Transcript: NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and Executive Staff Hold Briefing at 1 Police Plaza

July 1, 2015

Commissioner William Bratton, NYPD: Okay, everybody ready? Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Fourth of July – a day or two early.

This is our normal monthly scheduled press availability briefing, as you’re aware, that sought to provide an opportunity at the end of the month and going into a new month to do several things – to do a crime statistics recap, give you some sense of trending, talk about current crime issues that we’re dealing with and that [inaudible] seek your assistance getting information out to the public. And certainly with the upcoming Fourth of July weekend festivities, to give you a perspective, both in terms of the counter terrorism aspects of any major event here in the city, as well as Chief O’Neill and Chief Gomez briefing on the crowd situation in the events of the day.

We’re going to have a number of presentations, and I’m joined at the podium by First Deputy Commissioner Ben Tucker, Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea, Chief of Department Jimmy O’Neill, Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce, Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism and Intelligence John Miller, and Chief Carlos Gomez – chief of patrol.

I’m going to make a few brief introductory remarks and turn it over to Deputy Commissioner Shea, who will give you the crime update for the month of June specifically, but the trending for the first six months of the year. And then Chief Boyce, chief of detectives, will come up to update you on a couple of crime issues that he’s investigating – his detectives – and that he’s seeking the public help with in attempting to apprehend some of the suspects he’s looking for.

First Deputy Commissioner Tucker will then give an update on the upcoming graduation – tomorrow, the graduation of over 800 personnel coming out of our academy. And then next week, another 1,200 new people going into the academy as part of the budget process that we just concluded before the City Council. Ben will also talk about some of the recruiting initiatives we have underway. He will then be followed by John Miller, counterterrorism; and Chief of Department Jimmy O’Neill. They will talk about the events of July 4th and Chief O’Neill will also talk about some of the initiatives that he’s engaged in – the Summer All Out initiative, the Summer Overtime initiative – that focus directly on some of the crime incidents that we normally traditionally see this time of year, and the excellent results that we are achieving so far with those initiatives. So that’s the lineup.

My comments are very brief – that, coming out of the budgetary process, I understandably am very, very pleased with the results of that – the 1,297 additional officers, the 415 civilianized positions that we will be implementing, coupled with the funding for technology, for capital improvements. I can safely say I think this is probably one of the best budgets that this police department has ever had, and will allow an accelerated momentum of the plan of action, which we announced a few days ago. And the plan of action – I am very comfortable – will significantly reposition this department to achieve the five areas of interest that that plan speaks to – terrorism, trust, training, tactical initiatives – the crime initiatives – and the technology acquisitions that we’re achieving, as well as the training – the focus on training.

Myself and the executive staff yesterday, spent the day at the old police academy on 20th Street. We were the last of the approximately 22,000 people to receive the training – the in-service training that we committed to. And Chief Tucker will brief you on, I think, the very successful initiative – one that came in on time and as scheduled – involved over 22,000 officers. So, this is a – at this time, a good time for the department as we go into the summer months. We have a lot of resources to work with. We have a lot of momentum and we have a plan that I’m very comfortable that we are now going to be able to fully implement in a timely fashion, that is going to benefit the residents of this city, the visitors to this city, and will significantly continue the reforming of the department and the focus that we’ve been placing on that reformation.

So with that, let me ask Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea, who runs our CompStat process – a process, by the way which I’m very excited that we’ll be moving very shortly into CompStat II, which will be the computerization – it will be the 21st century CompStat. And I’ve had presentations on that from Jessica Tisch, over at information and technology. And it’s really something else to see – CompStat moving from its initial format – 1994 to where it’s going to go in the months ahead. So with that, Dermot, you’re on.

Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea, NYPD: Good afternoon, everyone. I’ll begin by detailing the month of June, which was a very successful month in terms of crime within New York City. And then I’ll give a status update of halfway through the year – where we are. And then, going forward, what we plan on doing in some of the programs that we have.

For June, we had a crime drop of 8.5 percent. That came out to 779 crimes. It was very significant in terms of the historical picture of New York City. It was the lowest June on record, in the modern CompStat era, and that’s going back to a minimum of 1993. Overall crime, it was the lowest June we’ve seen. It was the lowest June, not only for overall crime, but burglaries, homicides, and shooting incidents. As we do these month-to-month crime conferences, this is the fourth time that we have said this is the best month that we have seen.           

Four out of the first six months of 2015, we have set new marks. The most significant point of that is that when you look at the first six months of this year, you would have to go back to 2010, and we – which was the previous lowest year on record, and we are beating that this year by over four percent – so, extremely significant.

When you look at halfway through this year, we’ve recorded 47,000 crimes. Again, to put a little perspective on that, we have never fallen below 100,000 index crimes. We are on pace right now, halfway through the year, to fall under 100,000 index crimes for the entire year. So, if that can be accomplished, that would be quite significant.

