made a difference in what’s going on.”
Interim NYPD Commissioner Thomas Donlon took to X, formerly Twitter, to congratulate Gulotta and Eger, who were both sworn in to their new roles Wednesday.
It is great to welcome our newly sworn-in Chief of Transit, Joseph Gulotta, to our leadership team. As a 32-year veteran of the NYPD, Chief Gulotta brings the experience and knowledge needed to lead our transit team and continue to drive crime down.
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