 Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's public safety briefing led by deputy mayor for public safety fill banks Following our last speaker. We will take a few questions from the media followed by some questions that have been submitted by the public ahead of today's briefing I would now like to turn it over to deputy mayor fill banks. So good afternoon and welcome I believe that We can access this through here from Eric calm So we would urge all of the listeners to pass us on to your friends There if you sign up that you will have the opportunity to submit your questions on the topics that you want administration to answer And then we asked it to pass it along So we are trying to build this up because public safety is a joint effort today. We have actually a really good episode We're gonna have three exciting guests. The first is my peer My comrade my fellow deputy mayor mayor Joshi and she is the deputy mayor for operations And she's going to be here and she's gonna talk about safety for cyclists and people who ride e-bike scooters and the likes And it's gonna be a quick refresher on things that we can all do as motorists Cyclists and pedestrians to keep our roadways safe Second guest will be and we're delighted to have the New York City Public Schools deputy chancellor Carolyn Cantina and she's going to talk about a program that the Department of Education recently released about a week or two ago They may have been working on a little bit longer, but they had a big public announcement I believe it was in Brooklyn a few weeks ago and it's called New York City reads and This is gaining a lot of steam and they're getting a lot of positive feedback And we thought it was important for you to understand where they are and where they are going with that And then finally we're gonna have Deputy chief max talentino known him for a very long time. We worked together for years He is the commanding officer of the NYPD's community affairs bureau and he is joined here today with by lieutenant Papa Lasopolis who is the commanding officer of the crime prevention division and in the hierarchy of the NYPD the Crime prevention division is embedded in the community affairs bureau So the lieutenant now directly reports to chief talentino and they're going to speak about crime statistics and certainly more importantly Crime prevention tips certain things that you could do And we could do as a family to minimize the chances of ourselves being a victim of a crime So things will be pretty bit exciting interested So we're gonna start with the deputy mayor and she is going to be talking about e-bikes traditional bicyclists scooters Pedestrians motorists There's a lot of things going by we've received a lot of complaints from pedestrians about bicyclists and Scooters who ride on sidewalks and they may ride for a variety of reasons some they could just be disobeying the law Some may be unaware that it's it's forbidden to ride on the sidewalks And others may not feel safe riding in the street and we just want to put out there with awareness factor We want people to pay attention. We want to make sure that everybody is safe the street and the city needs to be safe So too much to do Deputy mayor, thank you very much Before I get started on the topic of bikes e-bikes moped scooters with a focus on e-bikes I do want to give a brief update on the Staten Island ferry at 1 p.m. On Thursday, May 26th We switched over to every hour service on the Staten Island ferry due to some staffing challenges And that ran until 11 30 p.m. We continued service using New York City Ferry and that covered from pier 11 to st. George overnight and that was free and that overlapped from 10 45 p.m. Until 6 15 a.m. This morning this morning our Staten Island ferry service returned Hourly at 6 a.m. And we're going to return to 30 minute service at 2 p.m. Today with continuous service overnight and throughout the weekend, so I want to thank everybody for their patience I want to thank all the electeds for the outreach that they helped us with on this service I want to thank New York City ferry for being our partner to provide continuous service And as usual we will keep New York City moving despite challenging circumstances So to talk a little bit about bikes, especially e-bikes. I think it's important to recognize they're here They're gonna stay they're growing. There's so many advantages to e-bikes They're a form of transportation for many people throughout the city. They're climate friendly They're much more affordable than a car and they help us get to a great actually Secure our place as one of the urban centers with the lowest car ownership because it's another form of Transportation that lets you get miles without having to take on the onerous version of owning a car So we want to support bike riders, especially e-bike riders But it's a developing industry and there are some significant risks that without taking precautions Can threaten the viability of the industry and I want to start out with one one two Aspects of e-bikes that I think are really important for us to know It matters what you buy when it comes to e-bikes. There are safe e-bikes and there are unsafe e-bikes It's a new industry and so all of the safeguards that are attendant with new and blossoming industries are not in place So what you see above you is a UL certification when this is on an e-bike It shows you that it has passed all the safety certifications that are necessary and that make it a Safe piece of equipment for you to use it should be on the bike and it should also be on the battery Some of the tragic consequences of not having safe equipment Fires we have over the decades Electric fires have been the number one cause of death in New York City This year that changed the number one cause of death by fire is e-bike fires We've had nine deaths since the start of the year 84 fires in the city have been caused by e-bikes illegal e-bikes as we cause call them those that are not UL certified and 62 injuries So it's incredibly important to understand the equipment that you're using the second is on crashes e-bikes go faster than normal bikes and they take a little getting used to and sometimes they rev up quickly So we've seen a 17% increase in fatalities involving e-bikes and other e-mobilities And across the city there have been eight e-bike