Overall in New York City, every single patrol borough – every single geographical borough – excuse me – is down in crime. Housing-related crime is down nearly eight percent. Transit-related crime is up one percent, year to date. To put a little perspective on that – as of this week, that is 16 crimes station-wide throughout New York City. And if anyone here rides the subway, you know that the volume on the subways – you really have to wait for three cars to come before you can even get on. So 16 crimes in six months is what we’re looking at there.

I want to segue now into some of the violence issues that we have seen. If you were with us last month – following up on the month of May, we had a 22 shooting increase over last year. That has been turned around significantly. We recorded, for the month of June, 23 homicides, which was 14 below last year. That is a June record, as I stated. When you look at the last three months in totality – this year compared to last year – we had one additional homicide. When you look at year to date, we are now 13 homicides above the rate we were at last year. That comes out to an increase of nine percent. 13 homicides year to date – if you look at homicides that actually are occurring this year, it drops down to seven.

Some – some significant facts regarding the homicides that are occurring in New York City, year to date: we are down in homicides that occur on Housing property – down one. We are down in domestic-related homicides – we are down six in that category. What continues to drive some of the violence in New York City, specifically shootings and homicides, is the gang-related. Gang-related homicides are up, and they are up by 13 this year. The category that is driving the homicides continues to be gunfire. 70 percent of homicides this year occurred with gunplay.

I want to talk about a topic:  parole and probation, which has been brought up before in this arena – when you look at the individuals that are getting killed – homicide victims in New York City this year. Individuals that are on probation – we have had 12 individuals killed this year that are actively on probation. That’s an increase of five more than we had last year. When you look at the other side – when you look at the people that have been arrested for homicide in New York City this year that are actively on probation, we have had six individuals in that category. That also is an increase over last year. When you look at the – both sides, innocent victim and perpetrator, we have seven additional people involved in homicides this year that are actively on probation. Similar numbers when you look at the parole side – people that are either killed while on parole or arrested for doing a homicide while on parole this year – seven more incidents than last year. Seven on the parole side, seven on the probation side. 14 additional incidents – again, we are up 13 incidents overall in New York City – 14 alone incidents more this year involving people that have either been released from prison or actively on parole, or did not go to prison but were instead placed on probation.

When we look into the shooting incidents in New York City – again, June – 108 shooting incidents – significantly lower than any prior June that we’ve seen. We are down 13 shooting incidents from last June. It’s an 11 percent decline.

When you look at the last three months – in April, we recorded 87 shooting incidents, exactly the same as the prior April. May is where we saw the increase – we were up 22. For the quarter in its totality, we were up eight shooting incidents. It’s an increase of two percent. Significant turnaround, again, in June, with some of the programs, be it All Out, some of the targeted overtime deployment  – not only into specific commands – into specific areas, knowing about specific people. And Carlos and Jimmy will get into that.

Overall, year to date, we are now up four percent in shooting incidents. It’s an increase of 22 shooting incidents. Same deep dive into parole- and probation-related individuals that are involved in gunplay. When you do the same run, you – you have an increase of 24 shooting incidents involving parolees and probationers – again, surpassing the overall year to date increase.

Individual boroughs that we’re seeing shooting incidents in – 20 additional shootings in Manhattan, as a borough. That’s driven by Manhattan North, and particularly we see increases in the Harlem area, be it the 23, the 25, the 32 Precinct, and some gang fights that are currently trending in that area. When you look at Queens – up 15. There’s three locations in New York City right now that are causing some concern for me, and that we are collectively moving resources to address – the Rockaways in Queens, the 60 Precinct, and then the Harlem one that I mentioned.

So, Queens is up 15 shooting incidents for the year. We are seeing our biggest drops in Brooklyn and in the Bronx. Brooklyn is down 16 shooting incidents. And Brooklyn and the Bronx are right in that area where they normally are – making up nearly three out of four shooting incidents in New York City. Currently, they’re at 72 percent. Staten Island, also, has an increase. So, Manhattan – then Queens – then Staten Island – and Brooklyn and the Bronx are currently down in shootings for the year to date.

I want to spend a moment talking about activity, specifically. When you look at the arrests that are effected over the first six months, halfway through the year, it’s worth noting – almost 35,000 fewer arrests have been effected by New York City Police Department personnel this year, in the first six months – almost 35,000. It’s a drop of 17 percent. It’s pretty significant that, across all bureaus and all boroughs geographically in New York City, we see that drop fairly consistently. I want to bring you back to 2002, immediately after 9/11. That’s the last time we saw an arrest level of this magnitude. It is a significant drop to have over 35,000 fewer arrests. And again, that is a positive in our eyes. Targeted enforcement against the people that are driving the crime – be it robberies, or be it shooting incidents.

To follow up on that drop of arrests of nearly 35,000 – to breakdown that 35,000 – most of the drop comes in the categories of misdemeanors and violations arrests, where we’re down roughly 21 percent. Where you see a smaller drop is in the felony category. Now, we are down only eight percent in felonies – and I’ll remind you that we are at historic lows. It is impossible to make robbery arrests when we don’t have robberies occurring. It’s impossible to make the same level of burglary arrests when we don’t have burglaries occurring. So, an eight percent drop in felonies – larger drops in the more minor categories of crime. Something that is not dropped, and is in fact up – and it’s not by accident, it’s design – is the firearm arrests made by New York City Police Department personnel. Up slightly for the year to date, and it is through an intensive effort of intelligence gathering – collection of tips from the public, and then the deployment in the right areas by Carlos, etcetera – organized crime control bureau personnel with the information of who is carrying those firearms.

