PLEASE TALK TO US
Mayoral call for public input on safety yields little
Mayor Adams’ top public safety adviser signaled New Yorkers Friday that the administration needs feedback from city dwellers so it can be successful in making the city more safe — but the initial response he got was underwhelming, to say the least.
Adams’ Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, who served as the NYPD’s chief of department under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, hosted a briefing Friday to inform the city of some of the mayor’s priorities and to answer questions submitted by New Yorkers.
The night before, the Adams’ administration signaled its desire to field questions from the public in an email sent to reporters and to subscribers of the mayor’s newsletter. In response, only two questions from the public were read aloud during Banks’ briefing.
“In this administration, we get stuff done. That is the mindset we have to have to help keep you safe and feeling safe,” Banks said during the briefing, which was broadcast remotely. “But the sixth man is you — the community, the citizens, the stakeholders. However we want to label them, you are the important piece here.”
Banks’ call for public involvement comes a month after Adams announced he’d launch a newsletter to speak directly to New Yorkers as well as to bypass the press, which he’s been critical of during his first months in City Hall.
On Friday, Banks encouraged people to subscribe to the newsletter and said his briefing — the first substantial public-facing one he’s led since becoming deputy mayor — was the first “episode,” with more to come.
“I like the word episode,” Banks said. “This is the first.”
He opened the briefing to questions from the public after vowing the administration would be “transparent” and saying “we need a commitment from you [the public] to help work with us.”
The first question — posed by Stephanie from Manhattan — sought more information about the city’s school safety plans.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell acknowledged recent reports of violence in city schools and said she’s in regular contact with Education Department Chancellor David Banks, the brother of Phil Banks, about the 4,000 school safety officers tasked with keeping the peace in public schools.
“We started our safety corridor program, which allows for there to be safe passage for kids who are going to and from school in certain areas that we’re experiencing some concerns and challenges,” she said. “That’s also in the subways because a number of our kids take the subways to schools. I did when I went to school.”
The other query from the public came from P.J. from Queens, who wanted to know how the city can ensure lithium-ion batteries used in electronic bikes meet desired safety standards. The batteries have proven deadly after bursting into flames and leading to infernos that have trapped their owners and neighbors.
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said the best indicator is making sure the batteries bear a UL label — for Underwriters Laboratories, a clearinghouse for setting electronics standards. She said the city is trying to crack down on the sale of devices that are not certified with the UL stamp.
Banks did not directly address the fact that only two questions from the public were read aloud at the briefing, and Fabien Levy, a spokesman from the mayor’s press office, could not immediately provide the total number of queries that were actually submitted.
Levy said that 5,300 people tuned in and described the briefings as “an iterative process.”
“We will make adjustments as we go,” he said. “Our goal is to continue to speak with even more New Yorkers as we move forward.”
Before taking office in January 2022, Team Adams was vetting candidates for police commissioner and planning to bring in a top public safety official who would be less public facing than the commissioner but responsible for forming an overall public safety vision for the city.
The person they hired for that job turned out to be Philip Banks, who had been a lighting rod for controversy several years earlier when it became public that he was named as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a sprawling public corruption case.
So far, Banks has kept a relatively low profile as a top official in Adams’ administration, but Friday’s briefing appeared to show a shift could be coming.
Banks was never charged in the corruption case. He has maintained his innocence and has long said he was unfairly treated.