Council Members Brad Lander, Jumaane D. Williams and Vanessa L. Gibson issued the following statement on the NYPD Response to the Inspector General’s Report on Quality-of-Life Enforcement:
“We are disappointed with the NYPD’s response to the Inspector General’s (IG) recent report on Quality-of-Life Enforcement. The City Council created the Office of the Inspector General to ensure that NYPD policies and procedures are operating effectively and consistently with the law -- with the understanding that everyone in NYC, including the NYPD, will benefit from a more accountable, efficient police force.
Their recent report achieved exactly what the Office of the Inspector General was intended to do: based on sound statistical evidence, the IG report found that certain NYPD broken windows strategies do not have a measurable impact on violent crime in NYC, and set forth recommendations to improve these strategies for more data-driven, measurable, and equitable impacts on our communities. IG Eure’s report was objective, fair and written with the intent to reduce tensions between the NYPD and the diverse communities it serves -- not to inflame them.
Contrary to what the NYPD is presenting, the IG’s report is in agreement with the NYPD’s findings about the correlation between quality-of-life summons and preventing serious crime. According to the NYPD’s report, ‘there is no strict mathematical relationship between these two factors.’ This supports the need for more effective, measurable policing practices. In essence, the NYPD’s report is splitting hairs, in refuting their previous claim that the Broken Windows Theory leads to a direct decrease in felony crime, but instead fosters ‘a general atmosphere of order and a general sense of police presence.’
It is extremely disappointing to see that Commissioner Bratton has not only obstinately refused the IG’s sensible recommendations, but has attempted to disparage and discredit the IG’s vital work in the process. We look forward to working more productively with incoming Commissioner O’Neill to improve policing and police-community relations in NYC.”