Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Press Conference to Announce Upgardes in NYPD Radio System

March 3, 2016

Commissioner William Bratton, NYPD: Kind of cramped quarters here today. Are we all set?

Okay, I’m joined by Mayor de Blasio. We’re expecting the Borough President Eric Adams at any moment – also Chief of Department Jim O’Neill; Chief of the Transit Bureau, Chief Fox; and Dermot Shea, our Deputy Commissioner for the CompStat process.

As is our custom, the beginning of each month we report on the crime statistics for the previous month as well as the statistics year to date. Dermot Shea, a little later in this press availability, will discuss the specificity of those numbers as you’re used to receiving them.  

But another reason for the meeting today is to discuss one, significant technological advances that the Police Department has been working on with the MTA and the Transit Authority, and we’re going to discuss those systems coming online finally; as well as discussing some of the recent concerns about transit related crime and some of what we’ve been doing that has begun to reduce that; as well as additional initiatives that we’ll be taking to address not only crime in the subway, but there’s been a recent concerns expressed by bus drivers about issues involving them. We are already doing extensive bus patrols that we’ll also be expanding on.

To shape our frame – the discussion about the technology issue. As many of you are aware, I was appointed Chief of the Transit Police in 1990 when it was a separate police department from the City of New York Police Department – it was a separate city housing agency. And at that time, one of the major issues that we were facing was communications – communications inadequacies, a historic problem below ground on the subway, and it was an issue that had been attempted to be addressed over time. Initial radio system put in was a VHF frequency, problem being that below ground use one channel, above ground you got use another channel, and it was just an awful situation. Additionally, the technology of the time – phenomenal dead spots below ground, sometimes extending for significant lengths of train lines.

Indeed, in terms cops, still relied in the 70s and 80s on the nightstick for communication. If they were in the subway, on the platform they would communicate with each other by hitting the nightstick on the ground – sounds very primitive, but that’s the way it was done in the 1970s and 1980s, even when they began to be equipped with radios.

In 1984, the first female police officer killed in the line of duty in New York City, a member of the Transit Police Department. Remember, its right up here – Irma Lozada. She was killed when she was pursuing a suspect with her partner out of the subway. They separated once they left the subway, and she was murdered with her own gun by the suspect they were chasing. And we believe to this day that the communications issue was a significant factor that once she left the subway she was out of communication, and it took several hours to actually find and locate her body in an abandoned field.

So that – an example of the issue of communication to the public safety of our officers. What we're announcing today that the MTA, Tom Prendergast, who I’ve been working with for twenty five years, and the head of the Transit Authority, Ronnie Hakim – that they have been great partners over these last several years attempting to address the issue of communications.

In 1990, after the murder of Brian Watkins, then Governor Mario Cuomo, made available to the Transit Police on a moment’s notice – a day’s notice  – $40 million. $20 million of that was spent to get a brand new radio for every transit cop and to try and fix as many dead spots as possible on the DHF radio system; $10 million paid for new equipment including 9 millimeters for the cops – the first 9 millimeters in the city; and another $10 million was for over time to increase patrols for transit officers to deal with the fear level in the city at that time.

I like to point out because there is so much effort being focused on the issue of crime in the transit system – when I took over as Chief in 1990, in that year there were 26 homicides in the subway system out of the 2,243 in the city, 33 rapes, 9,297 robberies, 1,353 assaults, 174 burglaries, 6,614 grand larcenies, 17,497 major felonies. Every morning I would review, on average, about 50 significant crime reports, and I’m talking significant robberies, murders, rapes. 2015 – we had the sum total of major felonies in the subways system of – let me get the categories here – major felonies of 2,502 – 2,502 versus 17,497.

In a subway system that’s carrying almost twice as many riders as 1990 this is a very safe system. However, there is a concern at this time understandably because of some of the random nature of some of the crime – that more needs to be done, and we are prepared to do that. We have been doing it, and Chief O’Neill and Joe Fox will outline what we are doing, but we need to at all times keep in context 1990 when I first came here as Chief of Transit and 2016 now as we go forward; six million riders a day, on average six crimes a day, versus back in the 1990s when it was much worse. The good news is that we’re seeing the crime that’s being reported beginning to go down. We expect that as we put these new initiatives in, that the mayor has been advocating for, that we’ll see it go down even further.

With that I’d like to introduce Chief O’Neill – excuse me, the mayor, Mayor Bill de Blasio for his remarks, and Eric Adams who has joined us. This is like a Transit Police reunion, Eric was a lieutenant back in the day, I was the Chief of Transit, Jimmy O’Neill was a sergeant, I think back at that time. There’s a lot of transit expertise up at this podium. Welcome, Eric.

If I could, I’ll introduce the mayor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Mayor: Thank you very much, Commissioner. And that transit expertise is so important to us – that the leaders of our police department know transit well, know our subways well, and they know how to address any crime that we face. And I have to commend you Commissioner, commend you Chief – whenever an issue comes up, you take it on with great intensity – head on. You go right at the problem. And we’re going to be talking today about how we address some of the challenges that people all over the city are concerned about. You’re going to see more police presence in the subways. You’re going to see a vigorous response. But we’re also celebrating some progress that the Commissioner mentioned was something that’s been yearned for years and is finally being achieved.

Now you’re going to hear about the month of February. I want to commend the men and women of the NYPD for another very, very strong month. Once again murders and shootings are at near historic lows. So, this work continues to be extraordinarily successful. And our job is to not only keep the city safe, but make it safer – above ground and below ground. And having transit radios that work better are a crucial part of the equation. Until now, an officer who spent time above ground would quote-unquote “go dark” the moment he or she went into the subway system. So we didn’t have the kind of communication we needed among our officers. Everyone knew it had to change, but as the commissioner said, years and years went by before real change was achieved. So, this is an important moment. And it’s going to be the kind of radio system that will provide safety for our officers and for the public alike.

