Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner Bratton, And District Attorney Vance Announce Major Initiative To Enhance NYPD Mobile Communications

October 23, 2014

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance: Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Thank you so much for being here. Today, we are at the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which, as you may know, is the nerve center of the NYPD’s counter-terrorism efforts. As events that we see unfold around the world, we know there is nothing – nothing – more important than securing our city from another terrorist attack. That could be a threat from domestic terrorists, as our office has dealt with in the most recent years, or international terrorists, who incite hatred and plot against New York City.

Today, we are announcing the first in a series of transformative criminal justice investments that we believe will promote fairness, justice, and make us safer at the same time. Now these investments are as a result of settlements in our investigations and prosecutions of multiple foreign banks who violated U.S. sanctions and New York State law. Each financial institution in those cases exploited the American banking system and New York State law by hiding that they were moving money on behalf of regimes and governments in places like Iran, Sudan, Burma, Libya, and Cuba through New York.

Using these settlement dollars obtained through criminal forfeiture, the NYPD, the mayor’s office, and our office today are announcing a $160 million dollar investment in public safety and in tools that may well thwart another terror attack. This new program will bring all of the crime fighting information currently available to the New York City police officers onto one mobile platform for the first time. And these new mobile devices will bring this information out into the field to the police officers – into the hands of each and every NYPD officer out where he or she is working.

In order to get this real-time information to officers on the beat, this initiative will provide tablets for every police car – some 6,000 of them – and give mobile, hand-held communication devices to every one of the 35,000 police officers who serve our city every day.

Now the commissioner is going to go into much greater detail, but generally I can say that this initiative will allow the NYPD to extend to all officers the world leading terror- and crime-fighting technologies that have been created in the last decade. We expect these devices will not only help officers do their jobs, but aid crime victims, help solve crimes, and may even help to prevent crimes from occurring in the first place.

A couple of real world examples – a police officer, in our opinion, shouldn’t have to walk into a building without knowing whether there are guns registered to people living in that building, whether there are sex offenders who are registered living in that building, and what 9-1-1 calls have relayed into that building before they respond into that location. So the kind of data these officers will now have at the swipe of a finger, before they enter a facility or a building, is real-time 9-1-1 data, warrant information from federal, state, and city databases, photographs of missing persons, suspects, Crime Stoppers posters, and other persons of interest, and by this spring, we anticipate the integration of fingerprint scanning, as well as enhanced data collection in the field. This initiative will also enhance the accuracy and speed of information exchanged between police officers and prosecutors – something I’m very interested in – as well as other law enforcement agencies, increasing efficiency and, we believe, fairness in our justice system.

By giving police officers in the field tools generally only available at the precinct, they will have – in the field – as much information as possible to make the best, most informed decisions. Now, today’s investment is the largest single allocation of money from our international sanctions cases to date, but there will be several other announcements in the coming months in the areas of sex crimes, cyber crime, mental health, public housing, criminal diversion, and reentry.

These forfeiture dollars will be used to help to transform law enforcement, criminal justice, and, we believe, the lives and safety of millions of New Yorkers.

Let me end by saying I am truly grateful to have the partnership we have with Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Bratton and the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and with the whole NYPD, whom we are grateful for every day. Their leadership and forward thinking makes innovation in this area possible and will have a lasting impact on public safety – Mr. Mayor.             

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you so much. Well, we are sobered by the events happening around the world – we’re sobered by the events happening in Canada – but there still is good news. There still are steps forward – and today we’re talking about a major step forward for the NYPD and its ability to fight crime and its ability to prevent acts of terror. We have Cy Vance to thank for that. I have to tell you that this is the result of a lot of hard work. Cy and his team looked at the actions of these foreign banks, saw that they were aiding and abetting states that bluntly sponsor terrorism, and did something about it. As district attorney, Cy Vance has been, I think, exemplary. In this case he went at the heart of the problem and helped to stop these banks from doing the wrong thing to begin with and then, with the resources he’s brought back, he’s making New York City safer. So I just want to say to the district attorney – this took, I’m sure – I can only imagine the hours and the energy and the creativity that had to go into this case. But what you did had a double positive impact for the people of New York – sending a message to financial institutions that they can’t consort with our enemies, but also bringing back resources to make us safer. I want to thank you and your whole team for what you’ve done.

District Attorney Vance: You’re welcome.

Mayor: Now this, again, for us, means a huge step forward into the 21st century for the NYPD. It will help us fight crime every single day in a myriad of ways. It will be invaluable in the fight against terror. Just imagine for a moment, information instantaneously going to each and every one of our almost 35,000 officers – instantaneously. Something – and the commissioner will speak about this from his experience – something that was unimaginable a few year ago now will be an immediate tool in the hands of all of our officers. Now that’s going to have immeasurable benefit. It means that anything going on – any alert, any up-to-date information –can get to those who are protecting us anywhere in the city instantaneously. It will magnify the impact of the men and women who do this work protecting us.

