 You know, I just want to take my hat off to the boldest men and women of Department of Correction. As long as I can remember my time in law enforcement, this has been an agency that has been ignored, has been an agency that every day in spite of all of the negative news, they come every day, they do the job, they hold it down, and they have been calling out for years of saying, we need help, we need help, we need help. And the problems that they have been facing did not start in 2022. In fact, it has started generations ago. But we're seeing the erosion of our correctional facility is a complete neglect of the men and women who serve here every day. They come in, they deal with some of the most dangerous people in our city. When a person commits a crime, a homicide, a rape, a robbery, they do not go back to the block, they go back to a cell block. And they have to ensure that person does not harm another inmate, harm a staff, or in some cases harm themselves. And instead of us lifting them up, we do just the opposite. We tear them down over and over again. But I'm here to say to the men and women of the Department of Corrections, this mayor is not going to tear you down. I acknowledge your job, I acknowledge what you do, and I'm saying thank you for what you do. The job you are doing, people don't want to do, yet you do it every day. And as I walked through the facilities and saw how you continue to evolve, I'm more solid in my belief we pick the right person to be the commissioner of the Department of Correction. And I want to thank Commissioner Molina. This administration has gone through so many challenges since January. From fires, to loss of officers, to violence, to COVID, to economic strife, our economy. But the crisis we're facing here is one of our largest crises. And we could easily throw up our hands and say, let the federal government take over. We could have easily done that. But no, we know we are better than that. We know that we can fix this problem. And all we ask is to give us the opportunity and the resources to carry out this function. And for all of our partners to do their job, unbottlenecking the court system, making sure those who are committing crimes are going through the process and having laws that not only protect citizens, protect those who are carrying out the job of protecting us. And we do want to acknowledge the recent deaths in the Department of Correction. But let's look at each individual death and find out what happened. It blew my mind to learn that the 5,000 prisoners, they have over 140-something thousand cases of people getting medical treatment. Think about that number. By the time they get here, their pre-existing conditions, their health crises, mental health illnesses, all of the things that people are facing at the worst end of their lives are discovered when they come here. 5,000 people, over 140,000 medical interactions. That's an amazing number to look at and examine. I saw that today as I walked through and talked to people in custody and in correction, some of the young people who are in the Peace Center, how they wanted to sit down and say, we want to interact, to learn more, I'll be back here to sit down and speak with many of them. I can learn so much from the inmates that are going to be returning home. I was here last week, I believe, at a graduation ceremony. You know, I probably was last week, you know, when you're the mayor, my life is like a dog life, one day is many days. And seeing these graduates and touched by the principle of the school of watching all these layers of these offices and what they're doing. Walking through the first facility with the warden, you can genuinely care, I see, she cares. I mean, these offices, they care about these inmates and ensuring that they can get something out of here instead of doing time that they can learn during this time so they don't continue to work. And we know that we're not what we want to be. It's a lot of work in progress, a lot that we have to do. But at the heart of that is doing something that must be done, keeping our place safe. Starts with this. This is an example of what they retreated. Look at these pieces, look at these shanks. This is what they come to work to experience every day. The weapons you see in front of you are small samples of 2700 different weapons. We're able to recover these weapons because Commissioner Molina came in and resumed the tactical search operation that had been previously suspended. We stopped the tactical search operation that allows us to retrieve this because those who are not protected inmates were the loudest. And so as politicians normally do, they succumb to the loudest and say, we're going to stop doing these searches and allow people from the time we suspended to carry these weapons, not me, ignore the noise and get the job done. And I thank the units that carried out this function. And because of not only the search procedure, many people talk about the officers that are out, how about focusing on 1400 officers returned to work under the leadership of Commissioner Molina and his team, they're back. And those who are out legitimately, they have a right if they're injured and are sick to be out. Those who are abusing the right to be out, we're going to focus on them. But that is not the