Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Press Availability After Meeting with President Obama at The White House

December 1, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: …what each of us feels that gives us a sense of urgency, because we have seen pain from families in each one of our cities. We see the pain in Ferguson right now. We all feel it from a family perspective, what it means that people have to wonder if their child will come home at night. The president referred to when he met my son Dante – well, I can tell you, I think every night about my son, making sure he comes home safely. So many people all over this country feel the same thing. We have to ensure that all our children are safe, living in justice. That’s what this meeting was about. There’s tremendous resolve to ensure that happens. Now, I’d like to turn to Mayor Nutter –

[…]

Mayor: Questions on this topic – 

Question: Mayor Nutter, you’ve seen Commissioner Ramsey up close for some time now in Philadelphia. What traits do you think he’ll bring and what kind of suggestions or changes do you think he’ll bring?

Mayor Michael Nutter: I think what you get with police Commissioner Ramsey is straight-talk, focus – forty-plus years as a law enforcement person, having started as a cadet in the city of Chicago when he was 18-years-old. He is recognized by his peers as one of the best in the business right now and holds quite a unique position. He is not only the president of the Major Cities Chiefs Organization but simultaneously president of the Police Executive Research Forum, which in its history is the first time that any police commissioner held both presidencies of those two organizations at the same time. So he’s well known to the White House. He’s worked directly with Attorney General Eric Holder when he was police chief here. He’s worked with Vice President Biden and President Obama has gotten to know him as well. So, I think what you get is an experienced law enforcement person who understands the challenges in communities. He is an African-American himself – has a son, and knows the feeling of people in communities, and will bring both the law enforcement perspective but also the reality of what takes place on the ground to this task that the president has asked him to take on. And I’m very proud of him.

Question: How has he dealt with these kinds of issues in Philadelphia?

Mayor Nutter: I think he’s dealt with the issues, again, straight on. Unfortunately we’ve had some incidents, certainly in our city. You’re going to have incidents in small, medium, and large cities across the country. He’s taken direct action with regard to officers that he thought were not acting appropriately. And at the same time we’re piloting body armor. We’ve improved our interrogation techniques, body – body cameras as a part of police equipment. We now videotape interrogations in homicides. He’s insistent on training and retraining and of cultural sensitivity for officers in our police department. And so again, we’re not perfect, things happen out in the community, but significant reduction in police and – versus civilian shootings in Philadelphia as a result of his leadership and reform.

Question: Did you talk about any policies that would improve job opportunities and wages for unskilled young African-Americans?

Mayor Nutter: I don’t want to speak for the whole group. That was not a specific topic of conversation. If you could imagine forty-plus some-odd people in a meeting with the president, and the vice president, and the attorney general – you’re not going to cover every possible topic. But issues of poverty, issues of discrimination, issues of lack of education, all of those issues were touched on. And certainly issues of, you know, wages and wage disparity and lack of opportunity for those who have a previous criminal record. This was the start – the conversation had already started, so this is an ongoing conversation. It will not end today and all those kinds of issues have to be a part of the longer term strategy that Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and may others have talked about. But we did not touch every topic.

Question: Mayor de Blasio, New York has sort of led the way in the use of these body cameras. Would you like to see those used in every police department around the country?

Mayor: We are piloting the use of body cameras in New York. Obviously, we are the biggest police force in the country – almost 35,000 members. We believe that body cameras will make a substantial difference. This is the bottom line – it’s one of a number of strategies we have to use to create trust between police and community. We have a situation right now that’s just fundamentally unacceptable and it’s happening all over the country. There is such pain at the community level because that trust isn’t there. Because so many people unfortunately have to fear what will come of their encounters with the police. This is not what this country was meant to be. And so, body cameras are one of the things we can do to instill more trust. We in New York City are retraining our entire police force, all 35,000 members, on how to correctly work with the community, how to reduce the use of force, how to make sure that we have fewer incidents – and that is part of building trust as well. We’re also reducing marijuana arrest. We’re trying to end the practice of choosing arrest over summons and thus saddling a lot of young people, in particular, with a criminal record. There’s so many things we have to do and do urgently. I think what we felt in this room today was creating trust between a police community will take urgent action. These incidents cause such pain and stay – open the wound over and over again – a wound that has been decades, in fact, centuries in the making, because of the history of racism in this country. But there are actual things we can do to change that, and the president was particularly urgent about the need for those actions to start now.