I want to thank everyone at the MTA. I want to thank everyone at the NYPD for the work they did together. As we know, this commissioner believes in helping every agency to work together. That has been a hallmark of his work over decades – well this is another great example of it.

So this new system is already up and running in the Bronx. And two days ago, we began piloting it in Manhattan. Brooklyn and Queens will follow in the spring, so this moving aggressively.

I want to thank Chief Fox for the great work he is doing as Chief of Transit. You’ll be hearing of course from Chief O’Neill and from Deputy Commissioner Shea momentarily. And I want to thank them for the great work they’ve done – once again, in February, driving down crime all over the city.

The story that Commissioner told – of what he used to have to deal with as the head of Transit and the progress we’ve made over 20 plus years is one of the most impressive good news stories you’re ever going to hear. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be challenges. We’ve had this spate of slashings, we take it very seriously. There is not a pattern as we’ve said – they’re specific incidents. But we still have to go at each and every one of them. And as we talked about the last time we got together – the NYPD has done a great job of finding the perpetrators in so many of these cases and getting them out of the subways and off the streets.

Thank God acts of violence are now extremely rare in our subways. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, you have an almost million in one chance of being a victim of any kind of crime on the New York City subways and most of those crimes are property crimes. But to put what the commissioner said in perspective a different way – 25 years ago, there were 40 percent fewer riders and seven times more crime in the New York City subways. And I remember it very, very distinctly. I remember when I used to get on subways – always keeping my eyes open, always being aware of where I was – day or night because we knew there was so much crime in the subways. That situation has changed. And people feel a lot more comfortable because that changed. But we have to keep, every day, showing the people of the city that any problem that arises will be addressed aggressively. And that’s what the NYPD does. I want to always remind people – you can have faith, particularly under Commissioner Bratton, that whenever a new problem arises, a new solution will be found. That is the hallmark of his leadership.

So, we are not ever going to back to those bad old days. I remember what the subways used to be like. I remember how dirty they were. I remember how they didn’t have air conditioning, they had lots of graffiti, and they were plagued with crime. We’re not going back. In fact, the challenge that I said today, first and foremost, is the theft of property, and we take that seriously too – but nowhere near what we used to see in terms of violence. We have increased PD presence in the subways. As I mentioned a few days ago, the strategic response group is going to have expanded presence in our subways, so people will see additional police presence. And they’re going to know the NYPD is on the job. And now with the new radios, NYPD will be able to do its work even better – that’s in addition to the smartphones that officers now have that are helping them to do their work even better. All of the pieces come together – the training, the technology – every advance helps achieve the next advance, and that’s what’s happening in today’s NYPD.

Just quickly in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish.]

[Borough President Eric Adams speaks]

Chief of Department James O’Neill, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. So Eric, I guess I came on a year before you? I remember the cup and string, but I remember something that was supposed to be a radio that I carried on my hip – weighed about 20 pounds.

So, approximately six million riders in the entire transit system every day and on the average there are six-and-a-half major crimes – index crimes – each day. Let me be clear though, one crime’s too many especially if you’re the victim or if you know the victim. And our goal – our obligation – is not only to keep people safe, but to make people feel safe as well. That’s important – to keep people safe – but we need to make sure people feel safe. And despite the historic crime lows we experience citywide year after year, we always have to adapt to keep crime down. And that’s what we’re doing now. We constantly review our operational procedures and alter them as circumstances around the city dictate. I think that’s what we’ve done with putting OCCB into the Detective Bureau and also with neighborhood policing. That’s how we’ll keep lowering crime. That’s our duty, and that’s our job.

And that’s why today we’re announcing a new transit radio system that I’ll detail in a moment. But Joe Fox is going to talk about the crime picture, and I’ll talk a little bit more in detail about what we’re doing about it. But 65 percent of that is grand larceny and that’s important to know. Things like electronics taken from passengers and oftentimes when they’re sleeping. We need everyone in the city to be aware that these things are happening. In about half of the incidents, cops nearby quickly arrested the perpetrators – when we speak about the slashings that have been in the newspapers over the last couple weeks. And most of the time the people knew each other previously or they’re people who exchanged words with each other while they were in the transit system. And as you know, and as Jessie has shown you, and I can’t say enough good things about Jessie about what she’s done with this police department and how she’s improved technology. I carry around one of those phones every day, and they’re very handy, especially with the number of calls I get from City Hall. I get right to it. I have answers for them right away.

[Laughter]

It’s about officer safety, but it’s also about – this is how we’re going to continue to keep crime down. And that’s why we’re transitioning from outdated, separate radio frequencies for above ground officers and transit officers. It used to be that street-level cops venturing down into the subway would effectively be off the grid or as Eric said – go dark – not a safe reality for anyone. And the same was true for transit officers who ventured up to street level.

For example, in my old command in the 4-4 – I’m a 4-4 cop and there’s a radio run at 1-6-1 and River, which is another one of my old commands, District 11. If I go down into that D train now – down there, down into the subway – nobody is hearing me. We would have zero ability to communicate over the radio if the officer went underground. And that’s in your own precinct and that’s just unsafe. But that’s no longer an issue, and now street-level cops responding to requests for assistance from transit officers can hear what’s going on while they’re in route – they can switch frequencies.

And this plaque – this happened, I had about a year-and-a-half on the job, it was actually two days before I got married – and everybody who was a transit cop remembers Irma Lozada. This plaque reminds us of the absolute necessity to get this done.