I’ll just finish up. When we look at – we are very close. And I’m pleased to report, halfway through the year, historic lows in crime, drop of almost 35,000 arrests. That’s accompanied by a drop in criminal court summonses of nearly 47,000 – 25 percent in the first six months of this year. We continue to try to deploy more targeted against the individuals that are committing the crimes. And, thus far, I think in the first six months of the year the numbers [inaudible] that out.

Commissioner Bratton: A couple of comments before asking Bob Boyce to come up and update you on a couple of crime – particular crime issues.

That – I want to clear up a misunderstanding that may have been formed – that’s been reported in several media outlets, including this week’s issue of Time Magazine – in which the increased hiring of the 1,297 officers was attributed to the idea of the early-on increase in shootings and homicides back in April. The 1,297 had nothing to do with crime. Those 1,297 are a plan that Chief O’Neill, Chief Gomez developed – that was presented to the mayor and then subsequently the City Council – to re-staff precincts to implement a lot of the community relation building initiatives that we announced. The idea that the neighborhood community officer, our coordination officers – the increased staffing in precincts to address the shortage of staffing. As you can clearly see, even before those 1,297 – well before they come into the department – we have got a good handle on the crime situation in the City of New York.  And it’s my expectation that by the end of this year – that we may end the year with the, once again, the lowest amount of crime recorded in the history of the city. And that potential to get below 100,000 crimes in a city of 8.5 million people, with 56 million tourists – that is going to be a significant hallmark to go toward. Additionally, that we have just begun – as Chief O’Neill and Chief Gomez will brief you on – just begun the summer initiatives – overtime, All Out. So, that the traditional spike that we anticipate in the summer months – we also have the appropriate resources to deal with that crime situation. So, just a clarification, the 1,297 – the 415 civilianized positions that we’re also acquiring – those officers, almost in their entirety, are intended to staff the new patrol staffing plan that Chief O’Neill has developed. And it really had nothing to do with that crime increase, which I suggested to you was an uptick. And if you look at those charts that [inaudible] are always showing – it goes up, it comes down, but consistently over time, it’s going down. And our projection is it’s going to continue going down, particularly with the increased technology; with the increased skill sets. And hopefully I’ll be able to give Chief Boyce, a little later this year, a couple hundred more detectives to staff up his precinct station houses. And hopefully that will drive crime down even further in some of those precincts that are the most significantly distressed. So, with that – to Chief Bob Boyce. Bob has put his application in for his SAG Card –it hasn’t come through yet, but we expect it anytime soon.

[Laughter]

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Chief of Department James O’Neill, NYPD: So, moving to our summer initiatives. The Summer All Out program is in full swing. We’ve got over 300 officers assigned to the 10 high-crime precincts and four PSA’s – told you all that before. They’re working in the first and third platoons, which is four to 12 in the afternoon and midnight tours on the weekends. So they have steady days off during the week. So, their 90-day stint – I’d like to thank them all for doing that. They are keeping our city safe. In addition to that, we have our Violence Reduction initiative. That’s that summer initiative I’ve spoken about a number of times. This is the uniform suppression component and the investigative component. And along with the Summer Violence Reduction initiative and Summer All Out – on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, we have up to 1,400 additional personnel working in New York City keeping the citizens safe. And so far, they’re doing a great job. Since Summer All Out began on June 8th, in those commands, we’ve seen shootings decrease by more than 19 percent and murders dropped by 50 percent. So, they’re doing a fantastic job and I thank them for that.

And in addition to Summer All Out and Summer Violence Reduction, as Ben and the Commissioner spoke about, we have a class of, I think, it’s 822 that are graduating tomorrow. And they will be sent to all precincts, PSA’s, and transit districts. So, everybody across New York City is going to be seeing some new police officers. And right now, we have 857 people from the class that graduated in December. And they are also going to be retained in those commands. So the smaller precincts around the city will probably see – between both classes – an increase of 12 to 15 people. And the larger precincts will be getting anywhere up to 30 to 35 people. So, everybody across the board is going to see new police officers. And I wish them luck. It’s a great job. It’s a great career. I’ve been doing it for 33 years now. And I hope they love it as much as I love it.

And I’m sure they are going to help to build on our legacy of keeping the city secure with these great new cops. To sum it up, we want everyone to have a safe Fourth of July. And that’s not only coming down to the huge event, it’s in their neighborhoods leading up to the Fourth of July, handling fireworks. I did happen to work in vice for a year and a half and I can see – see what happens when fireworks are in the wrong hands of people. So, once again, thank you, everybody. Have a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July. I turn it back over to the Commissioner. 

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