We have already the finest police force in this country and, I argue, the finest police force in the world. Part of what makes it so great – it is constantly innovating – it’s constantly looking for ways to get better. I think it’s fair to say Commissioner Bratton personifies that concept and I’ve never seen him – despite being one of the people who could rest on his laurels – I’ve never seen him do it for a moment. He’s constantly looking for the next great innovation. And he’s put together a team of people who think the same way and I just want to acknowledge and thank them because today is a culmination of a lot of their work as well – our Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism John Miller couldn’t be here, but I want to thank him for the great work he does; Tom Galati, our chief of intelligence; James Waters, our chief of counter-terrorism; Robert Boyce, our chief of detectives; and I want to also thank our host here today who does tremendous work keeping Lower Manhattan safe, Captain Christine Doherty, who runs the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center.

These are professionals who are devoted to figuring out new ways to make us even safer and technology – cutting edge technology – is what they think about every single day. And they’re finding ways to bring that into the life of the work we do. Now, even as we celebrate what this will allow us to do over the next year – and the commissioner will give you a sense of the rollout, but we intend to get these resources in the hands of our officers very quickly – even as we wait for new tools, let’s acknowledge and appreciate what the NYPD has achieved in just the last few months, because it’s extraordinary. August, this year, September, this year – the lowest number of shootings for that respective month since the CompStat system was initiated in 1994. Think about that for a moment – and I would remind you who brought us the CompStat system and say thank you, again. Since that system was initiated 20 years – this August was the lowest number of shootings in any August in 20 years; this September, the lowest number of shootings in any September in the last 20 years – extraordinary work being done by the men and women of the NYPD, and now additional tools being brought into the game.

Just to give you a little picture of this – a 9-1-1 call comes in, that information now can go out to a number of officers. They can read exactly is being said, what the address is, what the description is – that changes the game. They can search federal and state and local databases for information right as they’re doing their job – they can get that information at their fingertips. They can connect to the NYPD’s state of the art counter-terrorism system. All of this speeds up the work of public safety and, in public safety, every minute counts, every second counts, and it literally can mean the difference between life and death that our officers will have this information. It’s going to allow them to save lives. It’s also going to allow us to keep our officers safer.

Let me now speak as a parent. Think about – and I think parents all over the city will understand this immediately – think about if your child was missing. You need to know that every effort is being expended to find that child. With this technology, literally every officer in the NYPD can instantaneously and simultaneously see the picture of that missing child, and that will speed the efforts to find that child and bring the child home to safety. That is an extraordinary step forward.

We also have resources – thanks to this extraordinary settlement and the partnership we have with the district attorney – we have resources to upgrade the NYPD’s infrastructure technologically in improving the fiber network that allows all of this to happen. And this means things will be done in the field that used to have to be done in the station house. The experts will describe it, but let me give you a simple example. You can literally, with this technology, take a fingerprint on a street corner in New York City – a police officer should be able to take a fingerprint and process immediately, whether someone has a warrant out, confirm an identity. This is going to speed the work of law enforcement. It’s also going to allow us to not have to bring as many people into the station house. It’s going to allow us to do more summonses and fewer arrests where appropriate. It’s going to simplify and make more efficient the work that people in law enforcement do.

Thank you. Oh, I am sorry. Thank you for that. I’m going to turn to, in a moment – when I get to a key word I’m going to acknowledge Jessica Tisch, and you are going to hand me that for a second. [Laughs]

So, when we think about the dilemma we face – a 21st century set of challenges. We didn’t talk about terrorism a few decades ago. We didn’t think about cybercrime. We didn’t think about all sorts of things. We have a 21st century set of challenges. These are 21st century tools to fight the challenges we face and it’ll allow us to get the better of the situation.

Just a couple of words in Spanish.

Hoy estámos haciéndo inversiónes importántes que harán que nuéstra ciudád séa aún más segúra. Vámos a ofrecér teléfonos inteligéntes a cáda oficiál de policía pára hacér que la aplicación de la ley séa más eficáz y eficiénte.

Now, as I turn to the commissioner – I just want to say, this is a – extraordinary what this technology allows to do – bu­t the technology itself, which you’ll hear from from Deputy Commissioner for Technology Jessica Tisch, the technology itself is amazing. I just want you to hand it to me for one second. Oh, right here, great – because this allows me to use today’s favorite new word, which Jessica will use. Well, this is what these extraordinary – it’s called a Toughpad by the way – it is ruggedized. This means – it’s my new favorite adjective, ruggedized – it means this can be used in any kind of condition, any kind of situation, rain or shine. It can be banged around – it’s still going to work. It is not only extraordinary technology, it is extraordinarily durable technology, and I give the NYPD a lot of credit for figuring out what will work in today’s policing conditions.

With that, as I said, if you think about innovation, if you think about someone who never rests on his laurels, always is looking for the next thing that’ll make us safer – you literally – if you looked up that concept in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Bill Bratton. And that is why this city is safe and gets safer all the time, because of his extraordinary efforts – our Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton: Thank you, Mr. Mayor for those – very gracious introduction.