The transition we’re now seeing today, which will see all police officers on the same UHF system, is obviously long overdue. This was an issue when I came on in 1983. All of our above ground nine transit radio divisions, including precincts and special-ops division, are already on VHF – already on UHF, I’m sorry. The transit radios are leaving the old VHF system. It was plagued with frequent outages, which could entirely wipe out radio communications in multiple stations at once – as well as significant coverage and interference issues with known dead zones that were never remediated. I did train patrol back in 1983, and it was one – I rode the A train, we rode it from upper Manhattan to Brooklyn. And there was one stretch from 125 to 59 Street – that was a six minute ride. And if your radio went dead and something happened, that was a very long six minutes. This is going to help change that.

My expectation is that the ability for street-level cops and their counterparts underground to now properly communicate with each other will get our resources to incidents faster and keep people safer. And this offers greater reliability and clearer communication. The UHF system will also dramatically improve police emergency communications, increase officer safety while improving our ability to provide proper police services to the public.

In January, we conducted a month-long pilot program with the new system in Bronx, which covers transit districts 3, 11, and 12. All of those cops in those commands were switched from the old, outdated VHF to the new UHF channel with great success. The Bronx is now continuing on that system, while on Monday we began a second pilot program in Manhattan covering transit districts 1, 2, and 4. The cops in those commands will complete daily surveys to track the progress and ease of use, just like their colleagues in the Bronx did previously.

Of the 278 belowground subway stations, 197 of them – roughly 70 percent – are in the Bronx or Manhattan, which is why we began there. Brooklyn transit is on pace to make the switch in April, followed by Queens transit in May.

The NYPD and the MTA have been discussing the need for this new system for decades, as the commissioner mentioned. The MTA spent $100 million to build a new system, which over the past two years, we have tested for coverage and reliability.

For precision policing and targeting enforcement, we keep this city – we’ll continue to this city – free from crime and disorder. This is what we do. We try to keep – we do our best to keep the public free from fear. That’s why you’ve seen more uniformed officers in the transit system of late. There have been and will continue to be routine and random checks of subway trains, platforms, and bags near the turnstiles. Down in the subway, you’ll also see patrol officers from aboveground precincts, as well as police canine dogs and highly trained groups of specialists from our Emergency Service Unit, Critical Response Command, and Strategic Response Group. This is the way we ease fear – we make sure there are more uniforms in the subway system; but as long as – we’re going to put more uniforms in there. But along with that, they’ll be people you won’t see – plainclothes cops riding the subways and performing platform inspections. Plus, we have camera systems in place. All told, we conduct dozens of operations every day and inspect hundreds of trains in the process. Additionally, uniformed police officers will help our auxiliary police officers and will target busy stations at peak ridership hours to engage with customers and to provide information about the latest patterns and wanted perpetrators.

After two years of  re-engineering and a major restructuring within the department, we’re now working to cement all of the changes we’ve made. Along with the tablets we’ve installed in thousands of patrol vehicles and the smartphones soon to be in the hands of every single cop, these radios – capable of communicating aboveground and below – are yielding better results while keeping our uniformed police officers safe.

In addition to everything we’re doing in the subway, we also have an ongoing initiative up on the surface with the buses. We conduct inspections and we do rides with the buses. In the Bronx and Queens South, we conducted 3,146 total actions – 1,694 inspections and 1,452 rides. So we’re looking to increase our presence on the buses. But in the months of – in the prior months – we are on the buses and will continue to do our best to keep the riders safe, along with the bus drivers.

Now I’m going to introduce Joe Fox.

Chief Joseph Fox, NYPD: Good afternoon all. So, Borough President, Commissioner Bratton, Mayor de Blasio, Chief O’Neill, and our executives, and our media welcome to the Transit Bureau.

[Laughter]

This is a great day for my staff, all our CO’s, all of our transit bureau officers, and a great day for me because we get to talk about – I get to talk about the great work that’s going into protecting our subways and commuters. So, it is a lot of perspective given by Commissioner Bratton and Chief O’Neill. I want to get right to this year – starting in 2016. January 2015 was our lowest month – crime month in history – recorded history. We, in January, we did 4.8 crimes a day. So, now [inaudible] January we did 6.7 crimes a day. So, obviously that difference from 4.8 to 6.7 is the increase that we’ve been talking about. We aim for our lowest crime rate of course, and it’s important to remember, as Chief O’Neill said, half of our crime victims of those 6.7 crimes didn’t realize they were crime victims until hours later sometimes, and those were people who were either sleeping, unattended property – leaving bags next to them, or pick-pockets. So, people feel safe in our subways. We know this because of the activity they engage in – like I’ve just described and we’re glad people feel safe, but we want to encourage people to be aware of your surroundings and just think long and hard about when you close your eyes and where you are and where you keep your property and where you sit – some basic crime-prevention tips. So, with the result we’ve put together after January, throughout the month of February, and we’re still rolling out – we wound up being up only one crime in February. So, we’re surely heading in the right direction. And in the month of February, we did 6.2 crimes per day which is lower than our January numbers – 6.7.

Here are some the strategies – Chief O’Neill mentioned some – the train inspections that he mentioned. What that is, is teams of officers – one sergeant and four police officers, up to eight police officers – and they’ll be in a platform and they’ll be spread out so that they can – one can get in a car. And the conductor will get on and make an announcement, “Police activity, momentary delay.” So, everyone knows that there’s cops on the platform. Then they see as the train stops, an officer goes in a separate car, looks at everybody, makes sure everything’s okay, is seen – sees what’s in there, and comes back out. We’ve substantially increased those. We’re doing a number of those every day, every tour. And we were able to expose to a lot of people and a lot of people are reassured when they see these officers pop their head in the train.

