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STATEMENT OF POLICE COMMISSIONER. RAYMOND W. KELLY BEFORE THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE ON THE PRELIMINARY BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012 MARCH 15, 2011 ‘ood morning. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Mayor’s Preliminary Budget for the 2012 Fiscal Year. Before present the budget highlights, [ want to discuss the Police Department's work to drive crime down last year and so far in 2011. I also want to discuss the terrorist threat to New York City and our plans to secure the World Trade Center site. As we were reminded again recently, the gains made in the public’s safety haven’t been achieved without significant risks to our police officers. Last Sunday morning, Police Officer Alain Schaberger was pushed to his death while attempting to arrest a man extensive criminal history including domestic violence. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to Officer Schaberger’s family at this time. Lalso want to acknowledge the combined response of our police and fire rescuers on Sunday to the terrible bus crash on the Bronx border. They worked expertly under horrific circumstances to save the living and to extricate the dead in a dignified way. Despite a tough economy and constant pressure on our resources, the members of the Department drove crime down again in 2010 by 2%, led by sharp decreases in burglaries, grand larcenies, and auto thefts. These crimes fell to levels not seen in the City in at least 50 years. Compared to 2009, we did see an increase in several categories of violent crime, including homicides and rapes. We've taken a number of actions to address these increases. However, viewed in context these crimes are still low by historical standards. Last year’s total of 536 murders was the fourth lowest the city has recorded since reliable data was kept on this crime in 1963, Homicides were down by 17% compared to 2001 and rapes were down by 29%. Crime is down again this year by 4% and by 41% since 2001, before we took on the responsibility of counterterrorism. A recent study by one of the nation’s foremost scholars of criminal justice helps to tthe historic accomplishments of our police officers into perspective. Dr. Franklin imring of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law writes that “over the last 20 years after 1990, New Yorkers were the beneficiaries of the largest and longest sustained drop in street crime ever experienced by a big city in the developed world.” He calls the 80% reduction in crime ieved during that time “a Guinness Book of World Records crime drop.” One factor Zimring identifies as helping to sustain this trend during the past decade is “hot spot policing,” otherwise known as Operation Impact, which we implemented in 2003, ‘Thankfully, we've been able to keep this initiative going strong with the graduation of more than 1100 new officers from the Police Academy last December, our largest class since 2008, All of its members were assigned to Operation Impact. As I said, we're also very hopeful about some new community partnerships we've established. Last summer, we were approached by a group of ministers from prominent African American churches in Brooklyn about what we could do together to address violent crime in their community. We know from the data that black and Hispanic New Yorkers are disproportionately the victims of such crime. Last year, these groups made up 92% of all murder victims and 98% of all shooting victims, As was widely reported in the media last, week, a Police Department analysis of homicide victims in 2010 showed a 31% increase in the number of African Americans murdered last year. Working with the members of the Brooklyn Clergy initiative, we developed an action plan to engage neighborhood youth, reduce gang involvement, and stop violence in the community. Women in our executive corps are teaming up with grandmothers who are primary care-givers to engage at-risk youth and keep them out of harm’s way. We've also expanded some of our most effective community programs, including our Church Gun Buy-Back initiative. Since 2008, we’ve held these events in 50 churches across the city. We offer members of the public bank cards they can redeem for $200 cash for any operable handgun they turn in and $20 for any rifles and shotguns, no questions asked. Our latest Gun Buy-Back was held in December in partnership with the Reverend Al Sharpton and his National Action Network. In just six hours more than 350 firearms were surrendered at two churches in Harlem, bringing the total number of weapons recovered through this program to more than 6,500 in two years. That number is also stark evidence of how many illegal guns are out there. ‘Taking weapons off the streets results in safer communities and far fewer violent encounters between the police and the public. It’s one of the reasons why, last year, police officers were engaged in the fewest shooting incidents since 1972, a year after the department first began tracking this data, In 1971, 93 people were shot and killed in confrontations with the police. In 2010, eight people were shot and killed in confrontations with the police, the fewest in 40 years. When it comes to the restrained use of firearms, we've made a lot of progress over time and in comparison to other major police departments, which have twice to eight times our rate of fatal police shootings. We've also worked very hard to improve the tone of police-community relations, in part by having a police department that is more reflective of the city. Since 2002 we've had to hire and train nearly half of the department. This has afforded us the opportunity to recruit widely. The result is a department more diverse than it has ever been. In 2006 for the first time ever the rank of police officer became majority minori Our most recent Academy class included officers born in 53 countries who speak 48 different languages. That’s typical of recent classes. The last six of them have included officers born in a total of 88 countries. We don’t pursue diversity for the sake of it. We do it because it makes us a better, stronger, fairer organization, one that works effectively with the community to fight crime and terrorism. Not only are our police officers doing an exceptional job fighting crime under tough circumstances, they are also doing everything they can to protect the City from another terrorist attack. When it comes to defending the City against this threat we have to face the facts. New York remains the number one target of radical Islamic terrorism. We've been the subject of twelve plots since September 11", more than any other U.S. city. The latest one involves a college student in Texas who exploited our federal immigration process to obtain a student visa, travel to the United States, and gather the materials to make a bomb. Khalid Al-Dawsari, a native of Saudi Arabia, was arrested by federal agents two weeks ago when he tried to purchase 10 bottles of phenol, one of three ingredients in the explosive TNP. He had already amassed large quantities of the other two ingredients, nitric and sulfuric acid. ‘Two items in this case are of particular relevance to New York: a link on Al- Dawsari’s computer to video feeds from the city’s traffic cameras, and a plan to spend a week here. These appeared on a list of things to do in preparation for setting off car bombs somewhere during rush hour. As I’ve said before, the City has no shortage of high value targets. So we focus our efforts on the areas the terrorists are most likely to attack. By now the members of the Council are very familiar with our Lower and Midtown Manhattan Security Initiatives. We currently have about 1,400 cameras feeding into our Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center from these sensitive areas. We're planning to add another 1,600. [also want to say a few words about our plans to secure the World Trade Center complex. This area has been struck by terrorists twice, in 1993 and 2001. In 2006, we disrupted an al Qaeda plot to bomb the PATH train tunnel and retaining wall at Ground

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