Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner O'Neill Host Press Conference Regarding Crime Statistics

August 3, 2017

Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill: Afternoon, everybody.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good afternoon, Commissioner.

Commissioner O'Neill: Thanks for being here.

Mayor: Are you doing both parts now?

Commissioner O'Neill: Thank you, thank you.

Mayor: Can you ask all the press questions too later on, that would be good.

Commissioner O'Neill: I don't know if they're going to let me.

Mayor: No?

Commissioner O'Neill: I'm just going to speak for a couple of minutes, and then turn it over to Mayor de Blasio and you'll hear as usual from Dermot Shea, our Chief of Crime Control Strategies, and Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce, and also from Jessie Tisch. Jess will give you an update on ShotSpotter.

So it's no secret that month after month, quarter after quarter, the NYPD has continually pushed crime down further and further. A great deal of that credit goes to the hard working men and women who put that uniform on each and every day and go out and do what we as society have asked them to do, what they swore and oath to do. And that is to fight crime and to keep people safe. I'm talking about dedicated officers who rush to the aid of domestic violence victims, brave cops who take guns off career criminals in the middle of the night while the rest of New York City is sleeping. I'm talking about devoted public servants like murdered Detective Miosotis Familia of the 4-6 Precinct up in the Bronx, and Officer Dalsh Veve of the 6-7 Precinct in Brooklyn who still has a lengthy recover ahead of him after being dragged by a car in June. I'm talking about cops like James McNaughton who 12 years ago yesterday became the first NYPD officer killed in action in Iraq. Jimmy joined the Army in 1996, was honorably discharged five years later in the summer of 2001, he immediately reenlisted in the Reserves and joined the NYPD the very next day. Jimmy was deployed to Iraq in 2004, and then on August 2nd, 2005 while training Iraq police while up in a guard tower Jimmy was struck and killed by a sniper's bullet. At just 27 years old Jimmy gave more to this city and this nation than every of us will ever. His service to this police department was in his blood with both parents and his fiancée serve in the NYPD too. I spoke to his dad Bill last night. We miss him like we miss all our heroes, and we'll always honor their memories.

One of the best ways to honor our fallen officers is to maintain a sharp focus on our crime fighting mission. We're doing that effectively through precision policing and directed enforcement aimed at gang activity. And we're working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to see cases through to meaningful prison sentences for those who carry or use illegal firearms in our city. Early this week on Tuesday, I was really pleased to see the crowds that turned out for National Night Out. NYPD had events at about 70 locations this year. I got to a few of them through all five boroughs. I do have to tell you, I've been a cop a long time and every year I see more and more people at this event. It's very, very encouraging and it speaks to our whole neighborhood policing philosophy. I really would like to see these kinds of interactions I witnessed this week take place in the city every day in all of our neighborhoods. And we're starting to.

When I began my remarks I said that much of the credit for our consistent reduction in crime is owed to the men and women in blue, and it is the cops who are working now and for all those who came before them that got us to where we are now. But as time goes on, we increasingly need to work with the – we have to have those strong relationships we're developing between our cops and everybody who lives and works in all our communities. They're the ones who know the criminals, they're the ones who know who's on their streets, on their block, in their housing developments, and in their neighborhoods. No one knows better about what's going on in their block than the people that live and work there. And they're the ones that can help us maintain our focus, maintain our efforts, maintain where we're going to put our resources in the right areas. So we need that connection between New Yorkers and our officers. We need everybody's help because public safety will always be a shared responsibility. That's how we're going to keep finding our way forward together.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Thank you very much, Commissioner. And Commissioner, congratulations to you and all the leadership of the NYPD present here and most importantly the men and women of the NYPD for another month of extraordinary progress. And I just want to say at the outset we're now seven months completed in the year 2017, and something very special is happening this year. And I want to fully accredit it to the changes that have been made as a result of the neighborhood policing strategy. And I want to give the Commissioner in particular credit for developing this strategy and bringing it to life. More and more we see what it means.

So, seven months in to 2017, we know we have now the safest year on record. And we see it consistently across crime categories. We've talked a lot before and I like to repeat it because it's true, New York City is the safest big city in America. But the question people always ask is how far can you go? What we've seen so far in the months of this year January through July is just extraordinary consistency in the progress the NYPD is making. So, records continue to be set, and we see so far this year really steady and continued progress.

Major crime down 8.1 percent from last July, and it's dropped in all five boroughs. And we also have seen the lowest number of shootings ever for the month of July. It dropped from 97 last year to just 80 citywide in the month of July 2017. Everyone here knows that the assumption that everyone holds is that in the summer months unfortunately we see an uptick in violence, but even though that's always a challenge this year NYPD has done something already amazing showing that in the month of July there can be extraordinary efforts made to reduce the number of shootings. And a lot of us here could – if we had heard in years past the notion of 80 shootings in all of New York City in the month of July, any July we would have been astounded but this is becoming something we're getting more and more used to and that's a good thing.

The overall progress this year, so far year to date murders down 17.3 percent, shootings down 17.1 percent year to date compared to last year – also, extraordinary progress. Why does neighborhood policing make the difference? Because it simply creates an alliance between police and community we didn't have enough of in the past. It's the point the Commissioner made. More and more people come to National Night Out because more and more people feel deeply connected to our police, they know them by name because of neighborhood policing, because of the presence of the NCO officers. And I've – I asked NCO officers all the time when I meet them I ask them spontaneously describe what it's like, what's different. Two things consistently come up, they talk about the fact that they get thanked by community members a lot and people who know them come to know them thank them for their work on a regular basis. And that's what our officers deserve. But the other thing they say is about the flow of information. I ask NCOs all the time, have you gotten information from people in the community, is it different from what you used to get before, what kind of information, what has it led to? And what I consistently hear is more information, better information leading to more ability to stop crime. That's the kind of thing we all hoped for with neighborhood policing, and we now see it coming to pass.

The fact is this also connects to the other big strands, the other big changes. Obviously, the training that our police force has received focuses on building those relationships focuses on de-escalation in moments of tension and conflict. All of that helps in the process of opening up communication with communities as well.

And the change that's going on within our police force – a lot of you I think noted as I did the reporting recently on the fact that now we have a police force that now we have a police force that over 50 percent of its members live in the five boroughs. And I don't know when that was last true, I don't know how far back you have to go in our history. But I think it's a very healthy thing for New York City that now more than half of our officers live in the five boroughs. From everything I can see, that trend is going to deepen and it's a good thing for people to come from the communities, the broader communities they serve, know this city the way someone who grows up here does. And it gives faith to communities to see members of their own communities make it to the NYPD. Certainly I said this the other night – National Night Out in the 4-6 Precinct no one epitomizes that new NYPD more than the hero we lost Detective Familia. Literally from very nearby, from the community of the 4-6 Precinct and serving in her own community. I think that's the shape of things to come with New York City and the NYPD.