The response team surges – we put a large number of cops from districts all throughout the city. We have them all come during the day and report to a major hub at Times Square, or Grand Central, and then what they do is, they’re deployed, they’re given crime intelligence, they’re given wanted photos. And then they all go in separate train rides out to all the boroughs. So, that gives us a nice – a good presence of police officers.

The administrative all-out, which worked very well in the last two years, and we’ve done it in housing and in the street – in PSB. We do that here now. So, you have people who are normally assigned to administrative units in the districts, in the boroughs, and my staff here. We send people out every day.

Our Times Square Initiative – what we’re doing is, at any given time – it’s an important station, it’s one of our busiest ones. Eleven lines go through there. It’s the face of our New York City transit system for most tourists and people who are in our city. So, any given time, we’ve had a handful of officers assigned. We’re bringing that number up substantially. We’re in the process now of recruiting and identifying officers to make that a permanent command that’s going to turn out of the task force which is right in that complex. So, that’s going to help us enhance our visibility down there 24/7.

Chief O’Neill mentioned the Strategic Response Group, so that’s teams of our SRG going down into the Manhattan and Brooklyn North station. And at night we also have teams in the later hours where people can tend to feel more vulnerable in the Queens and the Bronx – down in these stations.

Our Critical Response Command is part of this, our Counter-Intelligence Teams, our directed patrols in Brooklyn North and in Manhattan, we have sector cops – cops assigned to sector cars and precincts – making visits down to train stations every tour. And our Community Affairs Crime Prevention Operations – these are significant because what we’re doing every day is we have significant teams of a combination of precinct community affairs and crime prevention officers as well as transit community affairs officers. So, they’ll go to one place and they’ll be at many entrances as we can find – or exits – and we do this at rush hour from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm where people come off, out of those systems and they’ll be engaged – crime prevention tips, things pertinent to the area. So that’s a win-win for us because the precinct commanders will get a lot of good engagement with officers who are best at it in these heavy, heavy areas, as will we with our riders.

Same with – let’s not forget our volunteers, our auxiliaries. We’re doing the same type of operations with teams of auxiliaries from precincts who will meet with transit officers and be visible at these spots and will coordinate in all of these so we’re not in the same place twice. So, this will greatly enhance our safety and our appearance of safety and our presence.

Thank you all.

Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea, Operations, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. I’ll speak briefly about February crime and then the first two months year-to-date where stand, and we’ll be available for questions on individual crimes, but I’ll try to keep it brief. This past Sunday, February 28 at midnight our normal CompStat week ended. Luckily for us, this year – a leap year – we had an extra say on Monday. So, when we post it to our new CompStat 2.0 website this week – that I know many of you have seen because we’ve already hit 75,000 hits to that in just the first week. We talked about radios today. Chief O’Neill talked about the phones [inaudible] CompStat2 2.0 – all of these different technologies we hope we integrate into our crime strategies. We hope for Bob Boyce’s detectives that that generates more awareness of what’s going on in your community and more leads generated.

In February, because of February 29 we recorded on Monday 277 crimes – I mention that again because it’s leap year. And those are now in our CompStat numbers. Those 277 crimes are a normal, daily crime total, but having that extra day pushed us from one percent up in crime for the year to three percent up in crime for the year. So it shows you at this early point in the year, how one extra day can really impact on your crime statistics.

With that being said, year-to-date, January and February combined – second lowest January and February in the last five years. That’s the theme of today’s crime briefing really. We’re holding the line and continuing to keep the violence – the gun violence, the homicides, the shooting incidents – at historic lows. And we are right near last year’s historic low in overall index crime.

Murder – we have recorded through midnight 17 murders in New York City. We have not had that low a total in the CompStat era – so, 17. And especially, pleased that domestic homicides down a third – eight versus 12. Shooting incidents through February – for the month of February because of that extra day, we recorded, believe it or not, five shooting incidents on Monday which was a bit of an aberration. We went into – we ended the 28 of February down in shootings, but because of the extra day we wound up three shootings above last February. We are still down significantly from last year in shootings – 121 versus 151. It’s a reduction of 30 shooting incidents. And we are still, just like homicides, at the lowest level we have seen on today’s date, March 2 in the CompStat era.

Briefly, felony assaults – because it’s the one crime that is up and it’s up 145 through the end of February, up 12 percent in February alone – 145 crimes. Just a moment on felony assault – when we look at felony assault and what’s driving the increase this year, and we look back and we like to look back, of course, versus last year but a wider range to five years, ten years. It is, from my perspective, nearly impossible to do with felony assaults, and the reason is simple – a felony assault charge continues to grow almost on a yearly basis. So, off the top of my head I can tell you bus drivers, which were referenced earlier, school employees, prison workers, social workers, hospital workers, people that reach a certain age – if you’re assaulted by somebody a certain number of years young, people that are a very age. There are categories of assaults that are included in our assault numbers now that, simply five, ten years ago would not have been a felony assault. And that’s a good thing. We’re passing laws to protect people that need to be protected. But from my perspective, in trying to compare periods of time, it’s very, very difficult to do. February of 2014 – just some perspective – I said that we’re up this month in felony assaults  the number that we recorded this February, even with an extra day, was less than we had in February 2014. So, the sky is not falling with felony assaults in New York City.

Very briefly, grand larceny is worth noting. The quote-unquote some people refer to it as the “white-collar crime,” it came up just a moment ago in transit, where two-thirds of every crime recorded – index crimes in transit is a grand larceny and it’s sleeping passengers, it’s the pick-pockets, etcetera. We had the highest number since 2005 of grand larcenies for the month of February – pretty significant, and that trend is not new. That’s been growing. We now – index crimes in general, 43 percent of index crimes for the first two months are grand larcenies in New York City. And that’s why we had the foresight several years ago to create that new Grand Larceny Division to really impact on that growing crime category.

