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100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care

State of Blacks in the NYPD 2004

Annual Report on the Commissioner

"The Police Department, from the lowest rank right up to the highest rank, is a good example of what can be done. "Mayor Bloomberg's quote in response to diversity in city governmental agencies. NY Newsday 2/17/04

91% of NYPD uniformed personnel in the rank of captain or above are caucation.

OVERVIEW 

“100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care” conducts an annual review of the New York City Police Commissioner.  The analysis is an examination of how the policies of the present administration addresses issues that impact on the African-American police officer as well as the communities of color within New York City.  100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care’s annual “State of Blacks in The NYPD” report is broken down into six areas as follows: 

  • PROMOTIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS (F)
  • POLICE DEPARTMENT MORALE  (F)
  • INTERNAL DISCIPLINE AND PUNISHMENT (D)
  • POLICE DEPARTMENT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION (D)
  • POLICE ENFORCEMENT (C)
  • COMMUNITY RELATIONS (C)

Each area is issued a letter grade from “A” to “F” (A being the best and “F” the worst) based on the organization’s analysis of the Police Commissioner’s successes or failures.  At the beginning of each section the letter grade is stated followed by a list of bullet points highlighting the grade.   The section is then concluded with a brief synopsis explaining each bullet point and the resulting grade. 

PROMOTIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS   -   Grade   (F)

Two years after Raymond Kelly was appointed Police Commissioner there continues to be a void of diversity in the command staff (Captain and above) of the NYPD.  Blacks have been all but removed from the policy making decisions in the following areas: 

No Black Executives assigned to the following areas of the NYPD 

            LOCATION                                      # OF POTENTIAL ASSIGNMENTS

 Detective Bureau                                                 21 positions         

Detective Borough Manhattan                              10 positions

Detective Borough Queens                                    06 positions

Detective Borough Brooklyn                                  05 positions

Detective Borough Bronx                                       06 positions

Counter Terrorism Bureau                                     06 positions

Intelligence Division                                              09 positions

Special Operations Division                                    10 positions

Traffic Control Division                                          20 positions

1st DC office or subunits*                                       12 positions

DC of Legal Matters or subunits                               09 positions

DC of Operations Office or subunits                         03 positions

DC of Management and Budget or subunits              17 positions

DC of Technology and Development                        13 positions

DC of Strategic Analysis and Planning (OMAT)          13 positions

Total Positions                                                         174

No Black Commanders assigned to the following Bureaus or commands

 

            LOCATION                          # OF POTENTIAL ASSIGNMENTS

Patrol Borough Commanders                07 positions

Transit Bureau*                                    04 positions

Transit Borough Manhattan                  14 positions

Transit Borough Bronx                          08 positions

Transit Borough Queens                        07 positions

Transit Borough Brooklyn                      13 positions

 

Housing Borough Manhattan                  09 positions

Housing Borough Bronx/ Queens             09 positions

Housing Borough Brooklyn                      07 positions

 

PBQN                                                     23 positions

PBQS**                                                   25 positions

PBBS***                                                   38 positions

PBSI                                                       12 positions

PBMS*****                                                 32 positions

PBBX                                                       34 positions

Transportation Bureau -

Support Services Bureau                         13 positions

Criminal Justice Bureau                          09 positions

MISD                                                       __________

Total Assignments                                  264

 Notes:

*Transit Bureau has one Black Deputy Inspector

**During our review one Black CO was assigned to PBQS precinct

***During our review Deputy Chief James Secreto was assigned to PBBS

      (A Black captain was assigned here during the Louima incident but was never promoted to CO, although other white captains were promoted over him.)

*****PBMS has never in the history of the NYPD had a Black CO assigned to any of its precincts.

Lack of African-Americans assigned to Precinct Squad Commander positions

 

LOCATIONS                         # OF POTENTIAL ASSIGNMENTS

Detective Borough Manhattan        22 positions -  1 Black assigned           

Detective Borough Brooklyn            23 positions -  1 Black assigned

Detective Borough Queens             16 positions -  0 Blacks assigned

Detectives Staten Island                  3 positions -             0 Blacks

Detective Borough Bronx                 12 positions -  0 Blacks assigned

Total Assignments                           73 positions - 2 Blacks assigned

**There is no Detective Borough in Staten Island.

(Patrol Borough Staten Island supervises its own Detective Operations, which oversees detective squads in each of that borough's three police precincts).

