Photo Courtesy of NYPD
Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill delivered the State of the NYPD at a breakfast event sponsored by the New York City Police Foundation last Wednesday at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan.
By Forum Staff
The City’s top cop recently outlined a new initiative that he said will ensure that every neighborhood in the five boroughs — regardless of income level, geographic location or demographic composition — achieves the same level of public safety and crime reduction that Gotham has experienced over the last 25 years.
In his 2019 State of the NYPD address, Police Commissioner Jim O’Neill promised to bring together cops, community stakeholders, service providers, elected officials, City agencies and area residents in the coming weeks to create and implement a new vision for certain precincts in NYC that have violent crime rates more than twice as high as the rest of the city (none are located in Queens).
In the coming weeks, O’Neill and the executive NYPD team pledged to convene meeting in each of the poor-performing precincts, to identify the strategies and resources that will be newly deployed to bring crime down in these communities to levels seen across the rest of the Big Apple.
“We won’t rest until every block in every neighborhood enjoys the same level of safety and well-being as the rest of the city,” O’Neill said. “Your ZIP code must never be the primary determiner of your safety. And it’s our pledge to ensure that your neighborhood is safe, regardless of where in New York City you call home.”
Some of the strategies the commissioner previewed in his remarks delivered last Wednesday at a breakfast event sponsored by the New York City Police Foundation and held at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan included:
• A new smartphone application, funded by the Police Foundation, which supports police by offering officers a nexus for neighborhoods and agencies. This will empower cops to connect people in need with services, so they can avoid crime and get help, O’Neill noted.
• Expanding efforts like the Brownsville Cornerstone Basketball League, which was built by cops to bring together youth from different housing developments, and provide positive alternatives.
• Launching new innovations, like the one recently showcased at 1 Police Plaza where young people are working with police officers to craft virtual-reality scenarios that realistically explore the relationships between cops and kids on the street. This program, also sponsored by the Police Foundation, explored the choices kids in neighborhoods have to make about joining, or rejecting, gangs, O’Neill reported.
The commissioner also said the department will continue to build on the positive results of the Neighborhood Policing Program.
“These partnerships are generating the creative and innovative solutions that will bring down crime in these communities. Brownsville can and should be as safe as Brooklyn Heights. Crime can and should be as low in the South Bronx as it is in TriBeCa,” O’Neill added. “We get there when we all come together, talk frankly, and recommit ourselves to this mission. There will be no sacred cows or side agendas—just the urgent mission for everyone in these communities, and all of our city, to come together as one to ensure that every square block of New York City is free from both the threat—and the fear of—crime.”