A few thank yous are in order before I make my remarks – certainly to Cy Vance, his office, the generosity, if you will, in terms of responding to the requests to support this initiative and the whole-hearted embrace of it, appreciating its importance to the cops in this field, but to the 8.5 million people in the city that we’ve got to serve because of it – very, very appreciative of the continuing and expanding partnership that we have together; to Mayor de Blasio for his quick response and embrace of this idea – that – and coming together with Cy’s office; Liz Glazer, his criminal justice coordinator, putting a lot of time and effort to assure that the multiplicity of agencies that had to work on this came together, embraced it, supported it, and advanced it very very quickly. A particular thank you, on my part, to one of the consultants who works with me, John Linda, who spent a lot of time on this initiative. But most importantly – I think [inaudible] with thank yous at this session, is the creator of the idea – and that’s Jessie Tisch. Jessie is the Deputy Commissioner for Information and Technology at the NYPD. The room that you’re in is the heart and soul of our domain awareness system developed by Commissioner Kelly after 9/11. Jesse was very intimately involved with some of the others in this creation.

This center – LMSI – is the heart and soul of the 8,000 cameras – and that number is growing – where we monitor them in this room – private sector, public, federal agencies – this is the heart and soul. The domain awareness system is now going to be enhanced significantly, where information that could only be gathered at computer terminals and precinct station houses, detective offices, and at the real-time crime center that was also developed over the last number of years – we are now going to be able to take all of those capabilities and bring them into the squad car – the RMP. 35,000 officers, detectives will have, both with the ruggedized tablets, and with 35,000 of these – 35,000 smart phones. Literally, everything that we can do in a precinct station house, they will be able to do in the field. Shortly we will be issuing e-mail addresses to all members of the department – all 50,000. So I will, sometime next year, be able to instantly reach all 50,000 members of the NYPD in the moment on email.

We will be able to utilize this technology for so many purposes – principally conceived to help our counter-terrorism efforts but, as the mayor referenced, day-to-day. We had unfortunately this morning discovered the body of a 91-year-old man who had went missing two days ago. If we had this technology, as soon as that elderly gentleman went missing, every cop in this city, every traffic agent, every school security officer would have had his picture and description and maybe we might have been able to find him before unfortunately whatever the circumstances were of his death – an incredible, incredible tool.

As has been mentioned, in terms of dealing more efficiently with the district attorney’s offices on the issue of arrest, summons activity – in the 1990s, in dealing with the fare evasion issue in the subway, what worked against us was that when we arrested a suspect on 125th Street, we had to bring them all the way down here to do the screening of that individual. You may recall – some of you been around for a while – we developed Bust Buses. We had 6,000 buses in the transit authority – they gave me half dozen. We made them into mobile arrest processing centers and we parked them at the locations where we were making those arrests. Seven out of ten people that we bought on to that bus, where we could scan their fingerprints, check them for warrants [inaudible], were able to be released right there on the spot because we were able to confirm that there were no warrant and [inaudible] and they could get a desk appearance ticket and go on their way. Effectively, this is the evolution of that, where officers with the capabilities that we’ll be able to give them will be able to really go about identifying correctly who they’re dealing with, what is their criminal history, and effectively reducing the workload for the department, the operational efficiencies, and the workload for the district attorney’s offices.

Christmas has come early – the holiday season has come early for the NYPD and this city. Come Thanksgiving, we will have a lot to be thankful for. We will be ending the year with crime down once again – murders, overall crime situations. But we’ll also be thankful for – as we move into next year – we will now have a technology platform that builds on the domain awareness system, it builds on this room, that can go out to all 40-some-odd thousand of our agents out in the field – uniformed, security officers etcetera. But that we also – as Christmas comes – we certainly will have the gifts of these devices that we can give out to our personnel.

I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time. At chief’s conferences we’ve been talking about it – we’ve been nibbling at the edges of it. The NYPD, for most of the last three decades, has been a leader in the evolution of policing – beginning with the embrace of community policing in the early 1990s, the idea that police could in fact prevent crime; the development of the CompStat system – the quickest expanding revolution in the history of policing and indeed in public government, where most police departments in the country now embrace that system; after 9/11, the creation of all of this to deal with the terrorism risk to this city; and now, moving forward, with the work of Cy Vance and his efforts to acquire this money, the mayor’s willingness to partner up, and basically move it forward and prioritize it. We effectively are continuing that evolution where the NYPD, once again, will be changing the face of American policing. I, for the next several days, will be attending a major city chiefs’ conference, where, with great delight, I will be introducing all this to them and encouraging them to come to New York once again as they did to look at CompStat. Come and once again look at an agency that basically is moving – leap-frogging – into the 21st century. And what we have we want to share, and we will share. So, I’ll close my remarks by introducing Jessie Tisch, who will give you some of the specificity of the devices, but close also again by just a sincere thank you to the district attorney, to the mayor, and to certainly Ms. Tisch for her energy, creativity and – she’s fun to work with, she’s a terror if she doesn’t get her way so I usually let her get her way. And so, she is certainly getting her way on this technology – Jessie.