Lack of Black Executive representation in special training and assignments 

-No Black Unit Head in charge of any Borough or Bureau Investigation Unit

-No Black Executive assigned to an active role in the Republican National Convention

-Lack of Black representation for the upcoming Olympic planning

-Lack of Black Executive assigned to Police Management Institute training*

-Lack of Black applicants assigned to external specialized training such as:

-FBI Academy

          -Educational Scholarships

NYPD SPECIALIZED UNITS WHERE THERE IS A LACK OF AFRICAN AMERICANS ASSIGNED

                                               

                                              Number of       Number of                  Number of

UNIT                                       Positions         Blacks assigned            Whites assigned

 

CHIEF DEPT S.A. SECT.             009                         000                           007

DD BS HOM.  T/F                      018                         000                           017

DISORDER CONTROL                  012                         000                           011

GANG SQ. S.I.                            017                         000                           015

PBQS ANTI CRIME*                    

PBSI ANTI CRIME                        015                         000                           014

S.I. DA SQUAD                           015                         000                           014

NARC BORO S.I.                         025                         000                           021

 

PBBS ANTI CRIME*                     017                         001                           015            

PBQN ANTI CRIME*                    014                         001                           011

BOMB SQUAD                             036                         001                           035

DD QNS. HOM. T/F                      031                         001                           026

GANG SQ. BS                              

 

AVIATION UNIT                           061                         002                           053

PBMS ANTI CRIME*                      029                         002                           020

 

CANINE TEAM                             045                         003                           034              

GANG SQ. BN                              035                         003                           029

GANG SQ. QNS                            035                         003                           024

HWY DISTRICT                          

 

GANG DIVISION                          040                         004                           032

INTELL PUB. SECURITY              058                         004                           046

 

AUTO CRIME                               111                        005                           095 

 

HARBOR UNIT                            173                         006                           154

JOINT TERRORIST T/F                136                         006                           113

 

FIREARMS TACTICS                      149                         007                           119

 

CITYWIDE ESU                              482                        046                           388

 

HWY UNIT 1- 5 (TOTAL)                324                     048                           258

*Formerly the Street Crime Unit.  The Street Crime unit had a history of excluding minority officers.

In addition to the above data, the poor grade issued in this area also took into account the following information:
-Proposed termination of promotional exam eligibility every two years
-Practice of one discretionary promotion of Black Executive uniformed member at a time 
-Failure to routinely send ranking Black members to PMI training
-Regulating Black ranking members to non-policy making positions
-Failure to assign Black Captains to precinct commands as XO or CO
-Failure to assign the only black female captain on patrol to XO or CO position
-Failed to use discretionary promotion of detectives from narcotics/gun unit
-Failure to diversity all units within the NYC Police Department
-Lack of a clear career promotional path for members in the ranks of Detective 

-Lack of representation for African-Americans in the skilled civilian workforce 

-Placement of low level white supervisors over ranking members of the Traffic Enforcement Division

-Refusal to fill DCCA position that historically was held by a minority 

PROMOTIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS BRIEFING  

Commissioner Kelly has failed to use his office to ensure that diversity is of paramount importance to the missions and goals of the NYC Police Department.  Although he has made a few ceremonial promotions, he has not used his discretionary powers to appoint qualified African-Americans to policy making positions.  Although civil service controls the manner in which a member of service is promoted in the rank structure, it does not control how the Commissioner uses his discretionary powers to appoint Unit heads and Deputy Commissioners.  Ranking Black members have also been kept out of the planning, implementation and operations of prestigious projects such as the Republican National Convention and proposed upcoming Olympics.  On paper Blacks have been indicated as being part of these committees, but in practice they are left out of the planning and implementation stages.  These assignments offer a vast amount of opportunity to network and expand one’s technological abilities. 

