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After suffering $300,000 of damages in the subways from more than 400
cases of vandals smashing windows, the MTA says it is considering
teaming up with NYPD to implement a “broken windows strategy” in order
to bring the situation under control.
MTA Chief Safety Officer Pat Warren said on Saturday that a
tough-on-crime approach will be needed, in a supplement to their effort
of increased surveillance, to end the repeated attacks on their
infrastructure and their already enfeebled pocketbook from COVID-19.
“Let me tell you, if there’s any time that we think about maybe a broken windows strategy, this may be that moment in time and we certainly would like to continue and work with the NYPD on that strategy if they choose to take them,” Warren said. “We have to take a train out of service when we find broken windows in it because it’s a safety hazard. So for that period of time whether takes is a couple hours or three hours, whatever it takes us to repair those windows, that train’s out of service, which means at that point in time our customers are inconvenienced with long wait times and or potentially more crowding on the platform.”
This recent vexation, Warren said, takes the wind out of the MTA’s
attempts to keep their systems running at full service at just a
fraction of their operating budget and only about a quarter of their
pre-pandemic ridership.
Not only that, but the MTA is running low on their stockpile of replacement windows.
From
DNA Info:
Penalties for drinking alcohol and urinating in public could be reduced under a package of bills being discussed by the city council next week.
Under the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2016, drinking alcohol in public, littering, public urination, unreasonable noise and violating parks rules would largely be considered civil offenses punishable with summonses, according to a city council memo on the plan.
The legislation would remove the possibility of a permanent criminal record for urinating in public and violating park rules. Instead, police would create public guidelines about when those violations are civil or criminal offenses.
The city has used the "broken windows" theory of policing for years which holds that smaller offenses are predictors for larger crimes. Both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton have remained strong defenders of the strategy in the face of criticism that the theory unjustly targets minorities and the poor.
From
Huffington Post:
As outrage simmered in the hours before the release of the Ferguson verdict, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton made a rare public appearance to defend his Broken Windows policing philosophy. But his remarks brought controversy from those affected by aggressive policing.
"No conversation on urban crime is complete without the communities that are affected by [Bratton's] policing theory," said activist and Huffington Post contributor Josmar Trujillo, dressed in a snapback and "Fire Bratton Now" t-shirt on the sidewalk outside the event.
During Bratton's remarks, Trujillo and at least a dozen other activists stood to protest the abuse they say Bratton's policing has brought to targeted communities in New York City.
The appearance was Bratton's attempt to shore up Broken Windows policing against a rising tide of discontent. But the best he could muster was a skin-deep redefinition of the theory, even as he failed to respond to loud concerns from his constituents.
Speaking in NYU's opulent Vanderbilt Hall, Bratton celebrated the crime reductions of his previous NYPD tenure. But he glossed over the reality that nearly every American city experienced a decline over the same period - even without locking away historic numbers of residents.
And he ignored the topic of police reform, highlighted by the recent shooting death of Akai Gurley, until questioned by NYU Professor Rachel Barkow. Asked what measures could reduce wrongful deaths, he was reticent to promise swift reform, citing high costs for proposed body cameras and logistical delay in pairing rookies with experienced officers.
But most troubling was his disingenuous attempt to redefine Broken Windows, which is conventionally understood as aggressive enforcement of quality-of-life laws like "panhandling [and] disorderly behavior."
Bratton claimed that the meteoric growth in low-level arrests is actually driven by policing of serious crimes - he cited drunk driving and domestic violence as examples - rather than by arrests for sidewalk grilling and moving between train cars.
But that claim does not mesh with the facts - arrests for quality-of-life offenses have surged faster than any other crime.
Turnstile-hopping, considered by many police reform advocates to epitomize Broken Windows policing, accounts for more jail convictions than any other charge (excluding all drug possession charges combined). From Bratton's speech, the audience would not have known that between 2008 and 2013, turnstile arrests grew by 69%.