In the end, these strategies are working but I'll conclude this one point in English and say a few words very quickly in Spanish. I want to emphasize there is no complacency, no one – no one up here at this table is feeling any complacency whatsoever and I really admire that about the NYPD leadership. There is an urgency every time we talk about any strategic issue, anytime we talk about these statistics no one is ready to say we've gone as far as we can go or we've done all we can do. Everyone's looking to take the next big step, and I admire that approach and that attitude. It's part of why this team has achieved so much, so my congratulations to you Commissioner and to your whole team.

A few words in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

Thank you very much and I think we're turning to –

Commissioner O'Neill: Dermot.

Mayor: Dermot Shea. Over to you.

Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea: Thank you Mr. Mayor, good afternoon everyone. You'll see some slides coming up behind me. Big picture of New York City crime as we're entering now August. Through seven months we're on pace and Commissioner I didn't want to say this but it's already been in print so I'm not letting the cat out of the bag, we are on pace to finish the year potentially under 10,000 index crimes and that would be the first time that that's occurred. Through the end of July we are at 54,000 and change index crimes. We finished last year, 2016, at a little over 102,000.

We are currently 3,000 crimes fewer than last year. So, that is a lofty goal and something that we are watching closely as we approach the end of the year.

Every borough – as the Mayor said, every borough of New York City is down in crime at this point in the year, and very important, every category of index crime from murder to property crimes is down. So, we're seeing a wide stretch across a breadth of categories of crime – all down, trending. And you can see that in that slide.

As you go to the next slide, it talks specifically about murder levels. And this recorded murders. These are preliminary numbers, I will say, because I can tell you definitively that the July number is already going to, unfortunately, be added to as crimes and investigations which are fluid as paperwork is consolidated.

As of July 31st, as you see on that slide, when you look at the ten-year average of where we historically are and where we are through July 31st – 162 murders recorded. That comes to a 17 percent reduction in murders, very significant. What's driving it? It's very clear the gun strategy that we put in place over the last couple of years combined with the investigative model is really paying dividends.

We are down 26 shooting homicides through July 31st, alright. Very significant. And you can see for the last four years, prior to this year, when you look at the end of the year, we've been in a range of 333 homicides to a high – I believe it was 352.

We are on pace over 30 homicides below that right now. So, that's significant departure as you look at that slide.

As you move on to shooting incidents. When you look at shooting incidents through July 31st, we are currently 440 shooting incidents. Again, that's essentially the last decade that you're looking up on that slide – a ten-year look in New York City. Obviously, if you went back further, the numbers would go much higher.

Pay attention to 2017, '16, and '15, and that dramatic drop the last three years, again, as the momentum continues and our strategies really take hold here in New York City.

Ninety-one shooting incidents down through the first seven months. More importantly 112 fewer shooting victims in New York City. Again, a 17 percent reduction.

If you recall at the end of last year, we came in under 1,000 shooting incidents. We finished the year at 997. And that was the first time we were under 1,000. My expectation is we are going to shatter that record this year.

We are 91 shootings down now. You'll see as we move through these slides – stay here for a minute – that July is historically the largest shooting incident number in New York City. We have potential, this year, to knock a significant number off with our current momentum continuing. So, more good news.

As you slide to the next slide, please. July-specific, now, crime stats.

Overall crime, as the Mayor mentioned, trending down. Seven months of this year – six of seven months, we've been down in crime. We were up slightly in January and then we've really taken off in pushing that number down.

Again, the summary – down in crime eight percent in July, about 3,000 crimes down this year, and overall year-to-date right now we're at about a six percent decline. And again, that 100,000 number is within reach for the first time.

When you look at the next slide – July-specific, now. July murders – this is the one that is the opposite direction that we'd like to see. So, when you look at recorded murders in July, we are plus-one from last year.

And we've been in a narrow range the last four years but you can see it's one or two additional each year. What's behind that? We've seen normal fluctuations, quite frankly, like that, unfortunately. But the big picture, for the first seven months, over 30 homicides down and approaching record numbers – 335 recorded homicides in New York City last year. At this point, we're on pace to be somewhere around 300 which would be a significant decline.

If you go to the last slide – and this July-specific shooting incidents in New York City. And I think this is some of what the Mayor was referencing. July, historically, since we began recording shooting incidents in New York City, the number-one month of the year where we record the most has been July.

This is the second straight July with under 100 shooting incidents. If you look back just five years to 2012 – 188 shooting incidents in July. We finished this July with 80.

Last August we 145 incidents. We are going to shatter that this August and we are going to push that number even lower as we move through the final weeks of August. Why? Again, it's been alluded to but, if you talk about Terry Monahan and the new model of policing in New York City; if you talk, next to me, with Bob Boyce and that investigative model, there is still a momentum as we continue to fight crime and look for opportunities.

And, Mr. Mayor, you alluded to the lack of complacency. You should have seen the CompStat meeting tonight, and you would be proud of the men and women of the different bureaus of the NYPD continuing to look for ways to push the crime further down.

Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you.

Commissioner O'Neill: Alright, next up – Bob Boyce has a few cases he wants to talk about. Bob –

Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, NYPD: Sure. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm here to announce the identification of two perpetrators from a double homicide that happened about three weeks ago. They're to my left and to your right. This homicide happened in the 8-1 Precinct. Two young ladies – Chynna Battle, 21 years old and Shaqwanda Staley, she's 29 years old – they were sitting in the rear of 740 Gates Avenue which is the Stuyvesant Gardens area of Brooklyn. And they were sitting in the back having a barbeque with other individuals when several males entered that location.

We've identified two individuals – Nazir Saunders, a.k.a Nazi, and Anthony Alexander. Both are from nearby Roosevelt Houses. They went back there and Mr. – we believe Mr. Saunders had a 45-caliber handgun. He fired six times. Mr. Alexander has a 380-caliber. He fired twice. These bullets hit these two young ladies.

What he was shooting was someone sitting with them, okay. So, we've identified these individuals. We're looking to identify two others that they were with. Now, when you go through here – initially a nickname emerged almost that name of a male names Stinky. Stinky was Nazir Saunders as we found out. Most people knew him from the neighborhood.

We went with that and that's how we were able to identify Anthony Alexander. A lot of digital evidence, a lot of community input was able to get these two individuals identified. Again, we believe they were walking with two others. We're still seeking to build a case upon them.

So, it's not over but we've been hunting these two individuals in the last two days. Any community help that we can get as to where they are, we would certainly appreciate.

To my right – substantial arrest that happened yesterday and we're continuing to go forward with it. We had a couple years ago, in fact six years ago, we had an incident in Forest Park in Queens. There was Forest Park stranger rape pattern – a total of six incidents. It started in March of 2011 and ended in August of 2013.

We were able to get DNA from two of those cases. We had a DNA match this week. However, I will tell you that we have been working this case straight since 2013, since its inception. So, we never really lost sight of it.

We got a DNA match from an arrest in Nassau County. This male's name is Mark Andrade He lives in the area in the 1-0-2 Precinct in Richmond Hills. However, most of his arrests – he's got six prior arrests, he's a 45-year-old male – none of them of which are sex crimes, none of which would raise, prior to the recent arrest in Nassau County of grand larceny, would rise where his DNA would go into the CODIS database. It did, finally, and we were able to make that identification.