Commissioner Kelly has failed to continuously send a Black representative to the prestigious Police Management Institute.  The course has been offered to those members who are chosen to eventually serve in the higher executive command structure.  Under Commissioner Kerik two Blacks were chosen to attend during one cycle.  Under Commissioner Kelly, no Blacks were chosen for the previous cycle.  It was not until reports of this review were to be released that his administration decided in the final hours to send one Black Executive representative during the current cycle.    

In the area of patrol assignments Commissioner Kelly has not assigned one Black ranking member to the role of Borough Commander.  The only Black female Captain on patrol has not been designated to become an Executive Officer which is historically a prerequisite to becoming a Precinct Commanding Officer. 

The effect of Commissioner Kelly's lack of inclusion is also felt in agencies that were absorbed by the NYC Police Department.  During his two years in office he has placed mid level white male police supervisors over the black ranking members of the Traffic Enforcement Division. 

Detectives assigned as undercovers to the Narcotics and Firearms unit are not issued grade promotions in comparison to the level of danger that their assignments bring.  After the deaths of Detective Rodney Andrews and Detective James Nemorin left the front pages of the daily tabloids, Commissioner Kelly returned to business as usual of having officers of color doing the most dangerous assignments with the least rewards.  Although Blacks make up a significant number of detectives they are not represented in the managerial level of the Detective Bureau.  In the entire city, there are only two Black Squad Commanders out of the 76 Precinct Detective Squads.

The most telling area of Commissioner Kelly’s lack of concern for future improvement in diversifying the ranks of the police department is in his decision to terminate examination established promotion eligibility every two years.  This will have a disproportionate impact on the future of Black supervisors.  He made this decision without any empirical data that shows the cancellation of examination based eligibility will benefit the police department's supervisory ranks.  When Commissioner Kelly was questioned about the lack of precinct commanders, he responded by stating “the root of the issue is that some officers are not studying for advancement.  The department has only 11 black officers at the rank of captain or above.  I urge anyone in the department to study for promotion.  We just don't have enough minorities now."   

Commissioner Kelly made these comments knowing that terminating the promotional list after two years will result in disqualifying Black candidates who have "studied."  An examination of the current captain list of 275 potential captains shows the  following in regards to minority candidates: 

LOCATION OF MINORITIES ON CURRENT CAPTAIN LIST

 

RACE                            LIST# 1 – 137            LIST #138-275

Male Black                              1                                  3

Female Black                          0                                  3

Male Hispanic                         6                                  9

Female Hispanic                     2                                  3

Male Asian                              1                                  2

Female Asian                           0                                  0

Female White                          5                                  4

The above Captains eligibility list is broken down into two areas.  The first area list numbers 1 – 137 are the number of captains eligible to be promoted under Commissioner Kelly’s two year eligibility plan.  The second area list numbers 138 – 275, will be excluded under the Commissioner’s plans.  The ethnic demographic breakdown clearly shows that the Commissioner Kelly plan will continue the systemic exclusion of people of color from the position of Captain.  

This brief analysis shows that if in fact the Commissioner’s plans are carried out, the only three Black females on the captain list will not be promoted. Only one African-American will be promoted from the entire civil service list.  As it currently stands there are only two African-American female captains.   

It should be noted that the men and women on any promotional list are the top scorers in their rank.  For example the 275 potential Captains on the current list were the best out of the potential 1716 eligible Lieutenants.  This current list has the largest number of minority eligibles in the history of the NYPD.  It was only the last Captain’s exam that the first Female Hispanic was promoted to the rank of captain.  She was promoted at the fourth year level of the list.  If the Commissioner Kelly’s plan was in place then, we would still be without a Hispanic Captain.    

The Commissioner is making the decision to turn the traditional four year eligibility list into two years with the knowledge that 91% of NYPD uniformed personnel in the rank of Captain and above are Caucasians.   Historically the Captain’s exam was allowed to run the full four year life of the list. 

