SHORT MEMORIES WILL UNDERMINE OUR PROGRESS
NYPD “SHOW OF FORCE” COUNTER-TERRORISM DRILL
TAGS:
NYPD, MOS NUMBERS, INTEL BUREAUS, COUNTER-TERRORISM, ESU,
LOWEST CRIME RATES EVER, AMERICA’S SAFEST BIG
CITY,
UNIQUE CHALLENGES FOR NYC AND NYPD, WAR ON
CRIME NOT OVER,
MISGUIDED CALLS TO REFORM
(Monday
January 8, 2018 1PP) Yesterday the New York Times ran an article
titled, “The U.S. Has Fewer Crimes. Does That Mean It Needs Fewer Police”? It seems that there are those in various
levels of governance, political commentators, prognosticators, academics, and
pundits particularly on the “Left” all too ready and eager to declare
resounding victory in our efforts to fight crime, decrease the size of Police
Forces, and shunt funding away from Policing to various social pursuits that
include greater spending for mental health care, alcohol and drug addiction,
and other no doubt well intended approaches and projects to improve the lives
of the “victims” of all of society’s ills.
The hard-fought struggles that have resulted in lower crime rates in New
York City and other locales across the country need to be sustained rather than
curtailed.
A HAUNTING PARALLEL
The
much celebrated “Fall of the Iron Curtain” in 1989 was touted as proof of the
United States victory over the USSR that would usher in an era of “turning swords to
plowshares”, the inevitable shift away from the staggering Cold War
military budgets into more domestic prosperity.
Indeed, the Soviet Union collapsed and with their dissolution untold
billions of dollars in the federal coffers could be redirected. Yes, what was
dubbed our “Peace Dividend” was seen as a potential source for Democrats to go
on a spending bonanza. The sudden absence of the USSR left the USA as the lone
remaining “Super Power” without any political or military rivals. Then the multi-headed serpent of radical
Islamic terrorism began crawling out of the deserts and caves of Afghanistan.
Many of the former Soviet States devolved into age old animosities; religious
and ethnic strife infected many of these countries and new enemies came into
view.
In
2003 then President George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” from the
flight deck of the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln asserting that our military
forces had been victorious in his war of choice in Iraq. As we all know now the real battle for Iraq
would be the longest, bloodiest, most costly (in lives and treasure),
ill-advised and poorly planned war in our history. The danger of declaring victory, a victory of
any kind but particularly against an ill-defined enemy, is fraught with
hazards. Miscalculations and tired old
military thinking were no match for a guerilla insurgency in battle spaces where
the “enemy’ was as difficult to identify as it was tenacious in their
resistance. It took the better part of
the next 12 years to bring some semblance of “order” to Iraq.
NUMBERS, STATS, AND
REALITY
There
is a multitude of academic studies, theories, conjecture and pseudo-science
employed to measure crime rates. Statistics
in this realm range from partially inaccurate, incomplete and inconclusive, to
using suspect methodology and drawing skewed “facts” from highly suspect
numerical inputs. The FBI collects nationwide data and presents for public
consumption the “official crime rate” in an
annual report while the tallying of the raw numbers can vary wildly from
jurisdiction to jurisdiction. There is
an abundance of stats from which to draw to support whatever one’s theory or
opinion is. Criminologists and sociologists
conjecture and theorize utilizing clean cut “data” safely ensconced in rarified
air far removed from the streets. What
all their metrics and measurements cannot account for is the hard and fast
reality of what Police Officers do routinely on a daily basis.
Before
jumping into this confusing morass, a disclaimer is in order. We can only speak to the reality of our
hometown and the Police Department to which we have been not only loyal to but
a staunch defender of through thick and thin for our entire lives.
The
NYPD has, at the Patrol level, operated under the broad auspices of our own
homegrown program known as CompStat. Since the first term of Rudy Giuliani’s as
Mayor commencing in 1993 the NYPD has utilized a metrics and numbers driven
approach based not solely on the social/analytical methodology of Comp-Stat,
but also the locational prevalence of 911 and 311 calls with an additional emphasis
on “quality of life” issues. Along with the notion of unprecedented
accountability. Laud it or condemn it, there can be no denying its
effectiveness. CompStat introduced a
level of accountability at from the Command level down to the rank and file
street Cops that had been absence prior to its implementation. The NYPD set the “gold standard” in this
brand of community Policing that has been emulated, with varying degrees of
success, by Law Enforcement Agencies across the country.
Despite
the multitude of naysayers and critics, the most vocal of whom have vilified the
utilization of “Stop, Question and Frisk”, (derisively shortened to Stop and
Frisk by the detractors), the rates of crime in all categories across the board
have continued to plummet. New York City
today is unquestionably the safest
big city in the US; has a homicide rate comparable to that of 1960 with a
current population upwards of 8.5 million residents. If anything, the people of
New York City will be well served by the NYPD to keep their feet on the gas
pedal; there will never be a point in time that the NYPD can or will declare “Mission
Accomplished”.