fatalities Four of them are what we call single equipment fatalities Often that is someone crashing into a parked car or wall or some other object and often that's due to speed so it's really important to understand that a Excellent form of transportation, but it comes with some risk the equipment has to be safe And you have to be safe in operating it a few tips in buying make sure you're looking for that UL Certification do not buy equipment that doesn't have it Don't mix and match equipment if you buy a bike that's comes from one company Don't match it with a battery that comes from another that increases the risk of fires Don't buy refurbished e-bikes by legal e-bikes And if you're charging them make charging them in your home make sure you're not charging them anywhere near would Would block your ability to leave your residents Don't mix and match again the batteries that is Detrimental when it comes to charging and causes fire and don't tinker with the speed Many of the e-bikes are throttled down to go to a maximum amount of speed But people sometimes tinker with them to get increased speed and I and I think the administration And we all understand that often e-bikes are the equipment that people need to earn a living in the delivery world So it's a real economic choice when it comes to spending extra money to buy a safe Piece of equipment or not and it's a real decision about what you're gonna pay for that month Because there is a significant difference between the cost of the legal safe equipment and the illegal unsafe equipment But your life is worth it the hundreds of dollars difference and sometimes it's between two hundred and four hundred dollars difference is Meaningful it is meaningful because it means you get to come home to your family after a day of work And it's an investment that you will all appreciate understand And I really encourage everyone to think strongly about that when they're purchasing e-bikes When it comes to riding don't speed Ride in the bike lanes if there are no bike lanes ride in the same direction as the traffic You have the right to ride in the traffic as if you are a car Make sure you're reading the signs. They apply to you red lights or red lights for cars for regular bicycles for e-bikes For moped's for motorcycles. They apply to all of us Distracted driving is just as much of a problem for for people driving a car as it is for someone on an e-bike Who's got their phone in front of them? So make sure you're mindful of that as well. Make sure you're wearing protective gear. That's helmets reflective gear Use your bells horns honks even your voice if you need to to make sure people know that you're in the right of way And one question we get a lot is can e-bikes be in parks currently that is not allowed But the parks department is piloting using the ability for people to use e-bikes on some of the main Driveways within our parks and along the sides of the river on the east and west side So I encourage everybody to continue to be a bike helping us be one of the nation's largest biking city But be wise about how you do that be wise about how you spend your money and be wise about how you Actually operate the bicycle what we're doing at the city level is we're pushing for federal mandates So that there's more safety certifications on this on these on e-bikes and there's more safe equipment in the market Which will ultimately drive the price down and make it accessible for everybody We're applying for federal dollars to seek to ensure that there's secure e-bike parking in NYCHA facilities as well as secure charging We're doing more to get bike infrastructure out there for delivery workers This is their office space protected bike lanes are the way we keep them protected And we're working with the apps to make sure they do everything they can do Ensuring that they're raising awareness among the delivery workers. They work with funding and subsidizing the cost of safe equipment and you know long ago before the Everyone had a could order food from their phone and e-bikes were used by restaurants The restaurants would often keep and store the bikes now that economic burden falls on the delivery worker And that's often why they're making the choice to buy Substandard equipment so we're working with the apps to try to even that out so that the workers are not taking a financial hit While they get safer equipment So I would like to continue on to just make sure people understand that we're a city for every mode That's walking cars e-bikes bicycles mowspeds and motorcycles, but we're a dense city We have a few basic rules to follow they apply forever to everyone They're not difficult to follow, but they sure save lives So take the time out think about your neighbors think about who you share the road with so that we all get to go home safely Thank you, you know that was a lot of information. That was fantastic. I really appreciate that I just want to reiterate a couple of points a couple of weeks ago We had the fire commissioner Laura cavern on and she spoke about the safety of these lithium batteries and these e-bikes Now you have the deputy mayor on for operations who is basically giving you a lot more but but but that same information One do not buy these subpar parts the two dollars that you save Right. It's costing you in the future It is now the number one cause of fires in New York City, and it is totally Unavoidable it's taking place so you asked any of these families on these people who've lost loved ones Was the two dollars or the three dollars or the five dollars they save was it worth it? And the answer is no do not have them in your area of regress What does that mean if you have to get out of your house quickly? What is that path that you would use is there anything in your way? Particularly where the source of the fire is going to be three do not charge the batteries overnight And then the deputy man, I really appreciate that too because we've become a society like we just we we enter these phones and we're into Our law our tablets and we're driving and we're texting and we're driving and we're watching You know YouTube or some other type of reading our emails and we're on our bicycles These are unavoidable things and I really appreciate how you said it. This is a city for all Right and just a few laws that we can follow that it could be safe