[Deputy Commissioner of Technology Jessica Tisch speaks]

Mayor: Thank you very much – well done.

Question: Two questions – you mentioned that [inaudible] lead to fewer arrests. Can you speak to what you would like to see? And then secondly, I think the Manhattan DA said [inaudible], including Cuba, which is a place that you had traveled to many years ago – if you can just address that part of the funding stream.

Mayor: I don’t know the details of all the prosecution – the DA can speak to that – but I think the fact is – let’s take the case of Iran, which is obviously the leading state sponsor of terrorism anywhere in the world. [inaudible] it’s been well-documented that, sadly, some western banks have continued to do the bidding of that government – and obviously those resources could end up aiding and abetting terror. Again, I’m going to let the experts speak to that, but from my point of view, what the district attorney achieved here is not only disrupting that flow of money but also forcing a penalty, which now will help us fight terror. Do you want to speak to that?

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance: [inaudible]. Do you need any more information?

Question: [inaudible]. On the issue of fewer arrests, is there a number that you’d like to see or an estimation as to how much lower – ?

Mayor: I don’t think it’s about setting an artificial number, because it obviously depends on the conditions we face any given month, any given year – I’ll let the commissioner speak to that. But I think the point is we’ve made clear that there’s a variety of situations where a summons is the most appropriate outcome and where arrests can be avoided if the information is available. If you can confirm identify, if you can confirm there’s no outstanding warrants, that gives us another tool to reduce unnecessary arrests and focus on summonses. So I think this will be part of moving us forward on that front.

Police Commissioner Bratton: [inaudible] speak specifically to that. Three issues that – in terms of officer efficiency. I already gave the example of what happened in the early 1990s when, instead of arresting people for fare evasion, moving them all the way down to Lower Manhattan or into any of the five boroughs, by using the Bus Bust out in the field, seven out of ten people that would have been arrested were effectively getting a desk appearance ticket on the spot and let go in less than an hour, because we could basically access Albany fingerprint files right away. Similarly here, as the fingerprint capabilities is in fact brought into play – this will take some time, but we were modeling it out in LA, when I was chief in LA, two years back, so it is a technology that is available – that would in fact allow officers to effectively identify, in the field, whether this person is wanted on a warrant and previous summonses, etcetera. It will also be very beneficial to the public in that in building a relationship with the public that – the idea that the reason we’ve stopped you is we have a description of an individual – the officer would literally be able to show them their tablet or their iPhone – here’s who we’re looking for or here’s a photo of who we’re looking for. What we’ll also have the capability of on these devices, ultimately, is to send out video – some of the video that you people show on the news casts all the time [inaudible] our officers. So, if you think of relationship building – we’ve stopped you – ‘What are you stopping me for?’ – ‘Well, here, this is the call I just received. Here’s the information of the description.’ And it is a relationship-building tool for us also. Now, I cannot overestimate the benefit. The officer efficiency issues – instead of officers having to bring people back to the station house – the travel time, the lost time – the amount of time cops will get to spend in the field instead of back in the precinct station houses, the efficiencies are just phenomenal. And the officer safety – the paramount interest of mine, always, is officer safety. The idea of going to a call and knowing everything about the recent history of that address. Cops are out for a couple days, they come back, they do a 15 minute [inaudible] call – they really are not up to speed on what’s happened in their particular sector. Now they can basically bring it up in their device, they can bring it up on the tablet – here’s everything that’s happened in the last 48 hours while you were on a day off in your sector. And now, as you’re going to that house – is there a gun registered there? The officer might not know that there was a shooting incident there last night. It’s – you’re in the news business, you understand the importance of timely, accurate information. This is taking CompStat into the 21st century – it’s taking it out of the eighth floor headquarters and putting it – not into just [inaudible], but into the hand of an officer on a subway car, an officer on a walking beat, even a traffic agent, as we eventually give these out to our traffic personnel for limited use. And we can control what can be accessed through these devices also.

DA Vance: Mayor, may I please?

Mayor: Of course.

DA Vance: Azi, I think there’s one other benefit that is significant that also affects our office, and that’s the question of fairness. So as the officers are able to provide greater public safety for themselves and others at the scene, by having more information about who is actually being detained at the scene, we are going to be able to make better judgments about what happens to that case. And the immediate benefit may be that a large number of people who can be identified at the scene will not have to come down to 1 Police Plaza or our office to be arraigned. It opens up a host of alternative ways to investigate the beginning of a case, particularly in quality of life crimes, that I think is – it’s just a complete win-win. And by giving us more information, by giving the police more information, we’re able to make better fairer judgments of cases at the inception of the case – and I think that – and I think the community that we live in has asked for that kind of real-time on-scene good judgment-making.

Question: This is – obviously there’s going to be a lot of information for the officers to have in the field now. Are there going to be any protocols put in place about how to research? What sites or databases they’re supposed to go to first, and how will that training take place, sir?

