NYPD slow to train officers in crisis intervention, new data shows
The New York Daily NewsSep 18, 2018
The data was revealed in the Mayor's Management Report -- which showed that 4,018 were trained in the last fiscal year, ending on
The training is meant to help officers more safely respond to mental health crises -- like the case of
When advocates for the mentally ill called on the city to re-instate a special task force on the anniversary of her death in 2017, a
Asked today about that deadline, the spokeswoman said she had misspoke in 2017 and that only supervisors would be trained by the close of 2018, and all officers by 2024.
While the spokeswoman said the city was on track to meet that goal, it'll be tough to measure -- in the Mayor's Management Report, the goals for how many officers should have been trained in fiscal 2018 is listed as an asterisk, meaning there is no numerical goal. The training goal for the next fiscal year is also listed as an asterisk.
Meanwhile, crime spiked last fiscal year at 15 public housing developments targeted by the city with extra police, anti-crime lights and social programs, the data show.
The number of major crimes at the 15 hot spot projects jumped from 759 in fiscal 2017 to 778 in fiscal 2018, the report also revealed.
That's down from the 867 in fiscal 2014 when de Blasio launched his Mayor's Action Plan aimed at reversing the rising crime at the 15 developments city-wide.
But it shows the difficulty in keeping criminal activity in developments prone to crime, with major crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, assault rising after years of trending downward.
Starting in 2014, de
A spokeswoman for the mayor noted that overall crime in all 320 public housing developments dropped 5% from 5,084 in fiscal 2017 to 4,853 in fiscal 2018.
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The cost of housing the homeless continued its frustratingly upward swing, rising to unprecedented levels.
The cost per day to house a family with children in fiscal 2018 was
For single adults it's now costing the city
The number of homeless individuals who exited the shelters into permanent housing rose 5% from 17,184 in fiscal 2017 to 18,039 in fiscal 2018, but the average time spent in shelter continued to grow significantly. The single-adult stay is now 401 days, up radically from 305 in fiscal 2014. The average shelter stay for families with children is now 438, up slightly from 427 in fiscal 2014.
"We're transforming a haphazard shelter system by ending the use of cheaper stop-gap measures and investing heavily in service providers, shelter security, and repairs and renovations," McGinn said. "Our rental assistance and rehousing programs have helped more than 97,000 New Yorkers enter or remain in permanent housing and we're proud to invest in solutions that are turning the tide."
As for the
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In the
But it wasn't all bad news for the city's jail system.
The number of stabbings and slashings dropped by 41.8% over the past year, from 165 in 2017 to 96 in 2018. That's the lowest total since 2014.
Additionally, the average daily population dropped below 9,000 people for the first time in years.
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