NEW CENTURY, NEW
CHALLENGES, NEW REALITY
Twenty-one
months into the new century radical Islamic terrorism delivered itself onto the
City of New York on September 11, 2001. That lethal strike has set the pace for
a host of Policing challenges in the United States and in its most
cosmopolitan, international City. NYC
will always be seen by terrorist of all stripes as a “target
rich environment”. Beside the
visible landmarks and buildings of importance, the City has virtually thousands
of “soft targets”. Those calling for the
NYPD to trim their numbers must have forgotten 9/11 and the continual threat
posed to our City.
Post
911 the NYPD was able to develop many specialty Units, expand once mordant Bureaus, and provide a multi-tiered, redundantly
layered blanket of protection. We have
not seen a successful large-scale terrorist event since 9/11and have
interdicted and prevented at least 13 attempted such attacks. (The actual
number and specifics of such events remain classified). This has not been a matter of luck or Divine providence. Not by a long shot. Efforts by the highly sophisticated Intelligence
Bureau, the Counter and Anti -Terrorism Units,
beefed up Emergency Services Units, and a handful of other well organized,
specifically tasked Units have kept our City safe. Having been abysmally ill-served
by the FBI and CIA, New York City under the guidance of former Commissioner Ray Kelly,
Mayor Mike Bloomburg, and other built our own “in-house” Units so we will never
again be caught so fatally off guard. We
do for ourselves what our vast federal intelligence and Law Enforcement
apparatus was unable, (perhaps even unwilling) to do prior to September 11,
2001. These efforts require sufficient
manpower to be ever vigilant, perpetually prepared, as well as aggressively
forward leaning to the level required to deter any potential terrorists. Yes, the threats from “lone wolves”,
individual non-state sponsored actors, as well as any other terrorist
sympathizer, will always be the unknown and unknowable variables in the anti-terrorism
matrix. Still, the NYPD ability to
deploy “Show of Force” Units including the much-vaunted Atlas, Hercules, and
Viper capabilities.
THE CONSULATES, EMBASSIES,
DEMONSTRATIONS AND A PRESIDENT
What
makes New York City the most high-profile City with global significance on the
planet with the requisite need of fielding the premier municipal Police
Department in the world are a variety of very unique missions and tasks that
exist in no other city. New York City is
the home of the United Nations and as such is also the home of every
nation/state member’s embassy, consulate, and mission. On any given day there may be events of international
consequence playing out in NYC that require a level of security that only NYPD
can provide. As we are host to all those embassies and consulates naturally, we
are tasked with overseeing, protecting and policing various protests, demonstrations,
acts of civil disobedience, any of which can turn violent quickly.
And,
as if anyone has forgotten, the President of the United States has his primary
personal residence in a glittering tower that bears his name near the virtual
heart of Manhattan. Much of the security
required by a President today is provided by NYPD with little to no
reimbursement from the federal government.
This reality adds a layer of challenge, complexity and threat the NYPD,
as presently configured, can readily accommodate. As one can easily see, the size of the NYPD
is adequate but may even need to increase as additional challenges and new
variants of criminality such as cybercrime and identity theft, on-line
radicalization, recruitment and communications among various terrorist groups
and others proliferate.
OUTLIERS
Despite
the record low levels of criminal activity across our Five Boroughs, a handful
of Precincts remain pockets off crime; particularly violent crime. Two in The Bronx and two others in Brooklyn
still suffer from abnormally high levels of criminality. Some of the most hazardous loci of crime in
these Precincts are in various Public Housing complexes where the drug trade,
gang activity, robbery, random assault, crimes against persons and property
seem immune to the best efforts of the men and women who work these Commands. While even in these neighborhoods the rates
of crime are significantly reduced from what they were as recently as five
years ago, they still pose challenges. Greater
cooperation from residents in these neighborhoods has gone a long way towards
NYPD being able to aggressively investigate crimes, establish a more robust
patrol presence, and join forces with local churches and neighborhood alliances. Community involvement has been identified as
one of the vital factors for fighting crime particularly within the confines of
densely populated public housing projects. Still, there is a long way to go.
REINVESTING IN NYPD
Our
position is this: it is far too soon for anyone to be doing a tap dance on the
graves of gone by the wayside crime rates.
To even begin to declare so much as a partial “victory” would not only
be enormously foolhardy, it would be highly irresponsible. Yes, the rates and types of crime committed
in specific jurisdictions can be notoriously puzzling to fully understand and
combat, the men and women of NYPD have clearly demonstrated the efficacy of the
policies and procedures that have worked so well for them over the long haul of
the last 25 years. New York City today
is simply a vastly City than it was 30 years ago or when coming of age in the
1970’s Bronx. The transformations be
they in Times Square, gentrified neighborhoods from Harlem to Park Slope,
Prospect Avenue to Prospect Park, Chelsea to Canarsie, Woodside to the Lower
East Side, and all manner of interwoven ethnic enclaves, diverse neighborhoods,
and the ever-evolving dynamics of an incredibly densely packed population that
may top 9 million within 10 years is nothing short of amazing.
While
can all feel good about living in such a vibrant and safe City, this is most certainly
NOT the time to even contemplate making any major reforms to the NYPD nor
entertain the dangerous idea that their numbers can be reduced without negative
consequences.
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2018 © All Rights Reserved
Copyright Brooding Cynyc 2018 © All Rights Reserved