Commissioner Bratton: The protocol is already in place for use of the computer terminals in the station. Many of those will apply to the devices out in the field. There’s also – to avoid abuse – there’s the capability of every touch of any of these devices, similar to the computers in the precinct station houses, will be recorded, documented – that – in terms of officers with their passwords, who’s using what device – the intimacy of being able to track what the device is being used for so they’re not being abused. So, as Jessie has indicated, it’s not so much that there’s an expansion at this time of the information available to the officers – it’s where it’s available to them – out in the field, where it’s actually needed more than it is, sometimes, at station houses. Over time, however, the platform that’s now being built for this will allow – as we see, you know, some of these companies – every year they’re coming out with new devices new enhancements – we will now have the bandwidth – something that was not referenced here, $20 million of this money that Cy Vance is funding is to put in hundreds of miles of fiber optics to all of our 200-some-odd facilities. That fiber optics capability will allow instantaneous – instead of this slow bop-bop-bop-bop-bop-type of – sending of information – instantly. We can get it back and forth and we can handle the increased capacity of this. So the platform – we will be able to take advantage of new technologies that are constantly being developed and immediately put them into play. It’s – I can’t even begin to describe my excitement at the potential. Everything I’ve been looking at for the last 20-some-odd years, since I was police commissioner here the last time – it’s as if, finally, it’s coming to life, that – and Jessie, I know, is very much excited by it, because what she helped to create in this room is now seeing – it’s like the Christmas tree – it’s been there, it’s beautiful by itself, but now we got all these ornaments that we can put on it and we can particularize it and make it as beautiful as we want. And so I just want to talk about Christmas coming early in some respects, that is has come early – we have all these ornaments to hang. I think I’ll probably be hanging some of these on the Christmas tree at 1 Police Plaza this year as our new ornaments.

Question: Commissioner –

Mayor: [inaudible]. Go ahead.

Question: Yeah, so – one thing – could somebody tell us what ruggedized actually means?

Unknown 1: [inaudible]

Mayor: I’m sorry, this is my new favorite word. I’m going to have Jessie explain the specific meaning of ruggedize. I asked her if we could dribble this as a demonstration, you know, just to show you – but why doesn’t Jessie come on over and explain the specific thing that ruggedizing does for you.

Commissioner Bratton: Let me – let me – let me start – let me start the explanation.

Mayor: Hold on. [inaudible]

Commissioner Bratton: Remember years ago, Samsonite, to show how strong their luggage was, had that gorilla jump up and down on it? My argument would be, to test any product for ruggedization, give it to a New York cop and let him have it for 24 hours and you’ll have tested it – in terms of the all the issues they face – running, falling, jumping. So ruggedized means, to the best of your ability, trying to protect a very valuable piece of equipment from harm in the sense of – in the normal course of events, you drop it, you spill something on it – that’s ruggedized, if you will. And the mayor was just fascinated with this word.

Mayor: [Laughs]

Commissioner Bratton: Jessie?

Mayor: Jessie is now going to demonstrate.

[Jessie drops the tablet]

Jessie: That’s ruggedized.

Mayor: [Laughs]. That’s right – it’s working just fine.

Commissioner Bratton: Waterproof, coffee-proof – it’s very important.

Mayor: Coffee-proof, very important.

Question: Commissioner or the mayor –

Mayor: Please.

Question: Any concern about police on patrol or [inaudible]? Is everybody being buried in the tablet or on their phones and not looking up and seeing what’s going on around them?

Commissioner Bratton: No, because effectively that’s the world we’re in today – that you do the same thing, that – I want my cops basically putting their time to use. So if in fact they’re doing that in the field rather than doing it in the police station – where they’re needed. You know, so we have guidelines currently about what they can do with their personal devices. It’s very difficult to control that because we all, you know, we’re constantly on the phone – that’s the world we’re in today. [inaudible] to turn a blind eye to the way the world is going. We’ll have policies, procedures, etcetera, but I want them using these devices. I want them – I’ll give you another example of the use of this – because they’ll have access to Google and mapping, etcetera. I was going to an office building the other day and we had a couple of cops there that had flown in from Queens – one of those critical response vehicles that we have. And the two officers were being besieged by – as I walking up to them, it was hilarious, watching all the tourists walking up, looking [inaudible], ‘Hey, here’s a cop, let’s try to get directions.’ Those two kids hadn’t the faintest idea where anything was in Manhattan – they work in Queens. [inaudible]. And – but both of them had their personal devices and so they were Googling – you know, the name of the restaurant or whatever – or they’d bring up the map and show people. But I actually stood and watched it for a while, because I was fascinated, because we knew this event was coming. But there was – another one also had a language app, and he was showing that – when I went up to talk to him afterwards – ‘Can you show me?’ – [inaudible] – he said, if somebody comes up and they’re speaking in language I can basically punch it in and they Google translation for them. So the cops are already doing this on their own – why not give them the capability within our authority to do in a better way?