entire population that is out. Some have been injured, attacked, are sick from COVID for a long time, Rikers were ignored when people were asking for masks, PPEs and other resources, we ignored Rikers Island. And some people have legitimate reasons that they are out and we will distinguish between the two. You see that a lot of these weapons that you have in front of you are made from plexiglass and other building materials taken from the jails themselves. So people use the rodent facilities as to become a weapon factory to attack other inmates and officers. The numbers often ignored that over 80% of the attacks here are on other inmates. Those who are dangerous don't stop being dangerous because they come to Rikers. They continue to be dangerous. And I'm here to tell you that the era of neglecting our jails for political reason, that era sunsetted on January 1st, 2022, when I became the mayor of this city. We're going to be focused and not going to let people wander the streets of our city with dangerous weapons like these and they can't do it on Rikers Island. Those search operations work and we're going to continue to do them. Since we resumed tactical search operation in February, slashes and stabbings have declined by 63%. So when you saw those slashes and stabbings going up, they suspended the searches. And we have ex-commissioners that are criticizing this commissioner, what did you do when you had the job? You telling us everything we're doing wrong, what did you do right? We decreased slashes by 63%. Assaults on staff resulting in use of force are down 30% compared to the same six months of the period last year. Assaults of force is down 27% as compared to the same six month period last year. This is proof. Right leadership can turn the corner. And we have the right leadership in Commissioner Molina. We're seeing progress and it's not only that we're saying we're seeing progress, the federal judge said it. He said we're moving in the right direction and we have the right leadership. That's what the federal judge said. So everyone was calling, take rikers away, take rikers away, an independent person that viewed our plan and our operation and our progress stated they are doing the right things to move it in the right direction and we're going to continue to do that. We're seeing progress and that progress is going to continue to materialize. The plan includes an intra-agency task force designed to give our jails the support they need and stop having the boldest do this on their own. Rikers is all of our responsibility. The Department of Education, probation, housing, all of us are responsible for what happens here on Rikers Island and that is what we're saying to our city. We will hold people who possess weapons and contraband and commit crimes in our jails. They will be held accountable. Since January 1st, we have re-arrested 121 people in custody for crimes committed and I want to thank Darcelle Clark, the Bronx District Attorney for being a partner on this. Rikers Island has become a way station, not the last stop. We know that. We must give people the protection of the law as we enforce the law and enforcing the law is not only on our streets, it's inside our facilities that we're housing those who have committed crime or accused of committing a crime. We must do more and we know that and we will continue to do more and we are focused on the root causes of crime. That is why we want schools, graduation, walked into one facility with a tree teaching welding and how to be a mechanic. We don't want these young people and adults to continue to come back into our society. That is the holistic approach that we are facing and what we're doing. You heard me say it over and over again, there are many rivers that feed to see a violence. We have to damn each one of them. This commissioner is doing his job of damning the rivers that allow people to return to violence and that includes those who are here with learning disabilities. These may are in history that we will be testing inmates for dyslexia. It is predicted 30 to 40% of the inmates here are dyslexia and we're not waiting until they come back home. We're testing them here in Rikers to give them the support that they need. I am truly pleased of what I am seeing and what I saw today and I will be back here over and over again to make sure that this is part of our overall plan of supporting these men and women. This is one of the toughest jobs in this city, if not the toughest job in America. These officers were doing 12-hour tours, they were doing triples, triples. Not seeing their families and every day they pick up the paper and they hear how bad they are. How we treated Rikers Island and the men and women who are here, we should all be ashamed of that and it doesn't lose sight on me. Look here, predominantly black and brown, who are the inmates? Predominantly black and brown, overwhelming number of predominantly women in a dangerous environment. Got to think about that for a moment. I see it and I know it and I'm saying to you, you're the boldest and you're one of the best law enforcement entities we have in this country. Thank you for doing your job and doing this life-saving work and this is the mayor that acknowledged you and I am not ashamed of you, I am proud of you. Keep doing