Host of new policies shake up the NYPD
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH AND
TODD MAISEL
This week brought “seismic shifts” to the NYPD amid
the ongoing calls for police reform and an end to
racial injustice following the murder of Minneapolis
resident George Floyd.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea stunned the city on
June 15 when he announced the elimination of the NYPD’s
Anti-Crime Units — a fi xture in every precinct that specializes
in targeting armed suspects — and reassigned its more
than 600 assigned offi cers into other duties,
The next day, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the
NYPD would be required to release all pertinent audio and
video body-camera footage within 30 days in an offi cer’s
use of force results in death or bodily harm of a person.
Both reforms followed a package of bills that Governor
Andrew Cuomo signed into law on June 12 that to increase
police accountability by removing the 50-A exemption on
police records, as well as banning police chokeholds and
appointing the attorney general as independent prosecutor of
police btrutality cases. The governor also signed an executive
order mandating that all police departments in the state,
including the NYPD, overhaul their operations by April 1,
2021 — or risk losing state funding in the next budget cycle.
The new bodycam policy, effective immediately, will be
implemented if an offi cer discharges their fi rearm resulting
in the death or possibly injury of a person, kills or harms
someone after using a taser or when an offi cer’s use of force
results in death or bodily harm, de Blasio elaborated. All
footage going forward will be made public and posted online
after fi rst being shown to involved family members. It is
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
Commissioner Dermot Shea defended his department,
while saying some have acting inappropriately.
Detainees in danger as COVID-19 temp
housing funding program nears end
BY MARK HALLUM
Those getting out of city
jails in the middle of the
COVID-19 pandemic may
not have the option to take a hotel
to isolate after funding runs dry at
the end of June.
Advocates in front of the Manhattan
Detention Center – known
as the Tombs – called on the city
government replenish the funds
that not only help detainees and
convicts getting on their feet, but
homeless individuals, who may
be experiencing diffi culties with
housing discrimination.
Marvin Mayfi eld, Statewide
Organizer at Center for Community
Alternatives, said on Monday
that while the COVID-19 scare
has been beaten back in New
York, it is not over yet and neither
should the funding.
“This isn’t over –this isn’t over
unclear when a link to footage will be shared with the public.
“We recognize the power of the body-worn cameras, but
body-worn cameras are only as powerful as the transparency
that comes with them,” said de Blasio. “We hope to
never have these kinds of incidents to have to release this
footage…but when one of these three criteria is met it is
crucial that the information comes out properly, that people
have faith it will come out, that it will come out objectively.”
De Blasio praised the policy as a win for civilians and police
alike explaining that publicly available footage should
provide comfort to the “many, many good offi cers” to know
by a long-shot, and they say there
is going to be a resurrgence of
COVID-19 that they say is gong
to come,” Mayfi eld said. “We need
people to understand that housing
is one of the most important things
that people need when they’re being
released from jail and prisons.”
Housing discrimination, according
to the advocates with
Community Alternatives, comes
in the form of the recently incarcerated
being rejected from an
apartment on the basis of income
requirements set in place by landlords
and leasing companies.
“Re-entry housing helps recently
released New Yorkers create a
pathway to lasting stability,” said
Avery Cohen, a mayoral spokesman.
“These services are a critical
aspect of our broader mission to
transform our criminal justice
system into a system that is fundamentally
fairer and more just.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF WOODSIDE ON THE MOVE
A tenant goes on rent strike at the Cosmopolitan Houses in
Woodside, Queens.
Salik Karim, from the John
Jay College Institute for Justice
and Opportunity and a formerly
incarcerated person, explained
that even though he has been out
for ten years he still gets asked by
those renting apartments why he
that the “whole truth” will come out.
Despite mayor trying to pass off the policy as a recent
reform sparked by ongoing protests against police brutality,
the announcement simply codifi es previously issued
regulations.
Tuesday’s announcement was described as a “modest
improvement” on the 2019-issued guidelines by the
ACLU’s lead policy council, Michael Sisitzky but still fall
short in fully creating transparency withing the agency’s
body camera unit.
Monday, Shea said eliminating the Anti-Crime Units
represents a “seismic shift” for policing in the NYPD.
Anti-Crime Units include plain-clothed offi cers targeting
gun-toting criminals; while they’ve been successful in keeping
guns off the streets, the units have been the subject of
controversy for using brute tactics and being involved in
police shootings of suspected criminals.
Shea recognized that people in some communities were
“enduring being stopped, their children being stopped,”
adding “there is a disproportionate number of complaints
and shootings as they are doing what we ask of them.”
But the commissioner was quick to note that the change
was “no refl ection on the men and women of the Police
Department who are doing an exceptional job.
“It’s time to move forward and change how we police
in this city with brains and guile, and move away from
brute force,” he said.
The former anti-crime offi cers will focus instead on intelligence
and evidence gathering to help strengthen cases
being prosecuted. Shea stressed that the NYPD needs the
cooperation of the city’s fi ve district attorneys, and the
general public, in helping to keep crime down.
was in prison. For the last four
years, he has been bouncing between
friends, family and other
locations for shelter.
“This is a prime example of
how systemic racism is a historical
plague in this country impacting
people of color,” Karim said. “We
are directly targeted in our communities…
The background check
has been utilized in the past as a
weapon; a weapon of displacement,
a weapon to deny access
and a weapon to incarcerate.”
While COVID-19 is still a risk
effecting black and brown communities
disproportionately, a variety
of groups have spend the worst of
the pandemic calling for the release
of detainees and prisoners who are
at risk of contracting the virus.
Councilman Keith Powers
believes that providing stable
housing or a place to stay in the
interim is the most immediate
solution for those in the criminal
justice system.
“COVID-19 has hit our jail
population hard. We need to ensure
that individuals impacted by
the criminal justice system who
do not have permanent, safe housing
have a place to go in the long
term—which means allocating
more resources to housing these
New Yorkers in need. I thank advocates
for their continued focus.”
4 June 18, 2020 Schneps Media