Question: Mr. Mayor, I wanted you to talk about, as far as some of these settlements, how much the city has gotten so far, how much the DA’s office has gotten so far, and also whether you’re limited to using for public safety or you’re just choosing to prioritize that at this point, and other issues might get – 

Mayor: Well, I’ll have the district attorney talk to the history, but we think public safety is the right use of this funding. Again, there’s a direct link to the War on Terror here – that the laws that were violated get back to, particularly again, in the case of Iran, nations that unfortunately have aided and abetted terror. We’re the number one terror target in the United States – we have to do more to keep ourselves safe. I think there is a perfect symmetry here – that the district attorney fought against a scourge, won the case, and now we’re devoting the resources with him to public safety. So I think it’s the right thing to do. Do you want to speak to that?

DA Vance: Sure. When the BNPP settlement dollars are all accounted for, our office will have returned to the city and state of New York since – in the last five years – $3.5 billion dollars. Now, [inaudible]

Unknown 2: [inaudible]

DA Vance: – I have an annual operating budget of about $80 million dollars and I like to say, the DA of New York County – it’s a good investment. And, but, not frivolously, these are dollars that are on important cases. I believe – I think my predecessor Bob Morgenthau believed – that where there are rogue countries who are involved with funding international terrorism or conduct that the American people have said is sanctionable, they should not be able to use our banking system and they should not be able to trick our banking system by disguising the money movements in the way they did. So I think the cases are both important from a New York safety standpoint, from a world safety standpoint, and they have also had the benefit of returning to our governments, money that is very valuable and such – the value of which you – can be seen today. The BNPP settlement – the state roughly has $3.2 billion dollars out of the overall settlement of $4.4 billion dollars that went to New York. The federal government took $4.4 billion dollars. New York State and City took $4.4 billion dollars. The state took $3.2 billion, approximately, of that share, and the rest, by statute, comes to the DA’s office, where we are using it for public safety purposes – transformative investments in the criminal justice system, in partnership with our partners in criminal justice – and the same amount went to the mayor’s office – and I know that the mayor and Liz Glazer will also use it for projects that really matter, projects that we have been waiting to do for decades, and now have the resources to do it. So I – I agree with the commissioner. This is an important moment in time and we simply [inaudible] – we want to make the best of the opportunity that fate has given us.

Mayor: Just one more point on this – I’ll turn to this side of the room for questions – just one more point on this, though. If we were looking for one individual who was associated with a terrorist group, imagine the fact that we have 35,000 officers who now simultaneously can receive that information – 34,000 pairs of eyes on the situation, let alone other law enforcement entities. In a more complicated world, this is an extraordinary tool, because, literally, if we’re looking for one individual, now that picture can be in the hands of every single officer instantaneously – talk about a game-changer. That is an extraordinary advance and it’s only happening because the district attorney won this case and recognized the opportunity here to transform the way we police. Over here –

Question: To the district attorney, can you tell us a little bit more about [inaudible] what was this bank accused of doing? [inaudible]?

DA Vance: The settlement is a public document – I’m sure we can send that to you if you wish to see it. But it was resolved by plea in, I think, early July of this year and, in substance, BNPP acknowledged, through its corporate officers and a plea in court, that, over an extended period of time, it had been hiding the source of funds that it was moving through New York City clearing. So, international transactions are typically cleared in dollars. Those dollars are typically cleared in New York, although they’re in electronic transfers. And BNPP had, knowing that this was illegal, had engaged in hiding the source or endpoints of the money that it was moving through New York in an effort to not trip what are called the OFAC filters – the federal filters that are tripped if you have Iran somewhere on a message of internet – electronic message – and also creating false records as they moved through New York City and New York State, thereby victimizing our banking system and the state of New York. The most egregious – the statement of facts is long, but I think among the concerns was the amount of money that BNP moved for the government of Sudan. Over an extended period of time, in the billions of dollars, and hiding the fact that it was moving money to support the economy of Sudan and the actions of Sudan – I think that was a factor that I think weighed heavily among all the prosecutors – and by the way, the federal government was our full partner in this – and a full investigative partner, weighed heavily with all the investigating agencies. But what I can do is get you – if you want – a copy of the BNPP settlement and [inaudible] and that will give you [inaudible] everything you need to know.

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner Bratton: I’ll let Jessie speak to some of the technical issues, subways, etc. Relative to the tracking that we will have both the ability to know everything that’s done on the device, but we also in the process as most American police departments taking advantage of new technology – we are currently in the process of equipping all of our vehicles with GPS location devices, so that our dispatchers will be able to – on their screens – our supervisors on their screens of the precinct at any time see where all of our vehicles are. They are on call – engine on, engine off – so that we can effectively assign our closest car, or on the officer safety standpoint, if they get in trouble and are not able to give a location, we will know exactly where they are because basically we will have those capabilities. Are there union issues? The union traditionally – certainly has expressed concern, but over time they expressed concern initially about bulletproof vest – the requirement that officers wear them all the time. That was fought very aggressively by many unions in this country. [inaudible] nametags was fought very aggressively by unions. Some unions in the country have expressed opposition to the body cameras. Fortunately our unions are basically not contesting the ability to go forward with the pilot testing of the body cameras, because they understand the safety feature to officers. So, I think the safety features will override any concern about the intimacy of what officers are doing. When they’re on duty, we have the right and the obligation, both from public safety as well as officer safety, to the best of our ability try to facilitate how we use and where we use and when we use them.

