DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Four 84th Precinct police officers have been honored for helping to crack down on retail theft in Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn.
The precinct’s new commanding officer, Captain Erek Powers, presented the trio with Cop of the Month honors at the Jan. 20 meeting of the 84th Precinct Community Council. The 84th Precinct encompasses Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, part of Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and Vinegar Hill.
Two officers received Cop of the Month honors for November 2025: police officer Latoya Hinckson and police officer Joshua Fyffe, who apprehended three suspects in a robbery of a Sephora store on Joralemon Street at Court Street.
Sephora “is a place that gets hit constantly,” Powers said. “The night before Hinckson and Fyffe made the arrest there was a robbery there, and they remembered the description. Then when a call came through the next day, they responded rapidly and took three perpetrators into custody.”
“So they did a really phenomenal job,” he said as the audience broke into applause. (Fyffe, who did not attend, received his plaque following the event.)
From left: 84th Precinct Commanding Officer Erek Powers, with police officer Latoya Hinckson. Hinckson and police officer Joshua Fyffe (not shown) were honored as Cops of the Month for November 2025. Photo: Mary Frost/Brooklyn Eagle
Hinckson’s award was for her work in November, but she got another round of applause when Powers told the audience that she also “made a really good arrest” in January when she caught a man burglarizing a retail store. “He kicked the window in and stole a lot of merchandise,” and was fleeing when Hinckson “did a half marathon down the block” to collar him, Powers said.
Recipients of the Cop of the Month awards for December 2025 were police officer Chee Tam and police officer Shenica Adams, who responded to a 911 call for an alarm.
“Usually that’s not a pressing emergency,” Powers told the audience. However, the officers wasted no time getting to the location, 465 Fulton St., which turned out to be a GameStop. “They saw that the glass was broken and they entered the store — a very dangerous situation because it was dark out and you don’t know who’s in the store or hiding behind the counter,” he said.
“And sure enough, a perpetrator was hiding behind the counter. They took that perpetrator into custody without incident,” and made a dent in the burglaries in Downtown Brooklyn, he said, to more applause.
The 84th Precinct Community Council, an all-volunteer group, is led by Council President Peter Lanfranca. The Jan. 20 meeting was the first chance for the public at large to meet the new commanding officer, designated in December, and bring up local concerns.