I will close with two last points – one being housing. Housing crime for the month of February was up 50 crimes – 351 versus 301. It was a 17 percent increase. What type of crime driven by – assaults with felony assaults in housing but on the violent side of housing, with the gunfire specifically. Housing shootings – lowest we’ve seen for the first two months since 2004, pretty significant numbers. Housing homicides – you’d have to go back nine years to have a lower homicide number in New York City. So, overall, housing crime slightly up for the year as usually is, it’s driven by domestic violence.

And last but not least, activity because we continue to drive home – we’ll have a CompStat meeting, and we’re inviting Staten Island [inaudible] and we’ll drive home these same points with focus – everything that we do with precision, laser, whatever synonym you want to use. When you look at arrests in New York City for this year, we are up four percent year-to-date but that’s on a very low year, last year. And you’ve heard this theme a couple times – the level of arrests we have affected in New York City for the first two months of this year, other than last year, you’d have to go back to 2002 to have fewer arrests. So, it is a significantly lower arrest number in New York City this year. When you compare it to five years ago, we’re down 20 percent. You see the same thing when you look at criminal court summonses. When you compare the number of criminal court summonses that we have affected this year – look five years ago, we’re down 50 percent. When you look at stops, we’re down in-excess of 95 percent; so, a lot less activity. Recurring theme – what’s up? Gun seizures are up 14 percent this year. What’s up? Felony arrests are up. What else is up? Index crime arrests are up. So, that continues to be the theme – summarizing, very low numbers in terms of homicides, gun violence, and shootings, which is a good thing.

Mayor: Amen.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: And we are at or near – and we have some work to do – we have some work to do with stabbings and slashings. We have some work to do with – regardless of the reason for the increase in assaults, new laws or not – pushing those further down.

Mayor: One last – I want to get the first media question in. The 17 homicides – put that in historical perspective. You said in the entire CompStat era, explain that.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: I like to go back to – I like to have the numbers in front of me that I can reference, and when we go back to the CompStat era in 1993, 1994 is the numbers I reference when [inaudible] that term. We have never had this level of homicides when you go back those 23 years. We are at the lowest –

Mayor: What February are you talking about?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: January and February.

Mayor: Combined January and February – the lowest point we’ve ever been at this year since 1994.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: That is correct, and you can say the same thing for shooting incidents.

Mayor: Amen. Okay, we’re going to take questions on police topics only.

Question: If I understood your description of what’s going to be happening with trains and police [inaudible]. You’re actually going to stop trains, have police enter the trains – can you just talk about how long it’s going to take. And for the mayor – do you have any concerns about people who are commuting even in off-hours? How long is it going to delay and if there’s any concern about those kinds of issues?

Chief Fox: The delay is very slight because when a train pulls in, there’s an amount of time that the doors are opened when a train is stopped to let people on and off. So, it’s within that time frame that police officer will – and it also depends on how crowded the train is. If the train isn’t crowded, the officer just pops his or head in and it doesn’t affect the movement of the train at all because in the time for those few people to get off or on, the conductor keep the door open. If the train’s crowded, the officers put themselves in a position where people can get out and they can get in and they’re visible. So, the delay would be a second or two, if anything.

Commissioner Bratton: You’ll often hear me use the expression, “Everything old is new again.” This is something that Captain Ansbro, the transit police created back in 1990. It worked very successfully as evidenced for 25 years crime has been going down in the subway system. So, the interruption is minimal. Another strategy is the cops get on the train and take it to the next station. That allows them to walk through the train, get off, and get on another train going the other way. And what we do with the conductors – they announce transit police are on the train because most of the time the cops walked down the middle of the train, most people aren’t looking at each other [inaudible] where the cops are on the train. So, by making the announcement, it draws their attention to the fact that police are there. And what they’re looking for is ill passengers, those that might be causing problems, and it’s a tried-and-true method. We began is back in 1990 and those statistics I referenced for 25 straight years – crime has gone down in the system to the six crimes a day that we’re currently reporting.

Mayor: Yes, and I’ll add – look, New Yorkers want to be safe and they want to feel safe and the presence of NYPD officers is incredibly reassuring. So, I don’t think anyone is concerned about any minor delays. And as you heard from the Chief, I don’t even think there will be delays. But number one – people want to be safe and they like seeing the presence of the NYPD in the subways.

Question: Chief O’Neill – the new UHF system, is that going to propagate, like, to a central point or is there going to be like cell technology – cell towers, or relay points along the system?

Commissioner Bratton: There’s two systems. There’s the cellular phone system and there’s this system.

Chief O’Neill: I might have to get Jessie to give you the right answer there. I don’t want to give you the wrong answer.

Mayor: Well, let’s get Jessie.

Deputy Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Technological Development, NYPD: It works like the current above ground UHF system works. There’s a bunch of repeaters and antennas that are throughout the system and throughout the city. So, it doesn’t work on cellular.

Mayor: Marcia.

Question: Mr. Mayor, as you know, I’ve asked you repeatedly about slashings and what’s being done. Now, you’re doing something in the subways, which obviously is a really good thing but I’m – I guess the question I’m asking is what are you going to do for the subway – let me start again. What are you going to for the slashings that occur above-ground because that’s really a concern? And in fact, there was another just today. So, what will you tell New Yorkers about the next – maybe the next step which is to increase police presence in areas where you think these slashings are going on?

Mayor: That’s exactly the point. Whenever NYPD sees a problem area, they’re going to put more personnel on it. They’re going to flood the zone and make sure the resources are there to protect New Yorkers. I would also say, NYPD is getting more done because of better technology, like these radios, like the iPhones, they’re finding people more quickly. They’re following up on reports more quickly. So, it’s a combination of applying personnel where they’re needed most but also NYPD is getting a lot more done because they have better technology now.