Question: Quick follow-up. What happens when a cop goes home, do they shut off the device? [inaudible]

Commissioner Bratton: That will be part of the policies much the same as their radios. They are issued personal radios. The body cameras – as we move forward with those – they will be issued personal body cameras, the firearms – all of their equipment is covered by policy as to when, where they wear it. When they’re not wearing it, how do they secure it. So, similarly this will part of what Jessie and her people will be working on the policy development, relative to those issues. Jessie.

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: Today, for the most part no. To answer the question about underground, for the most part they will not work underground.

Mayor: Okay, last call. On topic? Yes.

Question: The timeline –have these already been purchased? When are they issued?  How soon [inaudible]

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: Today, we have –

Unknown: Drumroll?

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: [Laughs] Today, we have a pilot with about 40 or so officers, piloting just the tablets. I hope to have a few hundred out – hopefully at the beginning of the New Year.

Mayor: Let me jump in. You can add to it, but look the goal here is to get this as fully implemented next year as possible. We know that, again, this is a huge leap forward technologically. It’s a huge force. We’re going to learn through the pilots. We’re going to learn through implementing this on a larger level. But our goal is to expand with every month and by next year, have a really strong presence, at least across the force. Anything else? That’s good? Okay.  Off-topic.

Question: There is a video out of the arrest [inaudible]

Commissioner Bratton: Okay. Let’s – let’s address this. We are going to have routinely, ‘he said, she said’ allegations being made by attorneys for defendants. Those matters are under investigation. We have a process, so, that matter is under investigation by our internal affairs, the appropriate district attorney’s offices. So, what more should be said? We operate from a disadvantage, but maybe the advantage – we try to go where the truth will take us, rather than the benefit attorneys have of basically, feeding the beast, putting out the one-sided version of it.   So, in terms of this incident, as many of the others that we are trying to deal with – as we are moving forward to identify officers who might be engaging in inappropriate behavior – there is a process and you’re well aware of that process because you report on it all the time. Although, usually most of the reporting is on the front end, not so much what happens at the final resolution. So, on that one – that matter is the subject of a department internal affairs and maybe a CCRB, depending on where it was initially reported and then the district attorney’s office in the appropriate borough will certainly get into it if there is any allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of the police officer.

Mayor: Can I add to that for a moment? I want to commend the commissioner, because he calls them as he sees them. There is always an investigation. You can’t do anything on hearsay. You can’t do anything lightly. But, you’ve seen this commissioner. When he thinks an officer comported himself or herself properly, he will say that. When he thinks, after the investigation, someone deserves disciplinary measures, he is not slow to do it. So, I think we have here a balanced approach and the commissioner set a very high standard for the men and women of the NYPD, and the people of this city appreciate that. But what’s clear is there has to be a full investigatory process in each and every case. What we’re also doing and I commend the commissioner further – the retraining of the entire police force is clarifying what we think is the appropriate way to approach what are always difficult situations. And let’s remember each and every one of our officers is put into very complicated situations on a daily basis. The retraining is to help every officer know what this commissioner’s standard is and the best way to approach things. I think you’re going to see in many cases – and I think this information technology as well will add to it – better ability to approach complicated situations and better ability to interact with the public and better ability to bring police and community closer together.

Question: Yes, commissioner, what are you learning about or from the latest attack in Canada?

Commissioner Bratton: I actually just had a full briefing this morning by Chief Waters who’s here – counterterrorism, and Chief Galati, who’s staying abreast to that as you might appreciate. We routinely have, as part of our overseas detectives, officers up in Canada. We have supplemented that by sending another officer up to that area. So, we are staying very intimate with that matter as it goes forward. Most of it is, as you’re already reporting, it’s pretty much out there. We are certainly be looking for any nexus back in the United States, travel, etcetera. of this individual. We have, as you’re well aware – we’ve got a very robust – almost a 1,000 person counter-terrorism intelligence capability. Effectively this now gives us 35,000 officers who can now assist in that. But that case is – we’re very actively engaged in that. Similarly with Israel, the detective that we have in Israel was back here for a few days for debriefings and he is now back. The Israeli incident – the death of a young child, my understanding is that a young child was an American citizen and so it has an American – New York connotation to it. And our area of focus is that the radicals have been promulgating and encouraging the lone wolves – or whatever – to take action and one of the actions they’ve encouraged is use of vehicles and so now seen in the incident Israel, is the use of a vehicle. We saw an incident earlier this week up in Canada, the death of a uniformed soldier in an assault with a vehicle. So, that we will look very closely in terms of attempting to identify motivation of those individuals, as to were they in fact responding to the encouragement, were they part of a larger cell or were they lone wolves? So, we’re very good at this and we’ve learned from it and very quickly put it into our game book, if you will.

