BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | Captain Mark Iocco always knew he wanted to be a cop.
Recently appointed the commanding officer of the First Precinct, Iocco said he followed in his father’s footsteps.
“My father was a role model,” he said in a phone interview last week.
Born in Italy, his father “came here and made his way into the N.Y.P.D.,” said Iocco, 43. His father, now retired, achieved the rank of deputy inspector, which is one higher than captain.
Iocco, 43, grew up in Astoria before he moved to Westchester when he was 10. He joined the police force almost 19 years ago — starting out as a cop in the Bronx, at the 52 Precinct, which includes Bedford.
By 2001, he had been promoted to sergeant.
“I was assigned to the Midtown North Precinct and on my second day there it was Sept. 11, 2001,” he said. “While we were responding the second plane hit while we were coming down the West Side Highway.”
Iocco and others were assisting in the evacuation of the North Tower when the South Tower fell first. He spent weeks and months in the aftermath of the attacks helping with the recovery effects and the security of the site.
Six years later, he was promoted to lieutenant, left Midtown North and went briefly to the 26 Precinct in West Harlem. Iocco explained that once you get promoted, you leave the precinct. After the quick stint at the 26, he was a lieutenant in the Ninth Precinct in the East Village.
He was at the Ninth until 2011 when he got promoted to captain just in time for the Occupy Wall Street movement, he said. He was temporarily assigned to the detail that covered Occupy Wall Street, which originated in the Lower Manhattan’s First Precinct. But once it was over, he moved over to the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown. At the Fifth, he was the executive officer, which is second in command.
He became commanding officer of the First Precinct on March 6. Iocco said that although he had never been officially assigned to Lower Manhattan before, he had spent a lot of time there.
“I understand the sensitivity of this area,” he said.
Eighty percent of the crime that occurs in the First Precinct is grand larcenies, he said. A large portion of those happen when people leave their property unattended — putting your purse behind you on the chair while your eat, for example.
Iocco said that he is working with the grand larceny division to tackle “organized retail crime” in Soho’s shopping district. The division is looking to identify grand larceny crews that use fraudulent credit cards to purchase clothes or shoplift in bulk in order to sell the items.
The other challenge is the possibility of another terrorist attack and all the sensitive locations that are in this precinct, said Iocco. “It’s a major concern,” he said.
The precinct works with the N.Y.P.D.’s World Trade Center Command, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative — a.k.a. the “Ring of Steel” of surveillance cameras Downtown — the Port Authority Police Department and others.
