Exactly a month after his announced appointment as deputy mayor of public safety, Chauncey Parker opted to meet the AmNews at his old haunt in One Police Plaza rather than his relatively new digs at City Hall.
Photos hang across the walls of young New Yorkers playing sports stemming from partnerships fostered from his time as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for collaborative policing. He points to them as examples of his vision for the new job, one he said his four-decade career spanning the city, state and federal level built up to.
“What public safety means to me — the North Star — is to keep people safe with the lightest touch,” said Parker. “If we think of it that way, everybody shares that goal. We may have different perspectives about how to achieve that, but everybody wants to be safe, particularly people who live in communities that really have to worry about safety. How do we do that with the lightest touch? It can’t just be that the answer is a 911 response for everything.
“But what can we do with prevention strategies, with community partnerships? What can we do to keep people safe in any way that we can possibly imagine? But the North Star is that people have got to be safe.”
Up until his appointment on Oct. 15, Parker served under his predecessor Philip Banks III as assistant deputy mayor of public safety — a role he assumed this past July after leaving the NYPD. He also served as director of criminal justice and commissioner of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services under Gov. George Pataki.
However, Parker said there are limits to enforcement with a “lighter touch.” Also an ex-prosecutor with both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Southern District of New York, he maintains a stiffer approach against the city’s worst offenders is necessary, particularly when addressing gun violence.
Parker steps in for Banks, one of the many at Mayor Eric Adams’s “table of success,” to resign following his five-felony indictment last month. He said there is “no noise” as he and fellow incoming deputy mayors laser in on public service.
“My focus, and everybody’s focus, is to get as much done for the people of New York City as we possibly can get done and the team that’s in place. I’ve never had a better opportunity to actually accomplish that,” said Parker.
So out of all things, why does youth sports inform so much of Parker’s public safety vision given his experience? He lit up when talking about Saturday Night Lights, a free youth drop-in program started by the Manhattan D.A. that he helped expand from a few sites to a citywide initiative.
Parker recounted how the absence of open indoor gyms during the weekend in Harlem coincided with rising youth violence, prompting investment from asset forfeiture money seized by police to go towards reopening the Police Athletic League (PAL) gym on 119th and Manhattan Avenue. The funding also went towards hiring high-level basketball coaches. Today, Saturday Night Lights spans roughly 140 gyms across the city.
“If the goal is to keep people safe with the lightest touch, how smart is that?” said Parker. “And how obvious is that: give young people a place to go on Saturday night that’s safe, fun and productive, and make these relationships with coaches. Police officers are [also] there to engage with the young people, but it’s all about creating opportunities. And that’s a crime-fighting strategy.”
Nicole Cruz, senior director of citywide teen programs for the YMCA of Greater New York, said Saturday Night Lights programming is crucial for public safety given the uptick of violent incidents local youth face both as potential victims and perpetrators.
“Those young people that were looking for coaches [and] looking for spaces to go potentially weren’t finding spaces to go because they simply weren’t available to them,” said Cruz. “That could potentially be impacting the community on where those young people could be going, what they could be doing. Our goal is to ensure that our doors are open so that they don’t engage in those high levels of violence.”
PAL executive director Carlos Velazquez recalled Parker championing the program for years now. He said the new deputy mayor’s approach has always been characterized by partnership and community.
“He uses every single resource he has and every connection he has within different city agencies, but most importantly, within the communities of New York City to bring people together,” said Velazquez. “It sends a message to all of us who’ve been doing this work for so long that partnerships are key, and collaboration is what’s going to move this city forward. And through these partnerships, and through these collaborations, is how we’re going to get out of some of the issues that our young people are facing every single day.”
While Parker’s responsibilities go beyond courts and cops now, he sees partnerships and community engagement as just as relevant with other agencies under his ward like the FDNY and New York City Emergency Management. His appointment coincides with the recent brush fires across the city. Parker said while he hopes for rain soon during the ongoing drought, he believes there are steps independent of Mother Nature.
“A big part of it is to make sure that we’re all, as they say, good neighbors,” said Parker. “And being a good neighbor would be very careful about[not having] a barbecue in a park where we’re in the midst of a drought. Don’t smoke in a park. [It’s] not a law enforcement response to it. It’s really a good neighbor’s response to it, as we have to look after each other.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.