Now, right now, we're just charging with the one that happened on March 29th of 2013. That's where we got his DNA. The young lady – all of these young ladies were joggers on the bridal path within the park. This one young lady struggled with him and actually pulled a beer can out of his back pocket – a beer bottle, I should say, and then threw it. We retrieved that beer bottle as part of the crime scene. That's where we swabbed and got the DNA. And that's how we identified him.

So, again, we have a young lady who helped us identify her attacker. So, right now, he's being charged with. We hope to add on more as we go forward. We've charged him already. We're going to bring him down to central booking in about an hour or so out of the 1-0-4 Precinct. So, good things happening. That's all I have.

Commissioner O'Neill: Alright, thanks, Bob. Jess Tisch, our Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology is going to give you an update on ShotSpotter. Jess –

Deputy Commissioner Jessica Tisch, NYPD, Information Technology: Good morning. So, it's been about a year since I've had the opportunity to update you all on what's going on with our ShotSpotter program. And in that year a lot has happened.

Just to remind everyone, ShotSpotter is a system of audio sensors largely deployed on building rooftops and sometimes on street poles, designed to detect gun shots. And when the sensor detects the sound of a gunshot it will send a real time alert to officers policing in the area.

The officers not only get alerted to the gunshot but they can actually hear the sound of the gun fire on their smartphones and get information about where those shots were fired to, like, the specific address.

Shot Spotter has been an incredible tool for the NYPD. It's contributed to faster response times to 9-1-1 calls or to incidents of shots fired. We've taken a lot of firearms off the street because of it. We credit for a number of our gun arrests. We've also heard from our detectives that is an incredible investigative tool.

And also, one big point to make about ShotSpotter is we know about more shots fired incidents in the city because of ShotSpotter. So, we found that only 16 percent of shots fired incidents have 9-1-1 calls associated with them.

So, let me tell you where we are in terms of our deployment. So, today, I'm very pleased to tell you that we have 54-square-miles of the city covered by ShotSpotter sensors. And by the end of this summer we will have 60-square-miles of coverage.

To give you a sense of how far we've come – in the past year alone, we have doubled our ShotSpotter coverage zone. We did 30-square-miles in the past 12 months. The most recent precincts that we added are the 6-0 in Coney Island and the 1-2-0 neighborhoods, St. George, West Brighton, Clifton.

The map behind me shows the current coverage of ShotSpotter areas in yellow. The six addition square miles that we plan to light up this summer are in orange. Those are Washington Heights in the 3-3 and Fort Greene in the 8-8.

I am also pleased to tell you that the Mayor has recently provided funding to the NYPD to expand our ShotSpotter program for an additional nine-square-miles of coverage which will include Staten Island in the area of the 1-2-1, parts of Queens Norths, and also parts of the Bronx.

And we anticipate those nine additional square miles to be built out by the end of the calendar year.

Quickly, because I know you always ask – some statistics of note. So, year-to-date, we've 1,740 ShotSpotter activations. Last year in 2016, the full calendar year just to give you some reference, we had 2,399. So, that shows, really, the impact of our expanded coverage area.

The activations that have 9-1-1 calls associated with them, as I was saying before, is just 16 percent. We've had 31 firearm recoveries so far this year. That's just when the police respond and in the initial response recover a firearm. Those don't count the firearms recovered based on later follow up and investigation. And we've made 61 arrests associated with ShotSpotter alerts.

The vast majority of these guns that are recovered and the arrests that are made, are made to ShotSpotter activations that don't have 9-1-1 calls associated with them.

I'll give you – I'll conclude with one quick recent example of a ShotSpotter success that is actually from this weekend in the confines of the 6-9 Precinct.

On July 29th at approximately 0-5-57 hours, police responded to a ShotSpotter activation at 633 East 86th Street. Upon arrival, the officers observed a suspect leaving the scene and placed him into custody. A search of the immediate area revealed 11 shell casings on the ground at the entrance to the home. In addition a black 40-caliber firearm was found near the door.

A subsequent search of the residences discovered two additional firearms. And again, in this incident there were no 9-1-1 calls associated with the ShotSpotter activation.

Commissioner O'Neill: Alright. Thanks, Jess. If you have any questions about crime or any of the cases Bob spoke about or ShotSpotter, we'll take those now.

Question: [Inaudible] percent of the ShotSpotter activations with no 9-1-1 call, what are people doing? Are people just shooting guns in the air? Anybody getting hurt in those? Are they robberies that are just not reported? What's – is there any sense of what's happening?

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: Dermot will take that one.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: And this is a generalization, so difficult. But what we see is what we've been attacking the last three years. We see small groups of individuals attached to crews or gangs in various parts of the city, concentrated, disputing with each other. And when they do, there are shots, sometimes there are multiple guns, sometimes going both ways. But those are the types of incidents, if I was going to generalize, that we see most often.

It's not during the commission of a robbery. It's during – where gangs disputing.

Chief Boyce: And here's the benefit on the investigative side on that. So, you have one shooting where you have someone shot. And you have a ballistics hit on two other locations. So, you'd always get the evidence you need on the police shooting where the individual was shot. But we go over to the other incidents and we're sometimes able to make identifications from those shots fired [inaudible].

It's been a tremendous bonus for us in the Detective Bureau and it's helped quite a bit as far as we get brass – or what we call brass – shell casings from these locations and we do a ballistic hit and we're able to identify people that way once they're arrested for that gun. So, it's been a great bonus for us in the Detective Bureau that we did not think we were going to get a couple years ago.

Question: Just for the shooting incidents data, the released that we've been provided – if I'm reading it right – says there were 102 shooting incidents in July of 2017 [inaudible] you told us 80.

And in addition, if ShotSpotter is identifying more and more shooting incidents, that how come the number is going down?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: I'll address the first one. I'm not sure what you're holding in front of you but 80 –

Question: [Inaudible] release that says what I just read to you –

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Eighty shooting incidents –

Question: [Inaudible]

Deputy Commissioner Shea: I'm not sure what numbers – I can clarify that afterwards. But definitely, July, yes. If that's what that says, then it's incorrect. July of '17 which we just finished, 80 shooting incidents.

Question: If ShotSpotter is identifying a significantly greater numbers of shootings, why are the shooting incidents that you're reporting to us [inaudible] –

Commissioner O'Neill: It's not significantly – the number is significantly higher. This is something we haven't done in the past. These are shots fired that we haven't picked up in the past and now we're starting to tally them also.

But in these cases people aren't being shot. It's just shots being fired.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: For definition purposes, a shooting incident, we require somebody to be shot. In addition to that there are incidents that are occurring where shots are being fired and no one is hit. And as Bob said, all of this is pulled together and we do nothing without prioritizing.

