NYPD Launching 'Summer All Out' Program To Combat Spike In Shootings
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has reacted to a recent spike in shootings by announcing a 90-day "Summer All Out" program.
The program calls for as many as 400 veteran officers assigned to desk jobs, including counterterror work, to return to the streets, CBS 2's Marcia Kramer reported.
Shootings in the city are up 8 percent over the first six months of 2014.
NYPD Launching 'Summer All Out' Program To Combat Spike In Shootings
"We do notice with concern the fact that shootings have been up slightly," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "We had 521 shootings for the first half of the year. Last year, 486 shooting incidents."
The extra officers are being sent to high-crime areas like the 103rd Precinct, where the murder rate is up 75 percent, Kramer reported.
Sources told Kramer the 103rd Precinct will be receiving an additional 82 officers, some from the pool of desk officers and some from a group of 600 rookies also being thrown at the crime spike.
The 103rd Precinct isn't the worst. The 47th Precinct in the Bronx has seen a 142 percent hike in shootings and a 900 percent hike in murders, Kramer reported.
The announcement did not sit well with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
"It's a Band-Aid approach to a real problem," PBA President Pat Lynch told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb. "What we need to do is hire enough a police officers for us to effectively do our job. We know what the formula is. We've done it in the past. The renaissance of this city came about because we had the proper staffing level."
Lynch said the NYPD is down 7,000 officers from its top patrol strength.
The New York City Council recently floated a measure to hire 1,000 more police officers. However the budget the council and the de Blasio administration agreed to did not include the additional officers. However, 200 officers were being shifted from desk jobs to deployments in public housing as part of the agreement.
De Blasio has previously said he believes that the current NYPD headcount of 35,000 officers is adequate to keep crime low.
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