Question: I guess are there any specific plans to do, on the streets of New York, what you’re doing today, and have been doing –

Mayor: Again, I’m going to turn to the chief but I want to emphasis – there has not been a pattern. So, anytime a pattern does emerge, NYPD can apply resources to that pattern. But to-date there has not been a pattern.

Chief O’Neill: And Marcia, just 62 percent of the slashings we’ve had so far this year have been inside, not visible to patrol. So –

Commissioner Bratton: [Inaudible]

Chief O’Neill: And so, outside on the street, anytime there’s a – a slashing does occur, we have the detectives in the world and we follow-up and try to make an arrest as quickly as possible. And also try to see what was the cause of that, to see if there’s any – if there’s going to be any retaliation or anything like that. So, everybody in – all the cops in New York City are completely in tune in what we’re looking to do and to keep crime and violence down specifically slashings.

Question: [Inaudible] any details of the slashing that happened in the Bronx at the Dunkin Donuts?

Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. Just real quick – this happened at a Dunkin Donuts up in Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx. An individual was sleeping inside that Dunkin Donuts – obviously homeless. The manager and co-owner of the location asked him to leave, which he did then leave. About ten minutes later, that individual came back to the driver-side window – the drive-thru window and as she opened it, he reached in and slashed her, creating like seven stitches on her face. He then threw the razor and ran away. Responding officers – patrol officers from the 5-2 were able to apprehend him a block-and-a-half away. His name is Ronald Thompson. He had been arrested 30 times. He is a 31-year-old male. We do have a psychological history on him. We believe him to be homeless at this point. Now, we’re very concerned about it because about January 4, we had something very similar in the Bronx at a McDonald’s where a young man was murdered – homeless person sleeping inside that restaurant. So, we would encourage anybody in the restaurant business, at all, or commercial location, to immediately call the police if you have this issue and not to address this person by yourselves.

Question: If you have a sleeping homeless person, you should tell them leave?

Mayor: Call the police.

Chief O’Neill: Call the police.

Mayor: Go ahead, Andrew. On the issue of the number of crimes in the subway – I believe it was Chief O’Neill who said something like one-in-a-million. The mayor said one-in-a-million chance. Since, it’s so low, why are you adding additional resources? Is it to address an uptick in crime or to address a fear that’s rational or irrational?

Chief O’Neill: This is what I spoke about in the beginning of my remarks is that not only do you have keep people safe, we have to make sure that they feel safe. And by people seeing uniformed cops in the system, they feel safe. I did train patrol back in 1983 and 1984 in the times when the numbers were quite high, and I just remember – I’ll always remember this walking from car to car and seeing the relief on people’s face when they saw a cop, and I think that still holds true today.

Question: But is this a reality where you’re having discussions with the chiefs saying, “Look, guys the numbers are low but we’ve got to do this because people are feeling this [inaudible.]”

Chief O’Neill: You know what, it doesn’t matter if the numbers are low. If you’re the victim of a crime – whether we have crime a day or six crimes a day – that still affects you. So, this is something that we talk about all the time in CompStat and we talk about – I talk to Joe Fox about this all the time. We have to not only keep people safe, they do have to feel safe. And a uniformed presence does that.

Mayor: Go ahead.

Question: Talking about that police presence increased in the subway – can you give us a before and after idea-perspective of how many more officers you have?

Chief Fox: Well, this is a significant increase but we can’t give you a daily number because it depends the day of the week, the time. But every hour in our system there are more cops out there than there were a couple of months ago.

Question: Thank you. For the police radios – in that $100 million price tag, I’m wondering what’s included besides the radios themselves, and if there’s indication from the pilot about how much this has shaved off [inaudible].

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: I don’t have numbers for you at this press conference about the response times. As far as the $100 million, the beauty of the whole thing that is we didn’t have to purchase any new radios. So, we were able to reprogram all of the officers’ existing radios. And in fact, like, that’s something that is underway now, that’s why it’s taking, like, time between the different boroughs to roll the whole thing out because you have to reprogram thousands of radios to include the new UHF channel. In terms of what the $100 million was spent on – I have to say that it came out of the MTA’s budget over the past several years and basically what they did is they put in all of the infrastructure within the transit system to build out this whole new UHF system. So, it was herculean effort by the MTA. And now we are working with the MTA to identify areas where we want to improve coverage – it’s not 100 percent perfect. It’s very good, it’s much better than the old system. And so, going forward, we’ll work with the MTA to build out the infrastructure even more to improve coverage where it’s lacking.

Mayor: Okay, in the back.

Question: Question on Cy Vance’s announcement yesterday – some critics have said this isn’t consistent with Broken Windows policing. I’m wondering if you can talk about what kind of research went into this as far as what other cities have done along these lines and what kind of results they got? Or is it just kind of –

Commissioner Bratton: Quite frankly I couldn’t care less what other cities are doing. We’re New York City, so we focused on our issues. I think we’ve made it quite clear since my reappointment as police commissioner that Broken Windows is here to stay, but it’s the amount that we will constantly adjust to meet the existing circumstances. I think we have made it quite clear that the mayor and I feel very strongly that there was too much Broken Windows policing, as crime was going down in this city – particularly stop-question-and-frisk arrests and summonses. So, we have made a concerted effort to reduce arrest; to reduce summonses; to reduce all of our activity because the city is a much safer city than it was; clearly, by the figures that we’re giving out.  If things were to begin to change we have the ability to start increasing enforcement activity. That [inaudible] that you go to, we are constantly monitoring through CompStat where things need to be adjusted, but with the precision focus of CompStat we have been able to, for example, the reductions in homicides and shootings – significant reduction in gang and drug-related homicides and shootings. Why – because we spend a large amount of time in CompStat at those two particular issues. So, Broken Windows is not going away. It’s the reality of policing in this city, and in America. But here we’re trying to do it with the same precision we applied to more serious crimes to minor crime. Mr. Vance’s effort is estimated that we’ll reduce by about 10,000 the number of arrests my officers have to make. What we are doing with our officers is increasing their discretion – that you don’t have to make an arrest for everything; that you can use a [inaudible] if appropriate. You can use an [inaudible]; you can use an [inaudible] and we are moving toward a system where we’ll actually have written warnings. So, it is all about the City of New York of 2016 is very different the clearly the numbers I gave you of the City of New York in 1990. Less medicine for a patient that’s much better.