Question: Just following up on that point, how do you sort of look for that – those signs of encouragement. There’s people who have questions about surveillance and security and personal privacy, but if the lone wolf aspect is something that you’re concerned about how do you look for people that are encouraged –

Commissioner Bratton: We’re very skilled at that – the review of social media. Everything we do is in accordance with the law. I will emphasize that. And even if there are concerns about these types of issues – expand our capabilities, expand in terms of the ability to frequently access social media. Some of the intelligence investigations for known terrorist activities overseas are working in coordination with our federal colleagues here. So, one the benefits of this city being the focal point of so much interest in this area is that we have the most robust counter-terrorism entity in the United States along with our FBI colleagues. We are enhancing that early next month. The commissioner for metropolitan police is coming in for several days. We are having a series of meetings here in New York City around the issue of terrorism specifically. The chief from L.A is coming in – Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston – they’ll all be here around this emerging issue. I’m attending a chief’s conference in the next several days where all the major city chiefs’ are coming together, and a particular focal point of interest as you might appreciate, will be this issue. Unfortunately, several of our Canadian colleagues will not be attending because of what’s going on up in Canada at the moment. But, we stay very intimate but I will emphasize it’s all done within the law.      

Mayor: Just to add quickly that the point here is that NYPD has done an extraordinary job and their track record speaks for itself, over the last thirteen years. But look, at the same time there is a constant effort to improve and it’s not just the technology. This commissioner, to his credit, has drawn the NYPD closer to communities all over the city. That has intelligence-gathering ramifications. That means more and more people are dealing with the NYPD and the city government in a more positive manner. We think that’s going to lead to more people providing us helpful information in a variety of communities. So, there’s a number of tools being put in place. I will say one more thing, and commissioner I don’t mean to make you blush here, but the – when I heard what our colleagues at FBI had to say, a week ago in Washington, the FBI director and the other senior officials – about their respect, not only for Commissioner Bratton, but for NYPD, and their sense of the NYPD as a particularly strong partner in this work. It’s a reminder of something every New Yorker should be proud of – that this city, after bearing the brunt of tragedy, not only got back on its feet but figured out how to defend itself so well that now our federal partners have turned to us often to see what we know, and what we have at our disposals that can help them and obviously it is very mutual. It’s a constant two-way street. So, I think an ever-improving coordination with our federal partners, the use of technology and the closeness that’s being developed with communities around the city are all new tools and as I said, this new technology we’re announcing today – huge jump because now it means every officer can be even more a part of that counter-terrorism effort.

Question: [inaudible] How do you stop a lone wolf?

Commissioner Bratton: So, I think clearly my predecessor, Commissioner Kelly, and the NYPD during his tenure had several instances of that. We recently saw the conviction of the individual who was making pipe bombs and intending to use those in the city of New York. And he is now off to about 25 years in federal prison. It is a growing concern. It’s a concern when I was chief of the LAPD. We were first focusing on [inaudible] Mumbai type of multi-pronged attack. At the same time, a lone wolf going back a number of years was a growing concern and it remains a priority at the moment. And there again, it is the idea of being very proactive and not reactive. Effectively, what we’ve done about crime in the city for 20 years, we understand that we have to have as our priority, the prevention of it – capabilities to respond but the focus has to be – priority has to be on prevention. And so, all of this that you’re sitting in the middle of – the other centers we have around the city, the relationships we have, the exchange of information as recently as last week – two weeks ago the mayor and I went to meetings we had in Washington. All of that is intended to make sure that we identify any cracks if you will – that we need this to be a seamless relationship. So, the coordination, the collaboration is absolutely essential. And, as the mayor referenced in this issue, collaboration with our very diverse communities in this city is critical because they are the eyes and the ears. If they see somebody becoming radicalized, behavior changing very quickly, we need them to be able to feel comfortable enough that they can relay that information and that it would be dealt with appropriately.

Question: [Inaudible] the Rubenstein rape case?

DA Vance: As I indicated through our office, this is a very active and open investigation. And beyond that at this time, I’m really not in a position to provide more details, but it’s being investigated by experienced lawyers in our office and we will take the time we need to do the investigation that needs to be done.

Question: [inaudible] the information that’s in the media indicates that the two actors or the actors in the two incidents in Canada were both converts to Islam. Has there been a connection with ISIL or ISIS in regard to this at all? 

Commissioner Bratton: To answer that, it is part of the ongoing investigation, certainly on the part of the Canadian officials as it involves their jurisdiction, but certainly of interest to us, as to whether – for two reasons, one, the learning curve – [inaudible] the learning curve about if they were radicalized who that [inaudible] in the sense of who the internet or the inspire magazines that they’re getting very sophisticated at. Or, are they truly lone wolves? Or, of more concern – are they part of a concerted effort? So, that will be the focus of the investigation to try to learn. Are they truly lone wolves? Were they recently inspired by the propaganda, if you will, but maybe more importantly, were they acting truly upon their own or are they part of a larger plot. And that we don’t know at this time. Thank you all.