Photo Courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison
By Forum Staff
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday unveiled Safe Summer NYC, his administration’s plan to stem the rising tide of gun violence and bring the five boroughs back from the COVID-19 crisis.
Here’s the City’s plan:
COMMUNITY:
Investing in Neighborhoods
- Double Cure Violence workforce across 31 sites
- Double Summer Youth Anti-Violence employment slots from 800 to 2000, both during the summer and throughout the year
- Launch Operation Safe Parks and Gang-Free Zones—a partnership between the NYPD and community stakeholders—to provide safe, protected places for people to congregate free from violence and with peace-of-mind
- Host Saturday Night Light games at 100 sites citywide
- Completely refurbish 15 basketball courts at NYCHA developments by August, as well as four basketball courts and a new soccer pitch at Colonel Charles Young Park in Harlem by July
- Increase Tip Rewards up to $5,000 Drive Community Engagement
- Hold anti-violence fairs in 30 neighborhoods across the city
COPS:
Strategic, Precise Deployments
to Targeted Areas
- Precise police presence to prevent gun violence by targeting gangs and crews with a focus on the 100 blocks with the highest rates of gun violence
- Enhance patrol strength ahead of summer by shifting approximately 200 officers from administrative assignments to key areas
- Strengthen federal partnerships embedded with NYPD to perform rapid tracing of firearms used in crimes and prevent the proliferation of illegal guns on city streets
- Expand the Community Solutions Program, a strategy that uses community-based organizations, City services, and NYPD response to connect community members to resources and improve their neighborhoods
- Expand ShotSpotter by 8.78 square miles
- Re-Launch Ceasefire, a program that uses credible messengers to deliver strong message to high-risk populations with goal of decreasing violence without increasing arrests and incarceration
- Launch a Gun Buyback Advertising Campaign
COURTS:
Coordinate Across the Justice System
- Work with the courts to implement its plan to expand in-person operations
- Launch a collaboration between DAs, NYPD and MOCJ to mobilize resources focused on the most serious gun cases
- Unveil the NYC Joint Force to End Gun Violence—composed of members of NYPD, Cure Violence providers, District Attorney offices, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, City agencies, local community groups and law enforcement organizations—to bring an individualized, sustained focus on likely shooters. The Joint Force will launch in Queens and soon expand citywide
- Create enhanced services and supervision for pretrial defendants for gun possession cases, which must be matched by State action to support more people which must be matched by State action to support more people on parole across the city
“Our plan involves precision policing, the application of technology, partnerships with other City agencies, and a focus on youth. But the core of it is in the neighborhood policing philosophy: cops and community working together to curb violence,” said NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison.