Commissioner Kelly is making this decision without any empirical data that shows it would benefit the overall running of the department.  It would in fact have an immediate negative impact on years of attempts to diversify the police department’s command staff.   

An additional area of concern is the civilian skilled workforce ranks.  Although African-Americans make up the majority of the civilian strength of the NYPD, they are under represented in the skilled labor pool.     

 

Ethnic Breakdown of Civilian Workforce

 vs

 Skilled Workers

 

                                                Black               White               Hispanic         Other

Civilian Workforce                   9864                  3200                3379                697

      57.1%                  18.9%              19.9%              4.1% 

 

Skilled Craft workers                55                      363                  62                    33

                                               10.7%                70.8%              12.1%               6.4% 

Analysis of the Traffic Enforcement Division 

One area that is alarming is how the Police Commissioner handled the merger of Traffic Enforcement Agents.  A review of the aftermath of this action shows that Commissioner Kelly has little or no confidence in Black managers’ ability to handle duties that they historical have handled well.  The managerial rank of the Traffic Enforcement Division structure prior to the merger was as follows: 

-Chief

-Deputy Chief

-Assistant Chief

-Inspector

-Captain

-Lieutenant 

Many of the above titles were held by people of color.  The Traffic Enforcement Division has historically been one of the only law enforcement agencies that was predominantly ran by people of color and many of them were women.  Throughout the years they have been very successful at managing this largely minority city agency.  Commissioner Kelly’s administration rewarded them by completely revamping the rank structure and, in the process, denying them upwardly mobility.  The new rank structure is following: 

            -Deputy Inspector (NYPD member)

            -Director

            -Deputy Director

            -Captain (NYPD member)

            -TM

            -Lieutenant (NYPD member)

            -Sergeant

            -TS-3  

            -TS-2

            -TS-1 

An analysis of the new managerial hierarchy chart shows that Commissioner Kelly creatively undermined the authority of Traffic managers by placing a NYPD Deputy Inspector over the entire unit and then infusing NYPD Captains, Lieutenants and Sergeants over the existing Traffic Enforcement managerial staff.  This is an unprecedented move that completely circumvented the overwhelming existing minority managerial staff and, in the process, neutralized their decision making abilities.  This action has also created a glass ceiling where there is little or no upward movement.

POLICE DEPARTMENT MORALE     -    Grade   (F)
Police Commissioner Kelly has carried out several actions that have hurt morale in the New York City Police Department.

-Recent independent study showed 68% of NYPD supervisors, detectives and police officers believed morale declined under Police Commissioner Kelly

-Officers are continually told that they are not doing a good job by their supervisors in spite of the decrease in crime

-PBA's vote of no confidence for the Police Commissioner reflects the overall atmosphere within the precincts

-Precincts are in poor physical conditions

-Precincts lack the basic supplies needed to perform routine police duties

-Officers were punished by being transferred for not following NYPD's quota system

-Union representatives had their parking permits removed because they spoke on behalf of those transferred members.


-Failure to come to the defense of Emergency Dispatch Operators during boating accident

-Refusal to address repeated complaints from School Safety Agents regarding lack of equipment and contradictory departmental policies. 

-Abuse of Performance Monitoring Program

POLICE MORALE BRIEFING

The most telling sign that morale has fallen since the departure of Police Commissioner Kerik is the outcome of an independent survey that was reported in the New York Daily News on June 14th 2003.  In the report 68% of the officers interviewed stated that they believed moral declined under Police Commissioner Kelly.  Unlike the caring, concerned approach that previous Commissioner Bernard Kerik displayed for his men and women in uniform, Commissioner Kelly has not shown that concern.  Many commanders feel as though they have reached a glass ceiling as they are held in the position of precinct commanders for long periods of time.  Under Commissioner Kelly, there has been very little movement on the precinct level due to his slow micro managed approach of the current administration. 

The precinct fix up program that was initiated under the previous commissioner was abandoned and many precincts have had to contend with rodent infested work locations.  In many worksites there is a shortage of cleaners that lead to large amounts of garbage and rest rooms left unclean throughout the entire weekend. 