for all of us This is an easy one. So we're doing our best to get the education here. We're asking that you follow it We're asking that you pass it along. We're asking that you participate in it Because the life or the injury that you save may be your own So I really appreciate that. Thank you very much next up we're gonna hear from the deputy chancellor and Interest me people would ask is that well, what does the DOE have to do with Public safety, I would argue everything to do a public safety dance studies that's over and over have shown is that if you take the The area codes of the zip codes, I should say the zip codes of certain areas and look at their reading level You can actually predict The crime and the amount of people who are gonna commit crimes in those areas There was a direct correlation between education and public safety. So we had a big announcement two weeks ago, right? There's a lot of things that was said So can you please just please tell our audience exactly what is New York City reads? Why are we doing it? What is the objective and why why is the DOE so happy about this program? Absolutely. Thank you deputy mayor If you walk into the chancellor's office, there's always a quote on his board that says if you learn to read You will be forever free Frederick Douglass And it's reading for us is about empowerment and access and if you think about it reading is a part of everything that we do So whether you're reading a map a recipe signs at its train station or medical instructions People need to have functional levels of literacy in order to be able to navigate the world safely We know that there's a strong correlation between reading and promotion of health And we know that there's a strong correlation between being able to read and involvement in the criminal justice system As you just mentioned in fact 85% of our young people who are involved in the criminal justice system are considered functionally low literate And they're more likely to drop out and then that creates this cycle this detrimental cycle And so we want to make sure that we're addressing that Just yesterday we visited actually a an advanced manufacturing lab and we learned that there is a need for People to actually staff Manufacturing labs and that part of what's keeping people out of really viable options for for employment are reading and math levels and so You know an industry like Intel that is looking for 3,000 new employees Cannot employ because they don't have folks who can read at a level that they need in there And so that's part of what we want to be able to address And so imagine if you know in the criminal justice system We talk about you know the the involvement and the low literacy levels if we had been able to give those young people the resources and Interventions that they needed early on and so that's part of what this Initiative is aiming to do We're looking at providing our teachers with a strong Curriculum and with the training that they need and the resources that they need in order to be able to teach every child to Read so our chancellor often likes to say that we've been giving teachers a flawed playbook that we had provided them With instruction that was about queuing kids into reading using context clues Memorizing and building a love of reading as a reason to learn to read and we absolutely want kids to love to read But we need them to know how to do it mechanically And so we're we're going back to a foundational approach to reading that is grounded in the science of reading And that's what this big announcement was about So that if our kids learn to do this with confidence and competence and really develop That sense of self-efficacy then they'll they'll love reading So we're giving teachers the right playbook and we're beginning with birth through graduation So our early childhood is adopting the creative curriculum Our chancellor often talks about having bright starts to bold futures And so early childhood will be the beginning of this work Teachers will be provided with training our leaders will as well so that we can set up our youngest learners for success and have Them enter into the school system prepared for for learning to read and then over the next two years in our grades K through 5 We're going to be rolling out an option of one of three Curricula that have already been vetted and so our superintendents with their communities have selected the curricula We'll start with 15 districts this year and the remaining districts next year and in the secondary grades We're going to continue to boost up our work using screeners and providing Interventions for our readers and we're working with teachers to learn to implement reading strategies across the content area So that means in their social studies in their science in their math classes We'll keep building up those skills until we we roll out curriculum and each of those as well Additionally, we're going to let folks work together and what this does is it actually Enables our districts to be able to move in to provide more targeted support because they know exactly what each school is teaching And it allows our central office to provide support so that teachers can really respond to the kids in front of them So we can focus on providing supports to our teachers of English language learners We can provide support to our teachers of students with disabilities so that they know exactly how to Target their needs because we already know what curriculum they're using and just need to provide the supports to be able to give them each access We know that our educators are at the heart of making NYC reads work And so we're investing heavily in them In fact most of our investment in terms of time and resources will be on developing teachers And that looks like not only trainings that we already started this past week But also will look like coaching and supports inside the schools And we know that the more that our kids can read and that the the more that they engage in school And that they find joy in being in school the last time that they're gonna spend out on the streets And the last time that we have to worry about kids being put in dangerous situations So we're really excited about what NYC reads means for our city and what it means for all of us as As as a society so thank you now, you know any almost almost, right? I'm