Former Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct Inspector Grandstaff to be Promoted to Chief

by CrownHeights.info

The former Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct, Inspector Norman Grandstaff, will be promoted to the rank of Deputy Chief, according to a police source, and remain in the Brooklyn South Boro.

Grandstaff, who has been with the NYPD for more than 20 years, served as the Commanding Officer of the 69th Precinct in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn before being transferred to the 71st Precinct in 2016 to take over the command from former Inspector George Fitzgibbon. Fitzgibbon was given command of the Narcotics and Gang Unit in Brooklyn South after his years in the 71st.

While covering the Crown Heights area as Precinct commander, Grandstaff won praise and accolades from the local Jewish community.

“He is a true mench,” Gadi Hershkop of Crown Heights Shomrim said. “Even when he left we kept in touch.”

Grandstaff made a reappearance in the 71st Precinct in September of last year, after Tito Romero – the Commanding Officer of the 71st Precinct – was injured during a Black Lives Matter protest.

“We welcome the appointment of assistant chief Grandstaff to an executive role in Brooklyn South,” Crown Heights Shomrim Coordinator Rabbi Mendy Hershkop said. “He has served as a commanding officer of the 71 Precinct and has led with grace and dignity.”

Grandstaff’s years of service also include time in the 70th and 75th Precincts, as well as working as a police officer in Patrol Borough Brooklyn North.

In 2013 he was awarded the Police Combat Cross, which is the NYPD second highest award, for bravery in the line of duty.

While serving as a police officer in Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, then police officer Grandstaff pursued on foot, struggled with and apprehended a perpetrator who had fired upon police with a 9-millimeter high-capacity machine gun. Then-Officer Grandstaff and two other responding officers also recovered the gun.