And it has helped us on the investigative side and also on the deployment side, quite frankly, on the patrol side to put the cops where we need them to prevent shootings before they happen. So, there's a lot going on and coming together, and that's why you see that dramatic drop in shooting incidents.

And I apologize wherever you go the wrong information from.

Question: For Dermot Shea, you mentioned that [inaudible] gang shootings [inaudible]. Are you saying with the federal [inaudible] taking these case [inaudible]?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Tony, it's difficult to quantify that but that's not an outrageous statement. I will say that we get a great deal cooperation from our local prosecutors as well as our federal. But the very nature of our deployment is based on the facts of each individual case whether it's a gun case a drug case, what charges we're attempting prove, what we can prove. We'll make strategic decisions and we do it on a daily basis of where we're going to prosecute individual cases. That's going to have the greatest impact for the quality of life of everyone in New York City.

Once we make those – and we do cases, many, State and federal, and successful in both. Difficult to quantify do you get more cooperation on the federal level but there are certain strategic advantages to taking cases federal. Every case cannot go federal for a number of reasons.

But there are advantages at times – admissibility of evidence, sentencing, and then depending on the circumstances sometimes the sentencing is better in fact at the State level. So, each case is case-specific – charges, who the individuals are. And I just want to get out there, we could not do this without the Southern District of New York, Eastern District of New York, all our partners on the federal side, but also the vast majority of the cases we do are at the State level in the five counties of New York.

Commissioner O'Neill: And Tony, just to add to that. When we do go federal, most of the time it's a discussion between the local prosecutors, us, and the US Attorney's Office.

Question: A question specifically about assaults. According to a report I have here from the City's Health Department, according to hospital records there are about 22,000 assaults in New York City hospitals and health centers each year. Also, it's the tenth leading cause of emergency room costs. So, how come your numbers for assaults are so low?

Commissioner O'Neill: Dermot, you want to –

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Well, the first thing that comes to my mind there, and again you would need to be a data junkie, as I am, and dig into those numbers. I would need to see it and see what you're describing.

Bob Boyce could assaulted tonight and make a police report and go to the hospital. And he could go back to the hospital five times for that same injuries. Is that five incidents that is being reported five separate times? You really have to look into the individual statistics and go from there.

That's a wide, wide discrepancy. I'll give you some assault numbers here. We have about 11,500 felony assaults. Many more misdemeanor assaults year-to-date – 24,000. So, you didn't specify felony versus misdemeanor. So, there's really a lot that could go – that could explain those numbers.

Question: Two questions. One – if the relationship between police and community is improving, why aren't more people calling in shots that they hear? And then secondly, the Brooklyn DA and State Attorney General earlier this morning said ICE raids in courts are leading some people to be fearful of cooperating with law enforcement out of fear of being deported. I'm wondering if you're seeing any of that in the NYPD.

Mayor: Can I just jump in on that before others respond to the specifics? Look, we have many measures of why neighborhood policing is working, and, obviously, the most important set of measures is what we just described – the reduction in crime.

But another thing to focus on is the reduction in complaints against police. So, what I'd say to you is – I understand the sort of logic jump you make if people are feeling better about the relationship with the police, why don't they call in the shootings? I would argue, that's not the best way to measure the relationship between police and community. I think it is whether our efforts are reducing crime. I think it's looking at how people respond to their interactions with police and the fact that they find, I think if someone can help me on this, I believe the number is about a 15-year low in terms of the number of complaints that are going to CCRB, and certainly all the information we're hearing from community leaders and active citizens about their relationship with the police.

I think that's it's own set of data and that tells us a lot. Should every New Yorker call in a shot if they hear it? Absolutely because the police need that information and not everyone is yet covered by ShotSpotter.

But, Azi, I would really argue that is a different question than whether people feel good about the relationship with police. That may be people who, you know, have heard shots over the years and gotten used to it, we would like to encourage people of course to believe that there's constant progress. They should take nothing for granted. They should assume we're not taking anything for granted and call that in right away.

Commissioner O'Neill: And just moving forward the technology that we have not, that's maybe something we can take a look at to see if we can close that gap between the number of 9-1-1 calls and the number of ShotSpotter alerts.

Question: [Inaudible] witnesses, are you getting any kind of sense that people are being scared away by ICE showing up at the courts?

Commissioner O'Neill: [Inaudible] from all the community outreach we do across the city, we're not getting that sense in New York City.

Question: Chief Boyce, are there any updates in the [inaudible]?

Chief Boyce: Okay. The first one is that we were able to narrow off our focus on the 1-0-5 investigation quite a bit. He's, as I said earlier, is not the victim of – Mr. Ray – is not the target here nor is the person who is named in the press as the gang member who lived inside. So, we have narrowed our focus substantially. We're trying to keep our case fairly confidential right now.

We feel like we're making a lot of progress in a short amount of time. So, we're moving forward in that direction.

Insofar as the case you spoke about – about the botched plastic surgery. We're working with the Manhattan DA, consolidating our evidence that we have. As I said earlier, we have a lot of people identified right now and we have a lot of video that we're trying to pull in right now into the case.

So, we'll go forward with the Manhattan DA on that case. Again, we've come a long way in a short amount of time. It's looking very good.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: There is no doctor. We don't believe him to be a doctor, alright.

[Laughter]

We believe he's identified as the man and woman who did that. [Inaudible] doctor in this world, he's not one of them. Alright, so, we'll go forward.

Question: Mr. Mayor, to get back to community policing. Two police officers in Brooklyn were refused [inaudible] –

Mayor: Say it again. Two –

Question: Two police officers in Brooklyn were refused service at Dunkin Donuts [inaudible] –

Mayor: No, I think this is – I don't know the details and I wasn't there but if it's what you described it's someone really being stupid and unfair to our police officers. And you can't – someone at Dunkin Donuts, behind the counter, can't refuse service to anyone. That's illegal to begin with. So, that's unacceptable to me that anyone would do that. But I think the atmosphere in this city has been one of growing respect between police and community.

There are so many ways, including National Night Out just a few days ago, that we honor our police officers and their service and we also send a message to community members that they need to be allies with police. Police need to be allies with them. Everyone needs to be talking much more closely and consistently.

That's what's pervading in the ground in this city. I've seen it now for four years how it's grown and, as I said, when you look at something like a huge decrease in the number of complaints against police officers I think that tells a hell of a lot more than some jerk at a Dunkin Donuts who wouldn't serve coffee.

Question: Commissioner, can you talk about the police shooting in the 6-7 Precinct. The officer involved did not receive [inaudible] training and he [inaudible] –

Commissioner O'Neill: Right.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner O'Neill: Just this – and again this is under investigation by Force Investigation. As far as everything that we see right now all protocols were followed. This incident happened very quickly. Officer Gonzalez did not receive CIT training. The three other police officers that he was with did.

Right now, we've trained 5,653 police officers in CIT training. We're training about 105 a week. After the Danner incident up in the Bronx, we changed our focus to supervisors, lieutenants and sergeants, NCOs and sector cops, and we should we be done with that training by the end of 2018.