gonna be clear almost anything associated with the DOE is very political. It can be very emotional We're talking about children. So I know you have the uft you have parents there Were they part of this process or are they are they are they in order buying in are they objecting to this particular process? Or we all know one one team here So that's actually part of what's really remarkable about this move is that you're right typically we have Folks that we have to negotiate and and that are at odds with each other, but in this case our labor partners have been asking for this kind of support and so uft is Part of the training as well. They're standing with us side-by-side the President Michael Mulgrew and Chancellor David Banks have been in on this together and I think it's really really exciting to know that that means that we're going to support schools together to make sure that all of our Kids can read because all of our teachers know how to teach reading and so actually working really well together Our parents believe it or not wanted to be much more involved than they have been and so We're gonna make sure that we do that from As we continue along this process We're gonna be offering trainings for our parents and make sure that we have resources available for them So that parents can continue to support Outside of school as well and then there's the out of school time So really thinking about how do we now engage those after school providers? So working with dycd and working with our community-based Organizations to make sure that everyone is speaking the same language that we're all trained and we're all supporting because reading is How we empower our young people That is fantastic. It's very exciting We'd love to have you come back on and give us an update in the future to see how it's going It's great I do know that the Chancellor is very excited behind this you appear to be very excited behind it I am and I'm sure that it's going to have a real positive impact on New York City. So good luck and congratulations on that Okay, so now we're gonna turn to the NYPD. We have deputy chief talentino here commanding officer of the community affairs bureau Right the crime prevention division is a unit under the community affairs And max you're going to be talking about chief going to be talking about some crime statistics And more importantly, we're going to get into some of the things that people can do right to minimize the Chances of being a victim of a crime and before we hear from the chief is something that I think we agree upon Is that I used to always say when I was in law enforcement Is that you stand out there and you cite statistics? Statistics is a good gauge. It's a measurement. It kind of tells you if you're going in the right direction But if you are speaking about statistics to someone who was a victim of a robbery your statistics Don't mean anything at all So I never was reported always down in crime because there still were crime victims out there who were victim of a crime And because you're not a victim today does not mean you cannot be a victim tomorrow This is once again one thing as a city, right? This is nothing that we need to be on different aisles of different sides of the aisle about This is things that we can work together as a city to keep ourselves safe And I don't think there's too many people who can argue with that So so chief tell me tell me about some crime stats and tell the audience on what they can do to protect themselves Great. Thank you, mr. Deputy mayor and again a thousand percent. I agree with you if you're the victim of a crime statistics really don't mean much So far the this year the NYPD the city's up 1.5 percent in seven major crimes in New York City That increases led by the grand large grand larceny autos and assaults that occurring out in the street So but if you look at the overall picture of murder is down rapids down Robberies are down burglars that down grand larcenies that down and we'll go further into the crimes that are up as we go further I'm happy to report that we have a hundred and thirty eight less shooting victims in New York City, and that's an important number But we want you to be safe out in the street So if a commotion breaks out in the street and you're nearby Run see cover don't wait for guns to come out and for people to start shooting We do not want you to be an unintended victim of a of unnecessary violence that occurs out in the field With sexual assaults while sexual assaults are down and I know how traumatic that can be for someone to sexually assaulted And when you feel comfortable one of the most important things that you're gonna do is try not to destroy any type of evidence But you're washing your hands or removing article of clothing when you feel comfortable cold 9-1-1 and In reported as soon as possible. It's time is of the essence When it comes to robberies robberies are down as I stated if You know what you don't want to do is go out into the street and carrying large sums of money carry what you need Today's day and age, you know one credit card one debit card is really all that you need To be out there But when you do go out there, you know, you got to trust your instincts when you see something happening around you, you know There's a gut fit you have gut feeling You know change direction go into a crowded area. Don't make yourself an easy target Too many times we see individuals Very that the heads into their phones and you can't do these do that these days You have to physically and look around at all time constantly And if you are gonna use your phone find a safe place to do so in order to carry out your business And even then pick your head up and look around as you're doing so You know, like I said, we're walking well at areas And be aware of your surroundings the most important thing that you're gonna do With assaults assaults are up 8% And we understand that a lot of these assaults about 40% of these assaults Are associated with domestic violence and we take those type of incidents very seriously In those cases, we know the perpetrator And so the apprehension is very very simple. I can tell you that If you get into an argument with somebody The best solution to not being the victim of an assault Is to de-escalate and walk away and go and change direction Sometimes at the end of a