Civilian and uniformed members assigned to clerical duties are not issued the basic supplies needed to carry out normal record keeping functions.  

Police Officers feel that they have been relegated to 'quota cops'.  There continues to be a reckless push to achieve 'performance goals' on the backs of the citizenry.  This leaves the average patrol officer in an unenviable position; disliked by the public and unappreciated by management. 

Many officers have been placed in the Performance Monitoring Program for no other reason than that they have not met the Police Department predetermined quotas. 

The recent no confidence vote by the Patrolman Benevolent Association signified the overall sentiment that police officers have towards Commissioner Kelly's administration.  As the largest union representing the rank and file officer, the PBA made this decision based on the climate that has been created by Commissioner Kelly.  Although the "not justified" comment was mentioned in their no confidence vote, it was not the sole reason for the vote.  There were series of morale depleting actions by the Police Commissioner that led to this posture by the PBA's leadership and members. 

The falling morale has also effected how the police department is adjusting to the merger of School Safety Agents.  Members assigned to protect our schools have not had their repeated calls for better equipment and clarity in department rules addressed.  Commissioner Kelly's lack of response has left the Agents no other choice but to take to the streets and demonstrate their lack of confidence in his leadership.

INTERNAL DISCIPLINE AND PUNISHMENT    - Grade  (D)
Commissioner Kelly has failed to address the glaring racial imbalance in the New York City Police Department's disciplinary system as follows:

-Refusal to conduct and audit how discipline is issued along racial lines

-Refusal to ensure that penalties issued are standardized regardless of race

-Refusal to use his office as the final determining body to correct unfair trial room decisions

-Failure to issue harsh discipline to white officers involved in criminal behavior

INTERNAL DISCIPLINE BRIEFING 

On February 1, 2004 the Latino Officers Association announced the details of their class action law suit that was settled with the New York City Police Department.  The basis of the law suit was that Black and Latino officers were disciplined at a disproportionate rate in comparison to their white counterparts during the periods of 1996-1999. 

Although these periods do not impact on the time frame that Police Commissioner Kelly was heading the department, many of the policies and practices that were in place are still in place under his leadership.  When we met with Commissioner Kelly on June 13, 2002 we raised the disparate discipline problems and made a request for him to conduct an in depth study on the role race plays in departmental discipline from the command level all the way through to the trial room.  One year and eight months later Commissioner Kelly has not moved any closer to conducting that study or correcting the problems that plague the disciplinary process. 

100 Blacks in Law Enforcement sent out their questionnaire to various members of the department to determine if there were any announced improvements with the department's internal disciplinary process.  To our dismay our survey showed that members of the department from the rank of police officer to captain were being disciplined at a higher rate then their white counterparts.

Several cases were of special concern to us.  One involved a white probationary Lieutenant that openly assaulted a handcuffed prisoner in open view of officers at the front desk.  Although several officers came forwarded and reported the Lieutenant's actions, he was not demoted or arrested.  His penalty was several days' suspension and one year probation, the same form of penalty that was issued to a 17 year Black female detective after being charged with discourtesy to a supervisor. 

Other cases that were flagged by our survey included a white captain that was found guilty of leaking information regarding an internal investigation yet he was allowed to be promoted.  He then subsequently was allowed to retire while additional charges were pending against him.  This was occurring while a Hispanic Captain was not allowed to retire even though there were less serious charges pending against him.  

These were only a couple of examples of how there was a presence of unfair treatment in the disciplinary process from command level up to and including the department trial room.  To date Commissioner Kelly has not taken any substantial steps towards correcting these actions. His cosmetic appointment of an African-American in the Department Advocate office is futile without a complete overhaul of the entire system.  It took a class action law suit for the Commissioner to recognize that. 

POLICE DEPARTMENT RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION     -   Grade   (D)

Police Commissioner Kelly failed to improve in the area of recruitment for the following reasons:

-No innovative effort to implement a diversity recruitment drive

-Failure to reach out to non traditional organizations for assistance in recruitment drive

-Unwillingness to include non traditional methods of dispensing financial resources to improve recruitment drive

-Failure to conduct a study to determine the necessity for college requirements to become a police officer.