Question: [Inaudible] increase the number of officers that you plan to train because last year you guys –

Commissioner O'Neill: We doubled the number of people we're training per week.

Question: [Inaudible] 5,500 last year. You've surpassed that –

Commissioner O'Neill: We're planning on doing the whole patrol force.

Question: Chief Boyce, there was a [inaudible]?

Chief Boyce: We have. They turned out to be animal bones – fake bones, if you will. So, someone saw someone bury something there, and that's when we went back and recovered that. We sent it to the anthropologists and they determined them to be animal bones.

So, that case continues. We're working with other police departments in Nassau as well as Hempstead on this specific set of MS-13, and it's going pretty well.

Question: Chief Boyce, is there any update, any new leads in regards to the Central Park explosion from last year? And do you see any possible connection, any similarities between the explosion in Queens and that explosion last year? And then just one more question, how much money has been spent thus far on Shot Spotter and you mentioned the Mayor's funding a new expansion –

Mayor: Okay this is becoming a 16 part question. Why don't we do the first – we'll come to you, we'll come no, no that was several in the end. We'll come to you on the second one. Let's do the first – the first again was?

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: The Central Park case.

Mayor: There you go.

Chief Boyce: The Central Park case right now, I will say it's a wholly different explosive. That was a high – high explosive in Central Park the one in Queens was a low explosive, it was flash power in Queens. That was something else in Central Park. That case is still going – ongoing. We have federal partners as well. I have nothing new to report to you about that. But I will say for clarity the two don't appear at this point to be related at all. Two different devices, two different means of explosive so no – nothing new I can report to you about Central Park and it is not related at all to the 105.

Mayor: Shot spotter, go ahead.

Question: I was asking about the funding, how much has been spent thus far and with the new expansion specifically the dollar amount of that?

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: So Shot Spotter is a subscription model so you pay per zone and each zone is three square miles, so we pay $225,000 per square mile per year. Sorry, per three square mile per year. So in a year for 20 – for 60 square miles it's $4.5 million.

Commissioner O'Neill: Second row.

Question: Commissioner, you and First Lady McCray held a press conference here earlier this year announcing you were going to be increasing the size of the bike squad and targeting more [inaudible] arrest. Can you talk about how that initiative is going so far and what are you doing sort of to ease concerns of victims.

Commissioner O'Neill: Yes that's through Jimmy Klein, he's in our Vice Enforcement Division he has a human trafficking section that he's using in there. I can get you updated numbers for him on how they're doing so far. And we refocused our efforts on people running the prostitution operations and the people patronizing. And we're treating most of the people we lock up for prostitution as victims and trying to get them as much help as possible.

Question: Question for Mr. Mayor and also a question for Chief Shea or Commissioner. Mr. Mayor the incident at Dunkin Donuts, I'm just curious is that something that you knew about before it was just raised –

Mayor: No. Just heard it now.

Question: [inaudible] but you felt comfortable –

Mayor: I said I don't, I think I made it very clear in the beginning, I think you were here. I said, I said I wasn't there, I don't know the details but as described if someone refused – if some – first of all, any person who is in food service and refuses someone service because of the uniform they're wearing, or the color of their skin, or the language they speak that's immoral, that's illegal. And second, if they did it because of if they had some animus towards the police I think that's absolutely unacceptable. So – and no right to make that judgement. If they don't want to serve people go get another job but don't take it out on police officers who are trying to protect people. But again I wasn't there, maybe, maybe there's more complex to that but I'm responding to as it was described.

Question: [inaudible] I mean I'm not obviously arguing in favor of the person not providing service I was just – very often you won't comment when you're not familiar with a situation so I was just curious what made a difference?

Mayor: Because it's so strong a violation in my point of view. I mean, first of all, I've rarely heard anything like that. I think the days of people not serving anybody because of who they are generally are past us, there's been some efforts in some states as you know to not provide service to people because they happen to be members of the LGBT community things like that. But as a general rule in our society today, it's unacceptable to refuse service to anyone because of who they are. So that's what I'm responding to. I think it's pretty cut and dry. If it's anything like what was described, it's just plain unacceptable.

Question: [inaudible] NYPD officials the year to date stats on rape and other sexual offenses, do you have those sort of cumulative numbers there, and this is something that's being brought up a lot by Assembly member Malliotakis, obviously in a political setting, but I'm just wondering what those numbers are and what sort of – if there's anything being done of late to address any increases in those numbers.

Commissioner O'Neill: Alright, Chief Shea can handle that but just to your question about what possibly transpired at Dunkin Donuts. I mean let's be real here, this is less than a month since the brutal homicide of Detective Miosotis Familia, and this is – I spoke about this at length at the eulogy, we need to stop vilifying the police. Take a look at the crime numbers that we're presenting to you today, just the homicide and shooting numbers alone. The mem and women of this great police department do a lot of terrific work so I think we need to be respected for that.

Chief Shea: In terms of the overall rape number through July 31, we're down a little over six percent in rapes. 801 verses 854 and that's preliminary but that's where we are. We've been down most of the year. To be fair, the sexual crimes, and we've spoken about this and I've probably been asked at about half the press conferences, it's very challenging. And it's something that is tough to nail down in terms of the outreach that we are doing to try and get more reports. And that's not to make an excuse but to be fair over three years we're up five percent so we have been seeing a number of rapes reported. This year they're down but in the last couple of years it has been up. And the misdemeanor sex crimes is actually up this year, and those – that's about a nine percent increase. So it continues to be very high on our list of priories, but I will tell you that to – and I read them all, it is a very complicated. In this for example, the misdemeanor sex crimes a lot of it is family members and dealing with children and things of that type, so it's a very complicated crime. I could tell you it's near and dear to everyone in the NYPD's heart to do everything that we can to attack this problem. But there does remain work to be done.

Question: [Inaudible] things that you're doing, could you just give us a few specifics like what are – what does that look like?

Chief Shea: it's a long – quite frankly, it's a long conversation. I will tell you that in cases of – it's a complicated issue and that's an understatement, but my overall generalization here is that when there is a sexual crime in New York City, Bob's detectives know in very short order in most cases, many times we know right from the start of the complaint but then it's a process of the domestic side to it, getting together with the prosecutors, getting together sometimes with completive victims that do not want to prosecute and go forward. So, you have issues of increased reporting, you have – I'm telling you that in most of the cases we know exactly who the perpetrator are, these are not serial offenders. Although we do have some cases like that and we give it the upmost priority. And trying to navigate that world and bring this case to a successful conclusion, aid the victim, get the victim, what's a successful outcome for the victim, this is – these are topics that are going on all across the country in law enforcement and how to deal with these issues. Tough, tough, tough one to tackle.

Commissioner O'Neill: Jonathan.

Question: [Inaudible] numerous incidents in Europe and again in Australia in recent weeks, have you noticed any change in the pace, nature of the threat? And are there any new threats here that the public should be advised on?

Commissioner O'Neill: I'll let Commissioner Miller talk about that. John?