the job you're doing and we're going to be there to do it with you. Commissioner. Mr. Mayor, thank you for your continued leadership and support of this department. I want to thank our uniform staff, without their support and dedication to their jobs, which you see before you couldn't have been done. Not only did we seize over 2700 contraband weapons, but we also seized over 400 different types of drug paraphernalia and narcotics that tries to get into our facilities. So every day our men and women in uniform are doing everything they can to make this place safe and they're led by the men and women you see behind me, our wardens and acting assistant chiefs in order to be able to get this work done. But in addition to our uniform staff, I want to also shout out our non-uniform staff. Our program staff and our contract provider providers are engaging with the people in custody. Our credible messengers, it is a holistic approach in order to get individuals not to respond violently to issues of conflict. And I also want to thank our faith-based leaders. They've increased our interaction with our faith-based community so that they're in here and they're interacting with persons in custody. But they're also interacting with our staff, too, because this work is not easy. So thank you for coming today and giving us an opportunity to share with a lot of the work that we have done here to make progress today. If you could stay here. If you have any questions, one topic. We've aboard a correction member had some questions about the conditions in EMTC and saying there were plenty of men, I believe, around the facility that people were screaming, people were urinating. Is that the kind of conditions that you saw? First of all, if you said seven people have died, three people have died. Right. So we should look into each of that because if you have pre-existing conditions, remember there are 4,000 people over 140,000 hospital rooms or medical procedures from then to other procedures. By the time people reach RICAS, their health has deteriorated and they come to these facilities. Now, you're telling me three people were stabbed. Three people were murdered. Now we're talking about a different conversation. So let's look at each individual and find out at those 5,000 people, three died. Let's find out why did they die? Because RICAS didn't give them heart disease if that's the reason they died. RICAS didn't give them diabetes if that's the reason they died. We look at the number. Hey, three people died. But why did they die? What conditions did they have before they came to RICAS Island? The headline does not tell the story. We walked through the intake area. And when you see the large number of people who are coming in and those who are leaving, when you see that combination and we continue to involve to get the product that we want, speaking with the warning that was over there, it was clear of her focus on what needs to be done. She has a, I believe it was an 89% or higher level of those who received the necessary medical treatment that they deserve and giving people to the facilities that they need. Commissioner, you may want to talk about the intake. So we made a lot of vast improvement in our intake, especially since the situation as it was pertaining to last year. So we're moving a lot of individuals in just to put it into context, calendar year to date. We've had over 8,900 admissions that have gone through that intake facility. So we're managing and we're blending housing units and we're making sure that we're allowing people to receive the medical care that they need in a timely fashion so that they can be placed in other facilities in the island. You know, Courtney, what I learned, which was like an awakening for me as I walked through, we often think of hospitalization, 140,000 people of medical treatment. We also think of people intake and outtake. We think of this as, okay, we just have a smooth transition of moving bodies around. Now you're moving dangerous people around. This is not just, okay, you're at Walmart and you're online, we're going to move you to the next cashier. So you have to be very careful, very strategic, and always be focused on, I have a dangerous person that committed a violent crime. Because you get here, it's not that you shoplift, it's not that you stole a bicycle, because you're going home from the precinct. To get here, you created, you committed a dangerous crime and they have to stay focused as they meticulously move people from one location to the other. They have to lock down areas, they have to say prisoners moving, they have to be on their pews, peas and cues. This is not just moving bodies around. This is moving some of the most dangerous people in our city around. And there's an ought to do it to do it correctly and that's what they're doing. Steve? Mr. Mayor? Yes. Looking at this, you know, the immediate question that comes to mind is, what is the condition of this facility that allows inmates to fashion a piece of plexi glass and break it apart and turn it into a weapon? And second question, is it still a top priority moving as quickly as possible to close this complex entirely? Second question first, we're going to follow the law. The law states that righteous can no longer be a jail. In my opinion, it does