-Violating the Memorandum of Understanding put in place after the merger of School Safety and Traffic Enforcement officers in regards to career advancement

-Using bloated recruitment numbers to give the appearance of success

-Failed to give analysis for Ivy League school recruitment strategy.

 

POLICE RECRUITMENT BRIEFING

 The New York City recruitment diversity effort is cloaked in lies and distortions.  In many cases the Police Commissioner has issued bloated numbers to indicate a successful drive.  When the numbers are scrutinized it is easy to determine that the drives have been total failures.  The department boasts that Since December 2003,  31,770 people have applied for the recent NYC Police Officer Exams.  They believe this is a vast improvement from the dismal and embarrassing 3,323 who filed for the exam in June of 2003.  According to the Commissioner's statements this improvement occurred because of his decision to drop the $35.00 fee that was previously charged to take the exam. 

What Police Commissioner Kelly has failed to mentioned is that in February of 2003 fewer than 4,000 of the over 14, 000 people who signed up for the exam actually showed up to take the test.  Additionally, out of the praised 31,770 potential applicants, only 19,000 actually called and reserved a seat to even take the exam.   

Recently the NYPD claimed success due to the turnout of 10,761 people who took the exam on Feb. 20 and 21.  Deputy Chief George Anderson stated “things are looking up.”  Apparently ‘up’ is a relative term to the NYPD.  The fact still remained that of the over 31,770 people who applied to take the exam, only 16,547 even reserved a seat.  Based on the normal course of recruitment and retention, the ‘success’ will be the actual hiring of a mere 10% of those who actually take the exam, approximately 1,654 people.  If the pattern of hiring continues, then the number of African-Americans will be an insignificant number of those actually hired.  Given the dismal rate of return, the recruitment effort is not even cost effective.  

In spite of these poor figures the police department has refused to reinstitute a successful program approved by former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.  The program was in conformity with the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed during the merger.  It called for the implementation of a career advancement incentive for School Safety Agents and Traffic Enforcement Agents.  Commissioner Kerik's plan called for a college waiver incentive for employees of both agencies after a two year successful stint in their agencies.  Commissioner Kelly removed this program without warning.  It should be noted that the School Safety Division and the Traffic Enforcement Division are two agencies that have an employee staff that is 81% Black and Hispanics.

 

Ethnic Breakdown of Traffic Enforcement Agents & School Safety Officers

 

Black              Hispanic         White              Other

                 57.3%              24.5%               14.0%               4.2%

 Both agencies are currently under the control of the New York City Police Department.    Although Commissioner Kelly removed the college wavier for these predominantly minority agencies, he allowed it to remain for those in military service. It should be noted that School Safety Agents and Traffic Enforcement Agents are trained by the NYPD to interact with the public in a non-lethal manner, whereas the Military is trained to use lethal force. 

The Commissioner also received an asterisk in this area due to his failure to give a fair analysis of the cost success ratio in regards to the Ivy League school recruitment initiative.  A large sum of manpower and revenue was used to go outside the city and target Ivy League schools.  A report must be generated to determine if this initiative was cost effective.   As of today no such report has been made public.   There appear to be a strong possibility that this endeavor was a complete waste of taxpayer’s resources.   

On all accounts the recruitment process has been a complete failure.

POLICE ENFORCEMENT           -    Grade   (C )*  

Commissioner Kelly receives a “C” in this area with an asterisk.  His actions in the area of police enforcement and addressing the terrorist threat are based on the following:

-Unsuccessful transition from the success of former Commissioner Bratton's crime fighting strategies and initiatives

-Abuse of crime fighting strategies Operation Impact and Operation Atlas

-Abuse of Warrant initiative

-Abuse of summons enforcement

-Abuse of UF 250's (Stop Question and Frisk forms) 

-Failure to terminate summons quota system

-Questionable successful in terrorist crime fighting strategy 

-Failure to implement comprehensive terrorist training program for uniform officers

-Successful handling of large crowds at non-confrontational events

-Limited success at handling large crowds at challenging peaceful events, i.e. war rally

POLICE ENFORCEMENT BRIEFING

 The Police Commissioner’s grade is based on several variables.  We looked at the seven major crimes that are used by the FBI to indicate the success or failure of crime fighting initiatives.  