Deputy Commissioner John Miller, NYPD, Intelligence & Counterterrorism: We follow the increase in those incidents, particularly in Western Europe very closely. John, as you know, we have foreign posts located in 14 different cities in the world where we try to keep that reporting very current. Every incident we look at, we look at for what we call the TTPs, the trainings, tactics, and procedures used by the terrorist groups to see is there anything new, is there anything different, is there anything that we have to either adjust our deployment to here on the street or our tactics, training, our equipment for our people.

Question: [Inaudible]

Deputy Commissioner Miller: From time to time there are things that cause small adjustments. I think you know you've been following the reporting out of Australia, the reporting out of Germany, the reporting gout of London and Paris. We look at what's happening with the use of large vehicles, rented vehicles, we look at the use of chemicals, different strains of explosives. We do this in great detail all the time.

Question: [Inaudible] can you talk about the [Inaudible] –

Chief Boyce: Sure.

Question: [Inaudible] that about

Chief Boyce: Okay. So, this happened at – thanks for that question. These things – this incident happened just before midnight on Tuesday night, August 1st. Two individuals, Mr. Glover who we later identified through video tape, [Inaudible] great job by Manhattan detectives on this, was walking from Grand Central Station across the street to his job on East 43rd Street, as he was walking by an individual who we later identified as John Jolly, words were exchanged, and Mr. Glover continued to walk. As further words were exchanged, Mr. Glover turned around and began speaking to at a certain distance to Mr. Jolly, Mr. Jolly then approached him, about 15 feet away, walked up to him, it was at this point that Mr. Glover retrieved a knife out of his sleeve, out of his left sleeve, held it in his hands, and then as the argument ensured after that stabbed him twice in the chest, once below the sternum and once elsewhere on his chest. He then walked – continued walking eastbound on 43rd Street. Mr. Jolly walked back up to Lexington. He did not seem to be effected by it at the time, we did notice from out video that he did have a red spot on his shirt. He then walked north on Lexington and down East 44th Street where he collapsed on the corner of East 44th Street and Third Avenue. He was rendered aid at that point by passersby, called 9-1-1, and he was removed to Bellevue Hospital where he expired later on. We were able to put together this video package, this tracing of Mr. Glover all the way back down to where he worked on East 43rd street, two blocks down. Went into a building, we went into the building with that video and he was identified as Nathanial Glover aka – and I say aka his moniker is – rap moniker Kidd Creole. We've found out that he went in that night and there was no work for him at that location, he then went home, we went to his – where he lived in the Bronx in the 4-4 Precinct, and we asked him to come in to – back down to Manhattan south which he did. Later on that night he gave us a narrative where he admitted to this crime. He's now being charged with murder two. And that's kind of like what we have right now.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Boyce: I don't want to get into the specifics that will be for a grand jury. Mr. [Inaudible] has a grand jury coming up here, but he is charged with murder two. He is not been arraigned yet, so he's still in court.

Commissioner O'Neill: Last up for police.

Question: Yes. The question is about shot spotter and neighborhood policing, I'm wondering Shot Spotter has been around for about two years now and the police department has been accused of misleading the public by reporting shooting incidents but not, not shots fired. I'm wondering where the conversation stands with reporting shots fire in the [Inaudible] and would – if all 2,300 of those incidents that you mentioned early Commissioner Tisch are confirmed shootings or –

Mayor: Can I just jump in for a second? Again, there's been a historical approach to how shootings are tabulated which involves when there's a victim. Shot Spotter was something we chose to do to find where guns were fired that we were not finding otherwise, that were not being reported by a community resident or that didn't happen to be some place was there to see it or hear it. That was a decision to go and find more of the information we needed, to seek out the problem not turn away from it. And we've been very clear about collecting that information and explaining to the public what it means and also what it's allowing our officers to do in terms of better crime fighting, better prosecutions, etcetera. So I just want to give it that frame before the experts speak that – in fact one of the things that I really appreciate about the discussion that lead to the utilization of Shot Spotter was it was a decision to do something that involved having to do even more work to address more problems rather than turning away from them.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: I would just add that from my perspective on the releasing of data to the public, I'm not aware of any other police department that does release statistics, not to say that it doesn't take place, but we're under requirements to release certain crime statistics. Part of the country calls it part one, we call it index crimes, but in terms of shots fired, radio runs or jobs, I'm not saying it's something we would never do, it's nothing that I've considered and it's not something that I'm aware that any police department does do. And there's a lot of factors to that too. When Shot Spotter goes off we have protocols built into place with Bob's personnel, Terry's personnel, and trying to elicit information and recanvassing areas. But in terms of releasing statistics on how often jobs come in, there is an element to this too that not all of them are founded, so there are unfounded jobs. And I would just have to think through that, but right now currently there's no plans to do that.

Mayor: Can you just, I'm sorry Dermot, just to clarify unfounded in some cases because another sound creates the –

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Sure so –

Mayor: That's part of the challenge here –

Deputy Commissioner Shea: People call 9-1-1

Mayor: – another sound can make it – can make Shot Spotter go off right?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: People call 9-1-1 and say shots are being fired and sometimes they are and sometimes people mishear things. I was going to bring that up earlier when you say that 86 percent don't have a 9-1-1 call, sometimes that's not for a distrust of the police, it's because people hear noises and they don't think its shots. So that's an element to this too. I can tell you that Jesse said – and it's a phenomenal tool, that officers can literally hear these shots now on their smartphones as well as their desktops and when we roll out new procedures and start getting adherence to new policies we want to make sure the tools are being utilized. So, when we see jobs coming over Shot Spotter, I personally and many in this room will listen to these jobs, is it a shots fired job, what should we have done differently. So, there is an element there too that not every time it's audio is recorded is a shot, but I can tell you I would echo 100 percent, it's been a phenomenal tool in probably ways we didn't even anticipate in directing our resources, linking cases together, prioritizing cases, and on and on. It's been phenomenal.

Commissioner O'Neill: Jess, did you have something to add?

Deputy Commissioner Tisch: Sure. We know that five percent of our Shot Spotter activations of the alerts we get from Shot Spotter are definitely false positives, so either they're determined to be firecrackers going off or a car backfiring, it's a pretty low false positive rate but I want to make that clear. Also, and Chief Boyce can tell you in much greater detail than I can, it's very difficult to find shell casings when you're doing a canvass. For our Shot Spotter activations we have evidence recovery, shell casings and the like in 12 percent of the activations. So I think that 12 percent number puts in context the 16 percent number associated with 9-1-1 calls.

Question: [Inaudible] neighborhood policing, we've been talking about a [inaudible] wondering where that stands, has the survey been created?

Commissioner O'Neill: The survey has been created, it's in beta now, it's still untested so, I think it's going to be great tool for our precinct commanders and we're going to incorporate it into COMP Stat.

Unknown: We're going to move off into other topics.

Mayor: Other topics – Andrew?