not matter, that's a law. And I'm going to always follow the law. Shanks are not new. Shanks are not only in righteous. Shanks in the ingenuity of creating weapons is probably as old as prisons have been. Using the erosion of this facility to create weapons and the creativity of those who want to do harm in prisons is not a new phenomenon. As long as I can remember, and every time I visit a correctional facility from Attica off to coast of San Francisco, you see the same things. But the ability to be strategic and go in and find them, remove them and hold people accountable is what we stopped doing over the last couple of years because of outside noise. That noise has been shut off. This commissioner is going to have the complete trust in me to do this job and that's why we retrieve 2,700 weapons that could have harmed a inmate or a member of this facility. Yes, for the commissioner, could you describe your tactical search operation? What does that involve and what do the officers do? Sure, so it's leveraging not only security staff that works within the facility, working with the warden, they're working in coordination on their activities to secure security. We use special search teams, special response teams, as well as our emergency service units. And we go to the various housing units and we search individuals' property. We search cells. We search individuals. And we remove contraband weapons or contraband crimes that are in these facilities. Are they hidden strategically? Where do you find them? So we find them sometimes in cell areas. Sometimes we may find them in corridors. Sometimes we may find them on individual people as we're searching individuals randomly. We also do a lot of interdiction stuff. Sometimes it comes to the mail as well, sometimes when visitors are coming in. That's not specifically to our tactical search operations, but it speaks holistically of what we're doing in order to make sure that we seize anything that may enter our facilities that could put people in danger. You know, I remember West Wall Street as a transit car. This guy, let's say, just came home and he showed me a... I don't know if you want to call it a trip or whatever. But he said, search my mouth. And I looked at his mouth all around, looked at his gums all around. He said, I have anything? And I said, no. He said, he pulled out a razor. The creativity to harm people is what they deal with every day. What they secrete weapons is beyond your imagination. And you could use your imagination because nothing is off limits. And that's what they're up against every day. Mr. Mayor, so our reporting shows that two of the deaths, one was an overdose on the other hand on himself, and it looks as if staffing shortages may have kind of exacerbated the day of the day we're all due to themselves. In terms of the staff that are not here, what are you going to do to bring them back and make sure that posts are staffed appropriately so that something like that does not happen? Well, number one, any death is a death we think is unacceptable. When you come here with mental health illnesses, we should have the staff doing their inspections when someone is dying from suicide. They look and see and conduct an investigation to determine if someone did not carry out their role to make sure that post was inspected. There's a thorough investigation. Also, remember, there was a law pass. The attorney general has an obligation to investigate this. And she's thorough in investigation as well as the investigation that's come from the facility. 1,400 says January have returned to work. 1,400, those that are still out, if they're out for legitimate reasons, we are going to make sure to receive the necessary medical care that they deserve. If you are attacked in your home because of that, then we're not going to demonize you because you did your job. That is just not right. Those who are not following the rules and procedures, they will be held accountable. That's part of what the commission is doing. But let's not overlook that. Since January, 1,400 have returned back to work. And the city council made the decision they did not want any new correction offices. That was part of the process in the budget. How many correction offices have quit since January? Approximately, I would say between retirement and resignation, approximately 500. You're saying that the city council, Mr. Mayor, did not authorize additional officers. Do you think they should have hired additional officers? And Mr. Molina, do you believe you need additional officers? Yes, I think that when you look at what these officers are going through, doing triples, what we want you to do when it comes down to those dangerous inmates, there's a portion of people who are here that they want to serve their time. They want to go home. But you have a portion of inmates that are dealing with real mental health illnesses. Some of them are just extremely dangerous. And if we can't properly separate that population and properly make sure they have the right supervision, then that can create a dangerous environment. So I personally believe we should have increased the numbers that the commissioner stated he needed, but there's a negotiation that takes place with the city council and we're willing to negotiate. But even without, we