Amsterdam News Staff
At One Centre Street, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel unveiled a new report from town hall meetings on police. Titled “Improving Police-Community Relations,” the 200-page report is the result of meetings with New Yorkers in Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods, particularly New Yorkers in neighborhoods where community and police relations are tense.
“This was not an ‘I hate the police report’ or gathering,’” Adams told reporters. “I think police officers would be amazed at how much appreciation was displayed during the hearings, of understanding the challenges and difficulties of the job.”
Said Brewer, “We heard from officers who knew their communities well, and from those who were not yet aware of the details of the new NYPD policies and practices.”
Some of the recommendations made by the report include extending police academy training from six months to a year, offering police officers six-month sabbaticals with 50 percent pay, guaranteeing public access to police body-camera footage, letting the work experience of peace officers count toward the college credits needed to join the police force and reducing penalties for quality-of-life offenses.
However, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton doesn’t support the college credits and sabbatical proposals.
“The community is prepared to believe that most of the NYPD rank and file is much better than the profiling of recent years might suggest,” read the report, “and that while some wrongs were done due to genuine animus, most were committed under the aegis of a police culture that sanctioned the abuse of lawful authority.”
Adams said that one way police and community relations could improve is simply by both parties speaking to each other and recognizing the humanity in others. The former police officer said some of his brethren could do something “revolutionary” like say hello to people as they leave for work in the morning.
“Bad guys talk to each other all the time,” Adams added, suggesting that cops and civilians should be just as cooperative.
Siegel also wanted to discuss stop-and-frisk, which is mentioned in the report. The attorney questioned whether the policy was being used properly even though the number of stop-and-frisks recorded have plummeted. He wasn’t sure the numbers added up. He believes officers are holding back.
“Are the police holding back now because of politics around stop-and-frisk?” asked Siegel. “The standard for a stop is different than the standard for a frisk. And you can’t just have a hunch. You have to have reasonable suspicion.”
Siegel also wants a mayoral task force created to review NYPD training procedures every three years.
Speaking of the mayor, Adams, Brewer and Siegel all said that Bill de Blasio was invited to the many meetings that took place. However, after sending a representative to the first meeting, no one from de Blasio’s camp showed up at any of the other meetings. The trio said that the next time they heard from the de Blasio administration was the day before their news conference: City Hall called for a copy of the report to review.
“The idea of not participating in town hall meetings, that he and his staff were invited to, what does that say?” Siegel asked rhetorically.
Adams was just as direct in his assessment of the mayor’s involvement (or lack thereof).
“I think there are some pieces in this report that he is going to have to have a closed-door meeting with his commissioner and say, ‘I am not going to get in the way of you carrying out your role of public protection. But you are not going to get in the way of my legacy,’” said Adams. “It’s up to the mayor to set the tone. He is the leader of the city of New York, and this is his responsibility.”