Question: Mr. Mayor, in [inaudible] you vowed that your administration would make sure that NYCHA sidewalk sheds and other scaffolding – if they weren't in use for active construction, they would come down. We've been all over the city and we still see them [inaudible] where work isn't being done. What do you think the disconnect is?

Mayor: I appreciate the question a lot. There's two answers – sometimes there's a reason the scaffolding is up that has nothing to do with a specific job that has to be done, but there's a threat – you know, something that could fall and there needs to be scaffolding up immediately even before you can get to work on the solution. But there are other cases, which we did talk about in 2015, where the job is done, the work is done, there's no longer a need for scaffolding. In those cases, the scaffolding needs to come down immediately. So, I want to thank you for raising this because I think you did locate some locations where that didn't happen. It's unacceptable to me. I'm going to have a meeting very quickly with the leadership of NYCHA to make clear that's unacceptable and this has to be acted on immediately. It's ridiculous if scaffolding has done everything it was supposed to do for it to be there in the middle of one of our public housing developments. It creates a lot of problems for the community and I won't tolerate those scaffoldings being – so, I'll get back to you soon with a very specific timeline for when they'll come down.

Question: Mr. Mayor, yesterday you expressed some dissatisfaction, at least on Twitter, with the President's new proposal regarding changing how people are admitted to the country legally – legal immigration. There's like about – I mean, you seem to say that we shouldn't have tests for proficiency of English or skilled workers. They say there's about a billion people in the world who would like to come to the United States. What kind of criteria do you think are appropriate for the country to decide who comes in? Or is this just something that – it's really not up to the United States, it's up to the people who want to come?

Mayor: First, let me tell you what I said, which is factual based on everything I've seen about what President Trump proposed – it literally would have excluded my grandparents and it would have excluded probably the parents and grandparents of a lot of people in this room. My grandparents didn't speak English when they got here from Italy. My grandparents didn't have college degrees. They became exemplary Americans and they contributed to the economy, they built a business, their children were able to go to college, which no one previously ever dreamed of. That's the American dream. So, the notion that we only want to allow into American people who speak English and have advanced degrees violates the history – almost 400 years of our history of people coming here, including working class people, folks who didn't have education, folks who didn't have the benefit of knowing English already, and yet they built this country. In terms of what should be the idealized rules – I'm not an expert on the immigration process. I think it's fair to say, for decades, we've had a series of rules that worked pretty well, meaning, if you went through the legal process, which everyone should, folks came in from all over the world without bias, all different kinds of skill levels contributed in lots of different ways. And so, I would say there's been a pretty consistent consensus over the last decades that there is a way to set minimum standards but also allow a range of people in, and I don't know why we wouldn't want to do that and keeping making that work the right way, and do the thing that, bluntly, a majority of Americans would like to see – comprehensive immigration reform that addresses the outstanding issues and provides a path to citizenship for folks in good standing – the 11-12 million people who are here – so we can finally create some normalcy in this country rather than having this unending debate.

Question: Quick follow-up – I know you don't like to deal with hypotheticals –

Mayor: I do not like to deal with hypotheticals, you are correct.

Question: But you do understand that had your grandparents not come to the United States, we would still have a Mayor.

Mayor: I never said you wouldn't have a Mayor. I'm sure you'd have a Mayor. It just wouldn't be this Mayor, because I wouldn't be alive.

Yeah?

Question: Mr. Mayor, public payroll data shows that engineers and mechanics with the Department of Corrections are making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. In fact, many of them are making more in overtime than in their base salary. Are you aware of that? Can anything be done to curb the overtime hours?

Mayor: I am aware of it. Look, we work very hard to keep overtime as low as possible. It's been a major focus over the last few years with a number of agencies. The challenge with the Department of Correction is an aging physical structure, particularly at Rikers Island, including a lot of emergency work – that's where a lot of the overtime comes from. We don't obviously use overtime for non-emergency work. So, the problem is really a physical one that we're trying to figure out ways to address that will ultimately bring down the need for overtime. So, I don't take it lightly at all – I want to reduce overtime everywhere. But, unfortunately, when it comes to the Correction system, we have a structural problem that's standing in the way right now.

Question: Do you find those numbers alarming?

Mayor: Yeah, alarming, but I also understood that we have to get to the root cause and we have to fix the fundamental physical reality.

Question: Mayor, you tweeted this morning – or, your campaign account tweeted this morning – that you'll debate before the primary election regardless of CFB requirements. It looks like Sal Albanese might meet the CFB requirements, and then you'd of course be required to participate in that kind of debate. I mean, what are you envisioning with what you said this morning? Are you considering debating Bob Ganji, who probably won't meet those CFB requirements? Are you anticipating some kind debate held outside the CFB –

Mayor: This is simply a statement of principal and the details have to be worked out by the campaign team. I don't have any idea who will qualify, but if anyone qualifies under the CFB system besides myself, we will certainly follow those rules happily. But I wanted to make clear that if no one qualified, I'd still be willing to have a debate and we can work out how that's put together.

Question: [Inaudible] on the same topic right now, the CFB is holding a meeting where they're discussing whether or not to award you more than $2 million in matching funds. Why do you think that you need the matching funds in a race where you're not expected to be facing any primary opponent who will also qualify?

Mayor: First of all, we talked about this the other day – I don't believe there's any way to know what's going to happen in an election. I think those who believe they understand elections before they happen were rudely awakened on November 8th. And I don't take anything lightly. There's a set of rules – that's what I know – there's a set of rules. We have the best campaign finance system, I think, in the whole country. It makes very clear that people should pursue maximum small donations from New York City residents. And part of what is there to encourage that is the matching-fund system, and if you meet a set of goals and metrics, and the conditions exist, you have a right to a certain amount of matching funds. I think that's the way things should be and we have clearly qualified and we believe – I believe we need those resources to talk to people in this city about both what I've bene doing, but more importantly the vision for the future of the city they have to make a decision on. The rules are clear as a bell from my point of view and we have lived up to those rules.

Question: Mr. Mayor, you initially attributed to termination of Ricardo Morales to a structural reorganization, and then later explained it in terms of performance issues. Can you explain your change [inaudible] on that and why you did that?

Mayor: I can say I think those two things go together, and I think the people who understand this best are the people involved in the decision – I'm not one of them. So, the Commissioner is Lisette Camilo, she reports to the First Deputy Mayor, Tony Shorris. Those are the folks who can give you the details. But I think there was a performance issue and there was a desire to change the way the agency was structured. Those two things were simultaneous.

Question: Can you expand on how they go together?

Mayor: I just think it's obvious they go together. Sometimes you want to go in a different direction with how you run an agency and you're also clear about what you feel about the personnel you have. But again, I can't speak to the details because I wasn't involved.

Question: Mr. Mayor, on that police shooting in Brooklyn, you commented on that but I missed your comment.

Mayor: I think you did miss my comments.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Really?