are not going to give up in ensuring that the location is safe. How many officers as a follow-up? Mr. Molina, how many additional officers do you think that you need to make writers safe? Well, I believe that the number of officers that we had asked for, the number was a little over 550, was what we needed to advance a lot of other progressive strategies that we wanted to do to manage the people in our population. Okay. Because we, hold on, because this is so important, because idealism collides with realism. The commissioner comes in and he states, here's some creative things we want to do, like the peace center. Here's some creative things we want to do so we can start allowing those who are here to go and become productive citizens. But in order to do that, you have to have officers to make sure that this environment is safe. So on one end, we have the idealism of saying, we want you to do something different with the inmates, but on the other end, you can't have more officers to make sure that they're safe in the environment. So they're actually hurting some of the initiatives that Commissioner Molina is trying to do to create the release of inmates so they can be prepared to be active citizens. They think they are hurting law enforcement by saying no new offices, but no, you're hurting what you're actually saying you want this commissioner to accomplish. Very. Mayor, I'm going to speak to Commissioner Molina. It had even reported that there's been a delay, I believe, in transferring OBC from DOC to DCAS. You know the letters mean. Can you talk a little more about that plan, why there is a delay, and any more on the Renewable Rikers Plan and the future of the island here? Yes, so there's not a delay. We are not in a position to transfer OBCC to DCAS. Population estimates that were made under the Prime Administration that we would only have 4,000 or less people in custody have not worn out. We have had an average daily population of approximately 5,500 people. Today our census is about little over 5,600. So it would not be logical for us to have a facility and transfer it over to DCAS when there's a possibility that in the future we may need that capacity. I know we have budget cuts, but can I have some water? I have a question for the commissioner. Can you tell us the number of correction officers that are still refusing to come back to work, not because of any illness or injury? And what measures do you have to bring them back to work? So we have a number of measures. We have a health management division that monitors people that are out sick. I would say that the number of people that are out sick has reduced significantly from where we were last year that reduction has been over 40%. How many are there out now? I would say a number of people that were out sick today is somewhere around 900. Today 900 were out sick. That's 40% less than... It's more than 40% less than what it was last summer. What I'm going to do is over 2,000. Refusing to come to work is different from you can't work at this time. You have to be clear on that. But they're out sick, you're saying. But you don't... A doctor is making a medical decision that this person is unavailable for medical reasons. And we have a health management division that reviews these charts and in many cases concurs with this individual's injuries. Nolan? Yeah. Oh, no, Nolan. Because this is a misnomer that every correction officer that is sick is faking. That's not true. Some of these offices have been assaulted. Some of them have legitimate issues from COVID. Some of them are sick. People get sick. And so this misnomer that, okay, if the correction officer is home sick, he doesn't want to come to work. No, people get sick. People get assaulted. This is a job where you are assaulted. And so what the commissioner has done, he has sent out a clean message. That's how we got the 1,400 back. If you are faking sick, that's not acceptable. But a doctor is saying, this person can't come into work. They can't allow the officer to come into work that they generally can't. And I don't think that's the message that has been clearly sent. People automatically believe because they are sick. They are faking being sick. That's just not a reality. This is a dangerous job where there's a lot of assaults, where people are dealing with some serious medical issues. Nolan? I was wondering if you could break down those statistics a little bit more. Of the 900, approximately how many of them will have their cases reviewed by the medical board? And how many of those reviews actually confirm what they're telling you that they are actually properly out since? So we can follow with you with some numbers if you like. I don't know of those numbers up top of my life in memory. I mean, the number changes every day. There are individuals that may not feel well for a couple of days, like in any other job, and they call it sick. And there are others that have other longstanding medical issues that we're ongoing and evaluating to determine their fitness for duty. And we also must remind ourselves that we've just gone through a global pandemic. And the uniform staff and the non-uniform staff that work here didn't have the luxury of teleworking from home in order to manage this very volatile and violent population. Do you have