Updated: Feb. 16, 2022, 10:30 a.m. | Published: Feb. 15, 2022, 3:46 p.m.
By Paul Liotta | pliotta@siadvance.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A bipartisan group of Staten Island politicians on Tuesday shared a letter they sent to City Hall calling for the hiring of 6,000 more police officers over the next five years.
“In order to have a vigorous police force for a city our size, we need to accelerate future [NYPD] classes,” the group wrote in their letter to Mayor Eric Adams. “It is critical for the safety of New Yorkers that the city considers this expansion.”
City Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) led the letter with his colleagues — Republican Borough President Vito Fossella, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), Democratic District Attorney Michael McMahon, State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore), Assemblyman Mike Cusick (D-Mid-Island/North Shore), Assemblyman Mike Tannousis (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn), City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-South Shore — signing on.
Carr pointed to an interview Adams did with WABC late last month in which he suggested he would be open to hiring more officers if it helped address public safety concerns.
“We were very encouraged to read the Mayor said he was considering hiring more officers at the end of last month,” he said. “We know public safety is his top priority, and it’s one we share with him.”
The group did not share whether it had received a response, and Adams’ office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Their hiring push would return the NYPD headcount to rates not seen in over a decade.
City Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D-North Shore) was a notable absence from the letter given her position as chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Safety.
A spokeswoman for the councilwoman said Hanks received the letter, but did not say why she didn’t sign it. Hanks pointed to Adams’ public safety blueprint for some of her plans going forward.
“One of the first action steps of the Mayor’s Blueprint is to host listening tours to receive as many perspectives as possible; I intend to host one here in the 49th {District]. That said, my colleagues are addressing the public safety needs of their districts, constituents, and the city,” she said.
“I look forward to having our first Committee on Public Safety hearing in the new future.”
Hanks also pointed to the impending arrival of a Neighborhood Safety Team at the 120th Precinct, as part of the mayor’s plan. It’ll be the only Staten Island recipient of a team that are being dispersed around the five boroughs’ most violent areas.
Staten Island politicians have been some of the mayor’s most vocal allies on his public safety push, particularly his call for rollbacks of the state’s criminal justice reforms that took place over the past few years.
Earlier this month, another bipartisan group voiced support for Adams’ ideas that he outlined in a public safety presentation given in late January.
In his Jan. 24 public safety presentation, Mayor Adams called for four specific changes to the criminal justice reform laws that passed in recent years — the allowance of judicial discretion in determining how dangerous a defendant may be when determining bail, adjustments to “Raise the Age” legislation, a rollback of discovery reforms, and increased penalties for gun traffickers.
New York, in 2020, became one of the strictest states in the nation regarding what discretion judges can use when determining whether a defendant should be held while awaiting trial.
“We must allow judges to take dangerousness into account. New York is the only state in the country that does not allow a judge to detain a defendant who poses a threat to the community,” Adams said during his public safety presentation.
“Judges must be able to evaluate a defendant’s criminal history and the circumstances of the alleged crime to detain those individuals who pose a threat to the safety of the community.”