[Laughter]

Are you referring to –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: Yeah, it's a tragedy, obviously. And nothing any of us ever want to see – you know, a young man who obviously had very, very serious problems that were not sufficiently addressed. Anybody who confronts police officers with a knife, with no warning whatsoever – it's a horrible, horrible situation and it suggests that there were some real serious issues that went untreated. But there's a full investigation going on to get to the details and if we can look for a way forward, it is this continued training of our officers in terms of crisis intervention, how to deal with folks who are emotionally disturbed. But I think even more it's the effort to create a real mental health system in this city through the ThriveNYC initiative to reach people in need as early as humanely possible so it never gets to a day like that one.

Question: Just building off that – Councilman Jumaane Williams has set a special task force to be implemented that looks at incidents involving emotionally disturbed people and the NYPD. Do you think something like that would be practical? Should a special task force be –

Mayor: I don't personally see the need for a specific task force because I think it's an area of tremendous concern right now both at City Hall and at the NYPD to continue to improve the NYPD's ability to address situations involving emotionally disturbed people. Now, I'll remind you, the number of calls each year is staggering. Commissioner, can you remind me?

Commissioner O'Neill: It's 150,000 a year.

Mayor: 150,000 a year. I think for most New Yorkers, if they understood that our police officers who, remember, went into the field of policing, not mental health, but end up having to deal with such complicated situations – that's why the training is so important, but even more so I would say getting to the root cause is the most important thing. We want to bring that number way down. We want to see a situation where our officers do not have to handle anywhere near that number of cases because if those individuals are identified early, including during their school years, which is the best time to find a problem, and they get treatment early – that's the whole vision of ThriveNYC. So, I would say given the intense concern at City Hall related to mental health and the focus the NYPD has put on it, the right ideas are in place we now have to just continue to deepen our implementation of those ideas.

Question: Mr. Mayor, a lot of transit experts are saying with all of the haggling over the subways, you know, what about the buses? That's something where the City has a little more say, a little more control. Can you tell us what you're doing about bus availability, bus routes, etcetera?

Mayor: Well, where we have the biggest impact is on select bus service. Just to be clear, I don't think as you talk about buses in general – our control is significantly different than with the subway system. But in the area of select bus service, for it to be achieved, it requires cooperation between the City and the State, and the MTA, and obviously investment by the City on the capital elements of each route. That's something we think has been a real success story. So, there are some times when things have been done the right way and that's one of them. I think there's four more lines coming on this year in select bus service, and then we want to keep expanding. So, it's a good news story. I put it in the same category as the other, newer types of transportation hat are being developed rapidly – the ferry system, light rail, and obviously the expansion of Citi Bike – all of these are going to be necessary to give people more options. But we're very committed to long-term growth on select bus service.

Question: The BQX – is that – I mean, that's a little ways off, obviously. Is that something you still feel is an especially important answer to the –

Mayor: Sure. I mean – I think I'm remembering my numbers correctly – that, that corridor – about 400,000 people live in that corridor. I mean, that would be the size of a major American city right there. And it's – as you know, the start is being [inaudible] 2019 or 2020. A lot of those areas are underserved, including, I believe it's something like 40,000 residents of those communities who live in public housing. A lot of our biggest concentration of public housing – places like Red Hook and parts of Western Queens. So, yeah, I think it's a big part of the equation. We said from the very beginning, if that one works, which we really hope it will and believe it will, it could be a model for expanding light rail in other parts of the city that are underserved by the subway system.

Question: Mr. Mayor, there is a competitive Council race coming up in Borough Park. The son of Dov Hikind has jumped in the race. You're very familiar with that borough – or, that district, rather. Could you talk a little bit about the politics of the area?

Mayor: How much time have you got?

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: It's a situation that – obviously, that district is the district that neighbored the one I served in, in the City Council. I know it very well. I know a lot of people in that district very well. But the situation, as you know, it's changed just in the last few days several times. So, I really have not focused on it. At some point, you know, I'll make a decision whether there's anything to say about it. But, right now, I don't really have anything to say. But the broader analysis – there's a lot I could say, but, again, not the time and place about the history of the district and all the work I've done with it – one thing, another. But it's such a new situation, we've got to analyze it.

Question: [Inaudible] situation, you're referring to the race?

Mayor: Obviously, the incumbent, without much – no one I think assumed he was going to leave the race, and then two new candidates emerging – that's a lot to digest. So, we'll think about it.

Question: On the question of the primary debate, you just said that it was a statement of principal for you [inaudible] debate regardless of whether somebody qualifies or not. About two weeks ago on NY1, you were asked about this and you said that if nobody else meets the threshold under the CFB rules, "we'll cross that bridge at the time." The bridge-crossing seems to be [inaudible] when the next filing period is for them to qualify for the debate. So, what changed between now and then?

Mayor: I thought about it –

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: I fully understand the question. I thought about it and talked to my team about, and e just thought about – first of all, I think we all were working on the assumption that someone would qualify. I'm surprised that, that's not clear yet, but we don't know. But I just thought about it and said I would be more comfortable having a debate either way. And it just was a process of thinking it through and discussing it. So, that's how I got to it.

Question: [Inaudible]

Mayor: When I say statement of principal, I'm not trying to say some big, cosmic principal. I'm saying it was a decision to say, here's a marker I just want to lay down [inaudible] I'll lay it down. I'm going to do a debate either way – it's as simple as that.

Question: You made that statement on the day that the CFB is meeting to consider your statement [inaudible] to receive a full complement of matching funds. Are those two things related?

Mayor: No, I think it's just about making very clear, because I've gotten a lot of inquiries from your colleagues on this question and I had come to a decision, it just didn't make sense to not say what I decided. It just was very clear to me that I'm going to do a debate one way or another.

Question: Mr. Mayor, does it concern you at all that a police officer in the 6-7 who had been involved in a [inaudible] was again allowed to respond to another case [inaudible] receiving –

Mayor: I think we want to establish – I understand the question, but let's establish the facts first. So, let me get that on the table and then I'll respond.

Commissioner O'Neill: The original shooting Officer Gonzalez was in, it didn't come in as a emotionally disturbed persons call.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner O'Neill: It did not come over as an emotionally disturbed persons call.

Mayor: The previous shooting. So, again, there's an investigation going on of this incident. We all take that very seriously. We want to see what comes of that and then we'll be able to say more when we see that.

Was there one more? Yeah, Rich?

Question: Senator Corey Booker thinks that marijuana [inaudible] legalized federally. Just wondering if you wanted to weigh in. And one of the effects, according to what he said, was it could help to blunt the opioid –

Mayor: Was that a play on words there, Rich?

[Laughter]

Question: Unintentional – just wondering if you wanted to weigh in on that.

Mayor: I'm not there. I think there – again, there's a major experiment happening in some states and some major American cities that's going to tell us a lot. But if you talk about the pros and cons, there are obviously some good arguments for legalization, but there's also a lot of unanswered questions both about what it would mean for young people to have access to that drug and also what it would mean in terms of public safety. So, I'm not convinced that that's the right direction yet, but it's something I'm willing to keep considering as we get more information from the places that have gone through it.

Okay. Thanks, everyone.