an estimate of how many people are actually properly sick versus those who are faking it? So I don't have any evidence that right now that anybody's faking it. We have medical doctors that are being the individuals that are sick. This is really interesting. This is the only occupation where we're asking are your members faking it? We're not asking for anyone else. We're not asking for my PD. We're not asking for H&H. We're not asking for school teachers. We're not asking for anywhere else. The only place that we're asking, hey, your members are faking. I mean, that's not a pattern to you. Something's not wrong with that. The most dangerous law enforcement job, the question we're asking is that are your members faking it? I have never heard that ask of any other city employee. But we're asking the minimum from the Department of Correction. The previous administration No, no, no. Mr. Mayor, I apologize. The previous administration alleged that COBA had engaged in a sick out. Hence the question, do you disagree with that assessment? Yes. I think the previous administration on every level did not support the Department of Correction. Some of the comments I heard from previous administrations, what these men and women represent, I thought it was not a true account of these men and women. And I believe that if someone does a sick out, I know for years these officers have been saying this place is dangerous. They've been saying it for years. This place is a place that's about to blow up. For years they've been saying that. And I don't think previous administrations have acknowledged what these officers have been saying. But even if they did do a sick out, then we should not be asking the question of them that we have not asked for others. Are y'all faking being sick? This is the only city agency where that question is being raised. There's a lot in front of you that's crazy. Oh no, no, no. They're going to come to you in a moment so you'll be all right. Commissioner, do you have a daily average for the number of officers that are out sick? A daily average. We can get it to you, but I would say it's around 900 a day so that number has started to creep down under a thousand. For where it was last summer, which was significantly over 2,000. Mr. Mayor, just off topic. No, I'm going to come back. I'll come back. I'll come back. I'll come back. You know what people say and that's why you're stupid. Chris. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, we reported yesterday that the DOC didn't count the death of Antonio Bradley, an inmate who died after hanging himself in a bronze holding cell. He was not counted because he was released on compassionate release while he was in a coma from that hanging attempt. Do you agree with that decision not to count him as an inmate to death, or do you think that's almost has a whole bunch of cover-up? He died inside the facility? He died at a hospital after hanging himself in a holding cell. He was not counted as an inmate death because he was released on compassionate release while in a coma. What I was told from my days of policing when a person died is how you're supposed to record it. And if that's a violation of a law or a rule, we'll correct that. But from what I'm understanding, if I got someone in the street that was still alive and they were shot, they were still alive and he died in the hospital, that's when you count it, when he died. So I don't see that as a cover-up or a violation of any rule. If it is, I'm definitely correct, but on my understanding it's the place of death is where a person died. But just from your own point of view, do you think that's the proper way of counting it? He hung himself while he was in custody and then he died when he was, quote unquote, not in custody because he was released on compassionate release. Do you think that's a reasonable way of counting a death? Yes, a person could be shot on Bedford Avenue but died in a hospital. You'll count where they die. And so if that violates some rule, we will correct that and it won't happen. But until then, on my understanding that is when you count the place of death. I don't think people are trying to distort or change the numbers because the numbers are what they are. If someone dies in a facility, the commission is going to try to cover up the numbers are what they are. That's what we feel. But the numbers be reported. If we have X number of suicides, those are the numbers. There's no reason trying to hide it. You know and I know you can't hide so what they are, what they are. He died in a hospital. That is what the numbers are. Last on top. I didn't actually have one but I kind of do. All right. You had 1400. Can you just clarify these numbers because you said 1400 people came back to work but then you said 900 is down by 40 percent. Which does not. Can you just sort of clarify but if I don't think those numbers add up. And then are you saying that it's your position at this point that everyone who is out sick that that is legitimate in all of those cases and you're not seeking to enforce any more the way the past administration was. The, you know, potential abuses. Sure. Sure. So one is we can follow and get to the exact numbers of where we were at this time last year of the number of people that were out sick. Where we