Question: You mentioned body cameras. You said he supports body cameras all police. Is that accurate?

Mayor: Well, as Mayor Nutter said, the program the president is putting forward would provide for 50,000 officers around the country to have body cameras ­– that’s what he’s proposing. And I think that would make a huge difference around this country in terms of creating greater trust.

Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia: But if your question was, are they required?

Question: No, I thought I heard that someone said the mayor – the president had said it, at least in theory, he supports body cameras being used much more widely than just the [inaudible]?

Mayor Nutter: Give me that question again.

Question: Did the president say that he supports body cameras for all police or almost all police or a majority of the police in the country?

Mayor Nutter: The president is proposing funding that that will allow for 50,000 new body cameras. It’s not required, but certainly many of us – and we support that in Philadelphia – I am sure you’ll have tons of cities, mayors, police chiefs across the country applying for those funds to help pay for the cost of those body cameras. But it’s clear that the president thinks that this is one tool that is a great priority. At the same time, you know – and we talked about this in the meeting – body cameras, you know, give you information about what happened. Training is what helps to make sure that nothing happens.

Mayor: That’s right.

Mayor Nutter: Or nothing bad happens. So, I mean, let’s not get caught up in technology, in the magic of technology. A body camera is not going to stop someone from shooting somebody. It’s going to tell you the fuller story of what happened, but learning how to take cover, retreat, step back for a moment and reassess your situation – even when you’re in a dangerous circumstance – that’s about training. And it’s about good police tactics and strategy and deployment.

Phil: Everyone, two more please. Last call.

Janet Murguia, Present and CEO, National Council of La Raza: [inaudible] point about the Latino community. Janet Murguia, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza – we’re largest Hispanic civil rights [inaudible] organization in the United States. And I was really proud to be part of this very important, substantive, and historic discussion. And I want to remind folks that this is an issue that affects all Americans and all communities of color. And for us, I know that rebuilding and making sure that we have effective policing – that trust between communities and law enforcement – is essential. And I think the president spoke very passionately about why this commission is going to be very important in highlighting best practices; and also about executive order reviewing more – and allowing for more accountability when it comes to the militarization of some of the domestic law enforcement different divisions that we’ve seen; as well as allowing for these 50,000 new body cameras; and in addition to that, Attorney General Eric Holder’s conversations – convenings – that he’s going to be having across the country starting in Atlanta. I think it’s important for us to recognize that, as leaders in the Latino community, we see this issue everyday – whether it’s racial profiling or that lack of trust in some of these communities that has been eroded in many ways because of the lack of resources that had been given to these community policing efforts is really something that we’ve noted. We want to make sure that this report – this commission – is able to include a lot of what we see as best practices out there that can help address this. And it’s really important for all communities of color to be involved in this discussion. And we were very pleased to be part of this discussion today.

Question: Mayor de Blasio –

Mayor: Just hold on – one more comment and then we’ll take your last question.

Laura Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington D.C.: This is Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington office. We have probably sued more police departments than any other entity except the federal government, and so what I heard today was real change – real change in the making – policy changes, real difference-making strategies for communities of color who have been targeted as a result of the failed war on drugs. So, the ACLU tends to be cynical about these matters because we sue the government, but today I’m feeling wholly optimistic about the progress that can be made under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Phil: Last call, guys.

Question: Mr. Mayor, in the coming days, there could be a decision in the Eric Garner case. Can you kind of talk about what the city is doing to prepare for that?

Mayor: Well, the city’s continuing to make the changes we came here to do – that’s the most important point. You know, we’re continuing our efforts at reform, bringing police and community together, changing the reality on the ground for New Yorkers – that’s really what matters here. You know, at some point, there will be a decision by the grand jury in that case, and we’re certainly going to be in constant contact with community leaders in the lead-up to it, and there’s going to be a very close working relationship between the NYPD and the community around that decision. But much more importantly is that we’re going to be pursuing intensely the changes that are going to bring police and community back together. Already, just in a few weeks, you’ve seen a huge decline in the number of marijuana arrests. You’re going to see the effects of the retraining of the police force. You’re going to see the obvious ongoing positive effects of a great reduction in stop-and-frisk. All of these changes, I think, are going to open the door for a better and positive – lasting positive – relationship between police and community. That’s what really matters. That’s what people are yearning for all over our city.

Phil: Thank you, guys.

Mayor: Thanks, guys.