Mayor: Let me just add real quickly – let me add two points. One, there is a parallel here. The initiative with DA Vance, which we feel will be a success and ultimately spread to all five boroughs is very consistent with the initiative we undertook on marijuana arrest – same idea. How can we apply the right amount to the situation – the doctor analogy is very apt. But I remind you, Broken Windows is something we look at all the time. How we’re going to apply it? What makes sense in current conditions? So, I always use the Vision Zero example. We are doing more enforcement through Vision Zero on speeding, on failure to yield. There will be even more of those kinds of enforcements. Those are different quality-of-life areas. But Broken Windows is something we adjust constantly in the area of Vision Zero you’ll see an uptick in Broken Windows activity.

Go ahead, Rich?

Question: Does it – will there be times of day when there will be a cop on every train? We’ve heard that but is that –

Commissioner Bratton: No.

[Laughter]

Question: No – okay, just wanted to –

Mayor: That’s a uniform no.

Commissioner Bratton: At any given time, day or evening, there are 500 to 600 trains traveling through the subways – 500 to 600. Dave Dinkins proposed that back in 1990 and I told him back then, no, because to staff-up a cop in every train is beyond our capacity and it’s not necessary. That’s why we’re using these other systems. So, the reporting this morning in terms of, usually the [inaudible] they got it wrong. What they misinterpreted is the creation of the 60 officers who will be assigned to Times Square complex which those of you who travel the subway understand how huge that Times Square complex is. Same officers, every day, get to know everybody that goes through that system. So, there’s not a need to put a cop on every train in the system. One, there’s just too many systems – what’s to say [inaudible] cop at every turnstile? There’s 700 turnstile [inaudible] in our 400-some odd stations – don’t have the capacity to do that either. That’s why we put officers – some of them in uniform at turnstiles, and others hiding in closets watching for people who jump over the turnstiles because they don’t see the police officer. Why do we do that? It works. You stop them at the gate before they get into the subway to commit crime. So, I know that has been [inaudible] by some people recently that they don’t like being in a closet and making arrests for people who evade the fare, but you’d see some of the arrests we make when we – how we arrest people for evading the fare; the guns and the knives they’re carrying, and the warrants. When we began fare-evasion in 1990 in the subway system, 250,000 documented fare-evaders every day – one out of every seven, one out of every seven was wanted on a warrant. And one out of every 21 was carrying a weapon back in the day. Why do we do fare-evasion arrests? I know there are some of our officers that don’t like to do fare-evasion arrests, they feel it’s not useful – that’s why we do it.

Question: Can I ask about the body cameras? I know that the department when to the court yesterday in the battle with NY 1 over getting the footage – your continued reason for not turning over footage from body cameras because a lot of people they want to –

Commissioner Bratton: [Inaudible] can address that the same way he addressed the court yesterday.

Question: Some people want to see that footage because you are using them because of the history of stop-and-frisk.

Chief Boyce: Yes, Dean, there’s a balance –

Commissioner Bratton: You don’t want to see it.

Question: I do.

Commissioner Bratton: I don’t know that eight-and-a-half million New Yorkers want to –

Chief Boyce: There’s a balance to be struck between what the cameras record, what can be released publically, and we have to respect the privacy interest of people. So, we’ve given a number of examples – responding to a domestic violence report in an apartment. I go in, I address the condition, I arrest the abusive father or boyfriend, I turn with my body camera, and the terrified kids in their Batman pajamas are on the couch. Should those pictures be on NY1, or NBC, or ABC? We don’t think so. We think those kids are entitled to privacy. If you come out of the building today and a police officer approaches you, stops you, asks you for ID, says sorry [inaudible] we had a description of you. Clearly, you weren’t involved, have a nice day, go on your way. Should NBC be able to report Dean [inaudible] stopped as suspected robbery suspect? There’s a lot of complex privacy issues and what we’re trying to do is strike a balance between making available to the public what they should have, respecting legitimate privacy interests, and having the camera do what they do. NY 1, your station made an indiscriminate request to have every minute of body footage from inception to now, to put out there without restriction, without review, without concern for the legitimate privacy interests of New Yorkers. And this shouldn’t be TV sport. We have to respect that privacy.

Question: [Inaudible] because it came up because it was a federal trial about stop-and-frisk and people were concerned about police handled them –

Chief Boyce: You get to see it in any number of instances – when there’s an arrest, when there’s an event that results in a public court proceeding, you get to arrest it. If I’m the person stopped and I ask for body camera footage of my stop, you are going to get that. And if you choose to waive your privacy interest in that, that’s yours. What you don’t get to do is take hundreds, now thousands, of hours of body camera footage – when we go to a thousand camera program, much more, and put it on TV for sport, without explanation, so that people now have to go to work and explain to their employers why they were stopped. Those kids have to go to school and say, “Last night my father was arrested.” These are very important privacy interests that have to be balanced – pushing out what the public needs to know.