have been today. I can tell you that decline has been over 40 percent and individually and totally we count officers captains in various ranks. Over 1400 people have come back to work but the majority that has been officers and I've also signed off on nearly 1,000 disciplinary cases. In some of those cases it was abuse of sick leave. So we will hope people accountable if we suspect that there's some level of medical competency taking place. We will take action against that individual but that is not the majority of the people that are out sick. I think we're clear because I don't want this to be distorted. We're not saying everyone that's out sick has a legitimate reason for being out sick but we're also not saying that everyone that's out sick is thinking being sick. In all agencies you have a small number of people who are using and abusing sick policy in every agency. We see it all the time but the overwhelming number of city employees that are out sick they are sick and we would like to give them the benefit of the doubt until an investigation determines that they are abusing the process as some are abusing the process and that's what the commissioner has stated they're doing a review on that to make the right determination. But the numbers have substantially dropped under the commissioner leadership. Just a number commissioner on the uniform workforce size. The workforce size is about $7,000. Thank you. Can I do your hand for switching over? Thank you. Thank you. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job. If you want to talk. Thank you. Just on the run guidelines and you just give me your thoughts on what happened last night how you feel about how that translation is right now? Well, you know, we heard it at the beginning of the year, and we talked about up to 9%. That was just really unacceptable in thought, and we continued to raise our voice to share what our concerns were. We sort of numbers go down to, I believe it's 3% for one year, 5% and was it 5%? 3.5%. Right. For additional years. Look, system is broken. We witnessed renters having to deal with this trauma, financial trauma, but we also started small property owners, 15 units, 16 units, 9 units. They're earning oil, water bill, taxes. So we had to find a medium. And what we wanted to do was also use Albany as a way to put money back into renters' pockets, earn income tax credit, childcare vouchers. We knew that based on what the rent guidelines board was saying, that it was going to do an increase, so we had to find ways to put money back into the pockets of New Yorkers and not hurt those small property owners, which was my focus. And with all that, can you just talk about how much of a strain that could be on people that are just struggling financially as it is? It is a strain. It's a strain on struggling small property owners. It's a strain on renters. We are all experiencing a strain right now. And so what I must do is find ways to alleviate that strain and like what we're doing right now, how we're going to assist those small property owners and renters by utilizing our budget and utilizing the funding that's coming from Albany to offset some of the scope. There's a strain on all of us, all of us, on the strain. And this is a major concern for renters. And I respect that, you know, that this is a concern for them. Morgan. I could speak about the transit officer who was attacked yesterday on his first solo patrol. I know you were talking about changing the rules a little bit. I was hoping to go into detail. And if you're concerned at all about maybe the trend, I mean this was a second day. Are you going to maybe stop the solo patrols all together or just maybe fix this, like you were saying? First of all, to that hero officer, I thank him for service. I thank God that he's okay. The bad guys in jail are person who has a history of assault. And I take my head to the commission. As soon as the incident happened, she reached out to me. I had a conversation with the president of the DEA and a conversation with Patty Lynch. And, you know, the conversation was really, how do we reach the goal that we want? How do we get the omnipresence? And how do we make sure that our officers are safe? And we came with a real meaning of the mind of let's have the separated solo patrol stay in eye sight of each other. This would allow the immediate backup with the communications that we currently have. And I think there's something that many people are missing. I can talk with my union guys. You know, Patty and I spoke last night around 10 o'clock at 9. The DEA president, Joe and I spoke late at night. These guys say that Eric is the support of law enforcement and is willing to listen. And the police commission, I spoke with them late last night. And we immediately said, you know what, we have to adjust. We're not going to be so rigid that we're not going to adjust to accomplish the task that we need. I thank Patty. I thank Joe. And I thank the police commissioner for doing so. And most importantly, I thank that officer. Steve. Just to follow up on that. You talked yesterday about the deployment strategy of having one officer get on the last part of the train, the other officer get on the front. That can't happen anymore. I think it's just to feed a lot of the purpose of doing solar