PRIMED TOFIGHT CRIME & MAYOR
REPUBLICAN MAYORAL hopeful Paul Massey will unveil his criminal justice platform Monday — calling for more cops, more cameras and more cash for first responders who live where they work, the Daily News has learned.
“Our police and first responders deserve a mayor who always has their back,” Massey said in a statement. “I will be that mayor.”
Crime is at record lows in the city, but Massey’s plan begins with a lengthy indictment of Mayor de Blasio’s record on policing — recalling the night in 2014 when cops turned their backs on de Blasio after two officers were assassinated as “perhaps the defining image of Bill de Blasio’s failed mayoralty” and arguing that the city “feels less safe.”
Massey’s 16-point plan includes proposals to expand community policing, something Police Commissioner James O’Neill has championed under de Blasio, with Massey calling for adding more officers and new precincts if necessary. The plan also suggests that “mobile precincts” be deployed to high-crime areas.
And Massey proposed boosting policecommunity relations by paying first responders like police, firefighters and paramedics a $10,000 “community bonus” to live in the same boroughs where they work.
While the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk searches was a central focus of the 2013 mayoral race — with de Blasio arguing it was discriminatory and promising to change and reduce its use — Massey has previously struggled to articulate his position on the policing technique.
Massey indicated whether to use it would be his commissioner’s call.
“If my police commissioner continues the current commissioner’s determination that stop, question and frisk continues to be needed to prevent crime, then there must also be robust policies in place that ensure there is no racial profiling,” Massey said.
He also proposed a departmentwide NYPD body and dashboard camera program. The city recently rolled out the first 50 body cameras in Washington Heights as part of a pilot program that will grow to 22,000 devices by the end of 2019.
Massey also wants to dramatically expand the number of high-def security camera coverage on busy streets, pedestrian plazas and subway cars to catch footage of “random street and transit crimes.”
A de Blasio campaign spokesman listed policing accomplishments — many of them similar to Massey’s proposals. “Mayor de Blasio has driven crime to record lows, while dramatically reducing stop-and-frisk by 93%, getting more guns off our streets, and putting 2,000 new officers on the beat. Expanded neighborhood policing, retraining every officer and body cameras are bridging the divide between the police and the communities they serve,” spokesman Dan Levitan said. “That is the mayor’s record of policing and criminal justice reform, and it is a vision that New Yorkers are rallying around.” Massey has at times been close to de Blasio on immigration — saying he supports sanctuary cities and was “aligned” with the position of de Blasio’s police commissioner on when to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But in the white paper spelling out his positions, he calls for going further — working to process “all felons, convicted violent criminals, known gang members and individuals on the terrorist watch list.” The de Blasio administration only honors detainer requests for people convicted of 170 specific felonies. Massey also proposed replacing Rikers Island jails with a new facility there. De Blasio supports a plan to close Rikers and open jails in the boroughs.