Question: I had a question about the low-level enforcements. I wondered if the idea of warrant amnesty was still a possibility.

Commissioner Bratton: I think that’s an idea that’s been referenced by the Speaker of the City Council. That the idea of – that’s been in some of the discussions we’re having with the Council on a series of their legislation. So, I don’t have a response to that at this time. It’s one of the many ideas that are being discussed that at some point in time will result in more clarity once decision are made on that. But I think what you’re referencing is some huge number of warrants that go back for minor offenses 10, 20, 30 years. I think that’s the issue you’re talking about [inaudible] resolution on that suggestion at this time.

Question: This is a question for you, Mr. Mayor. My boss asked Mr. Bratton about it last week and he wondered whether you both were on the same page. It involves the New York Times story about Officer Edward Raymond who basically – the Times said he was denied promotion to sergeant because his bosses felt his activity giving summonses and making [inaudible] arrests were insufficient. Do you have a view on what’s going on here?

Mayor: We’re definitely on the same page. I have faith in the process that we use to adjudicate cases like that. So, I believe the NYPD handled this correctly.

Question: Going back to the low-level offenses – you mentioned that it could spread to the other boroughs. Why start in Manhattan? What would determine that spreading to other boroughs?

Mayor: Well, I’m just starting by saying I believe this will be a successful approach. And we’re very ready to see it succeed in Manhattan and then continue with it because it makes sense.

Again, it was consistent with the approach we took in terms of reducing the marijuana arrest. But it’s going to be piloted in Manhattan and presuming it works well there will be opportunities to go farther.

Commissioner Bratton: I can expand on that for a minute, Mr. Mayor. Part of the reason for Manhattan is that in DA Vance’s jurisdiction that a significant number of arrests are made by transit in Manhattan. And so, his office has to handle those arrests. And I have already referenced he is speculating that this effort will reduce by almost 10,000; a significant percentage of those 10,000 arrest reductions are coming out of transit-related arrest – fare evasion and other types of crimes. So, it started in Manhattan because of that particular District Attorney’s concern. If the initiative is successful as we evaluate it go forward we will certainly be interested in taking it to the other boroughs.

Question: In terms of the low-level crime situation with DA Vance, what are your options if somebody gets a summons – it’s a non-criminal proceeding and just throws the summons out and doesn’t comply and doesn’t do anything. What are your options then? Or are you just –

Commissioner Bratton: If they don’t show up in court a warrant will be issued for their arrest. And we’ll happy to go basically arrest them and take them before the same judge. So, it’s – this is not a get out of jail free card. There is an expectation that the public will respond to this. And if they don’t appropriately – well, then they’ll be warrant issued and they will be arrested – particularly [inaudible] in this new system to respond to this effort to try to reduce the burden on the public. One of the things we’ll be doing is attempting to get email addresses, cellphone so we can text or email a notification – remind, you’re do in court on such a such a day. That strengthens our case if they fail to show up in court; that we‘ve reminded them of to. So, we’ll see how it goes.

Question: Mr. Mayor, we were just in Harlem today and we were showed places where people are urinating and there was concern with residents about the – you know – the garbage and the urination and that this might be a way of giving them [inaudible]. So, if you can –

Mayor: Nope, there’s going to be consistent enforcement, and we believe that every quality-of-life offense matters. We’re not going to tolerate. But a summons is a real penalty. And as you heard, if someone does not respond to the summons there will be further consequences including arrest. But I t will a lot better for all of us if the summonses were the – you know – the best tool we use, or the tool we use more often because it’s going to reduce the amount of time that our officers have to put into long procedures. It’s going to be more efficient for everyone. And we think the summonses will get the job done.

Question: The 10,000 arrests that the [inaudible] says your officers won’t have to make – in the release yesterday the word diverted was used; that these cases will be diverted. And then later on it said that, if an officer approaches somebody that already has a summons out for them then the officer is instructed to take that person to court instead of arrest them – take them straight to a judge.

Commissioner Bratton: That’s correct.

Question: I’m wondering if that 10,000 number – is that not a high volume. I mean, for court and also what’s the range of where the cases will be diverted.

Commissioner Bratton: You’ll have to speak specifically to Mr. Vance. This is his initiative that we’ve agreed to support. But the 10,000 is the basis for his looking to move this forward. That’s 10,000 arraignments that his office will have to process with the criminal courts. So, we’ll see how it works out over time. We’re optimistic that it will work. And I talked earlier about the whole issue of quality-of-life – if it doesn’t we always have the ability to basically turn the heat up. In other words, we’re attempting to lower the dosage of the medicine. If that works, fine. And it already is working in many respects if you think of it. We’re making so many fewer arrests than we were years ago. Why? There’s less to arrest for with murders down from 2243 to last year 350. And so far this year, record lows as we’re going forward. Why keep arresting? Why keep summonsing when the patient doesn’t require that? And this also fits into the precision focus that we talk about. The idea – who are the bad guys? Who are the ones that – 5,000, 10,000 we talk about who re committing the rapes, the murders over and over again. And to get them off the street, so that we have less need to basically bother anybody else on the street. That’s where the technology is going to be so beneficial. The ability to quickly affirm the person we’re stopping is the one that we’re looking to stop.

Mayor: Last one.

Question: Commissioner Bratton tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the Rodney King incident – being former LAPD commissioner, just any reflections on running the LAPD in the post years. I know it was almost a decade afterwards but, you know, just any post –

Commissioner Bratton: It’s ancient history – long gone, long behind the LAPD. The LAPD is a very different department. LA is a very different city as reflected by their crime numbers versus what they were dealing with in 1990 –some odd or 1991.

Mayor: Thank you everyone.