patrols. No, we want to stay an eyed distance and you can accomplish that on eyed distance. If that officer just use a tactically, if that officer is on the two train and they have three cars apart, they can physically see each other through that door as they move through the train. It's important to keep moving through the train to engage with passengers and to see any conditions that needs to be corrected. And if I can follow up on a separate topic real quick. Saw the report that there have been zero enforcement actions on the employer vaccination mandate since you took office. You know, what is the purpose of having this rule still in place if there's no effort and enforcement whatsoever? We always said we didn't want to penalize. We wanted to educate. It's been winning. Numbers are dropping. Numbers are increasing. People going back to work. Our economy is moving forward. I had a duality here. I wanted to do the right thing so we don't spend backwards in COVID. But at the same time, I wanted my economy to come back. That's crucial. And we haven't successfully been doing so. But Numbers are showing that the strategy we put in place is a winning strategy. We did not have to be heavy handed. I met with my business leaders often. We had conversations around this is what we need to do, save social distancing, put mask on. So we didn't have to go in and penalize. We had to continue the conversation. And we're winning. We are successfully navigating COVID. Today we announced the vaccine under five years old. I'm just really pleased on what the team has done around COVID. Eric. Today says that you still own half of the co-op apartment on Prospect Place, which you said during the campaign that you had transferred ownership of that to the friends that you co-owned it with. So can you clarify what is the status of that property? Do you, in fact, still own it? And why is there a discrepancy between those two reports? Yes, still own it. And I think you've seen off that release, everybody. Okay. Everybody get a copy of that? We all did, yeah. Okay. We need to release it. Another question. We sit down to release, but explain it all. You guys, you all might go over and over and over and over again the same thing. He crafted a release. We'll send it to whoever didn't get it. Please raise your hand and make sure you get it. We didn't get it. Okay. He's going to make sure you get it. Yes. So, Mr. Mayor, why did you sign a letter saying that he transferred the shares in the first place, if the transfer didn't take place? Okay. He's going to get you to release it. You could hear that. I said he'd question after that if you have any misunderstanding. That's okay. He'll make sure you get it. He'll make sure you get it. Because you told me some of our colleagues told us that there's an issue. We also don't have our phones. We're not on the internet right now, so we can't see them. Yeah, we don't have our phones. We can't see them right after. No. I'll show it to you. I'll show it to you right now. No, don't say no. No, Melvin. Don't say no. This is not your press conference. It's mine. I answered your question, and I'm not going to go back and forth. So don't say no. Like you controlled it. My press conference. Mr. Mayor. I already told you. Get it from. Get it from. I got it. It's a song. It's a song. Okay. That is a question. If you said that in the taxi accident that the bicyclist ran the red light. Are you planning to do anything about enforcing rules for bicyclists? Because this driver has been vilified and apparently had the light. I don't know all the particulars, but even in the police report said that the bicyclist ran the red light. Yes. There are deeply looking at traffic enforcement that includes scooters, bicyclists and cars because everyone shared the road. And so we are sitting in a very clear message that I'm a bicyclist. I follow the rules. We want everyone to follow the rules. And anyone who has been a critic of having bicyclists follow the rules, they need to look at the video to see that that would appear to be going through the red light caused some of the actions that took place. So everyone must follow the rule and we're going to enforce it equally. Thank you. I just want to ask one more thing about solo patrols. Mr. Mayor. Yes. The PBA president said from the beginning that he thought it was a bad idea to have solo patrols. Now an officer has been injured as a result of that. I'm just wondering what made you change your mind specifically? Was it this incident last night that you saw that you realized your initial rollout of the policy was flawed? Can you let us know a little bit what changed your mind? No. I am not rigid and I'm not a person that can't communicate. I communicate with my presidents of the PBA, of the DEA, of the LBA. I talk to everyone. And after the incident that happened last night and I communicated with the commissioner, I said let's continue to evolve. I said this yesterday. We're going to continue to evolve our transit safety plan. And I think nothing is gross than a person that believe they have to be so rigid that they're not willing to see how to build a better mousetrap. That's what I'm going to do. Two goals. One, I'm the president. We still have that. Number two, to make sure our offices are safe as possible.