Our comprehensive review of the Police Commissioner in this area shows that he has failed to follow the successful trend first implemented by Commissioner Bratton and followed by his predecessors.  By using crafty crime recording methods the police department has given the appearance that crime is continuing to drop, but there remains a question mark whether in fact it is true.  

The repeated accusations from groups such as the PBA that Police Department is mis-classifying crimes to give lower numbers should be accurately investigated by an external body to determine if this in fact is true.  This could be accomplished by calling in all precinct crime analysis personnel and questioning them under oath to determine the role in crime classification.  The external investigator should also conduct an audit to determine the legitimacy in the number of crime re-classifications.    

Even by NYPD records the homicide rate has in fact increased.  And that is the Homicide rate citywide for the two year crime periods.  Police stats show that the number of homicides for this time frame increased by 15.3%.    This trend appears to be more so in the African-American community where Homicide is on the increase.  

It has been incorrectly interpreted that because crime is down that all communities are living safer.  The fact is that crime can be down in one area of the city but up in other locations.   A review of crime by precinct shows that 40% of the total numbers of precincts are showing an increase in crime.   

31 PRECINCTS WITH CRIME INCREASES:

PRECINCT                                        % INCREASE

          010                                                34.43  

070                                                15.92

107                                                14.45

018                                                13.77

112                                                13.27

          026                                                12.98

          090                                                12.53

          006                                                 12.12

          017                                                 11.14

          063                                                 10.06

          009                                                  9.90

          030                                                  9.01

          120                                                  8.90

          050                                                  7.80

          068                                                   7.50

          073                                                   6.89

          069                                                   6.12

          040                                                   5.85

          034                                                   5.57

         114                                                    4.95

         019                                                    3.83

         066                                                    2.91

         111                                                    2.70

        115                                                      2.65

         079                                                     2.55

         076                                                     2.34

         075                                                     2.11

         033                                                     1.74

         072                                                      1.69

         044                                                      0.67

         067                                                      0.53

 The above listed precinct increases in crime still does not show the true crime picture.   A particular precinct may not be on this list because the overall total of crime is down (total of 7 majors), but in one of the particular crime area there could be an increase.  For instance a precinct can be down in Grand Larcenies but up in robberies and rapes.  In several areas of the city this holds true.  For instance Patrol Borough Queens South is down overall in crime, but has an increase in the number of murders, rapes, and burglaries. 

 

Crime Increases By Borough Command

 

PBBN              PBQN             PBQS              PBMS             PBBX              PBSI

Murder           Burglary          Murder             Rape              Murder            Rape

Rape                                    Rape                G. Larc.                            Robbery

Fel. Aslt                               Burglary                                                       Fel. Aslt.

Burglary

G. Larc.

GLA

 

It is not enough to use simple stats as indicators of public safety when there are several communities that are still showing a substantial number of predatory crimes.   

One troubling form of record keeping “slight of hand” is the ignoring of all crime that occurred on February 29th.  This is a crime fighting record keeping trick to use the leap year as an excuse to not account for crime on this date.  We believe the Police Department  should give dual reports during this period to account for the crime including the 29th date of February.   There were a total of 317 index crimes on this date, one of which was a homicide.  If these crimes were added to the crime for the month it is highly likely that crime is up.

 

FEBRUARY 29TH CRIME NUMBERS

 317 INDEX CRIMES

1 HOMICIDE

Historically there has not been any conformity on accounting during the leap year.

Our concerns for crime fighting tactics also included an analysis of the methods that are used in the NYC Police Department to combat crime.  We found that although the commissioner put out an order against racial profiling, the police department’s pattern and practices dictates the contrary.  This fact was driven home when eight officers were transferred from the 75 precinct for not continuing to uses crime fighting strategies to profile people of color.