fight You know, you start thinking about what led to that fight and you're going to realize there's something trivial We don't want you to be a victim of assault And when it comes to burglaries burglaries are down overall throughout the city And one of the most important things that you're going to do is to secure your home Is to make sure that those windows and doors are locked If you can afford a gate on your fire escape window Please put a gate on there. If you can't afford a gate find yourself a nice piece of two by four And insert it so that the window cannot be lifted And Burglars always look for the easiest path into your house All right, if you have any type of ladders at home Out by one of your windows or garbage cans make sure that they're far away and enough so that that you know Giving them easy access into your house When when it comes to grand larceny, that's a theft of property from your person without force You know just Carrying your wallet in in your front pocket will deter someone from bumping into you And taking your wallet out of your back pocket But if somebody bumps into you immediately, you know, take the time to check your belongings And make sure that they're there and as best as possible immediately, you know alert a police sorcerer Um and protect yourself at all time when it comes to your personal belonging One key thing that I will say that when it has to do anything with credit cards And or identifying numbers where whether it's the i me i Number for your phone or your credit card numbers always somewhere in your house Keep a list of all those numbers because those numbers are going to be important For the investigation portion A lot of times we find an individual that's a victim Of a grand larceny of a robbery and that information is not stored anywhere It's going to be vital for the purposes of investigating and apprehending the individual The last thing that I want to talk about and uh Lieutenant pop of osopolis will talk about the grand larceny autos and some of the initiatives that we're taking is that Grand larcenies are up And that we attribute directly to the tick tock challenge in a lot of cases the hondais and the key has Being taken off the street and many times we're finding these vehicles in other parts of the city The other card is being taken as the honda The hondas for some reason there's some vulnerability You know, we're asking folks To go back to some of the old things that worked in years past and maybe put a steering lock Devised onto your vehicle. It's a great way for you to At least put a deterrence between someone easily taking your car and walking up to your car and realizing There's another step that they got to go through in order to do that And the last thing i'm going to say is that when possible Please call immediately nine one. Don't delay the reporting time As that's that's essential for a quick and thorough investigation and we will apprehend the individual responsible Thank you. Mr. Deputy Mayor Lou You want to add to that that was a lot she very much appreciated. It's a lot of information helpful information useful information We're going to add on to that deputy mayor. Thank you for having me on the crime prevention division provides a number of services to The citizens and small businesses throughout the city some of these They're all free to the public and some of these services include lectures That are compromised of basic Identity theft scams I'm pretty sure everyone here received in either an email or a text message saying you possibly owe some money to the irs and that sort of fashion What we tell our we tell everyone is do not give any of your information away to anyone Usually the people that we see more victim to this are our elderlies So what we encourage is you know go back and Tell your grandpa you tell your grandfather, you know, my mother was a victim of one of those crimes as well uh Other services that we provide our um to our small businesses are our security surveys. They're all free of charge That consists of trained nypd officers that actually come to the actual business Conduct a detailed assessment of the actual business. They look at the vulnerabilities from camera systems to windows to door locks and Upon completion of that the actual store owner will receive an nypd nypd Certificate as far as the vulnerabilities are concerned and what they should be looking at With our recommendations These are some basics from where to apply the cameras or type of security features We would uh assist them in the type of windows that should be included uh going forward Some of these Initiatives that we deal directly with the public Again, the mayor's office has provided over 500 Apple air tags To combat some of these auto larceny initiatives We've been seeing kia in handais that were a little bit more prone to the tick tock challenge We've we've been seeing an increase in honda crvs The nypd has purchased over 300 Additional wheel locks that are providing free to the public that fit that criteria Our next Initiative is going to be on the 16th at fort taut, which will be advertised and if anyone needs any more information on Vehicle theft or crime prevention. Um, they could easily go on our website, which is crime prevention at nypd.org These air tags we've distributed Over 250 to the people. We also had some outside companies that are willing To join the initiative, which is the company called tile tracker They donated over a hundred tags to the public as well and going forward The summertime is here. I think a lot of traveling is going to be occurring and what we just want Some other people that are going to be traveling in in taxi cabs It's say, you know, when you're traveling somewhere and you're getting out of the taxi Just ask the driver to just wait a few seconds while you get into the house If you're traveling with a group of people try to try to stay in well-lit areas and on main streets So those are just a few of the tips that are free to the public Um, and they could contact us at any time and we could actually conduct the the actual presentations for them Great. Excellent. That's a lot of information. A lot of user information here today A couple of questions I have is that I'm going to just go over what you said chief and lieutenant Tile tags air tags, right? These are these are devices that you put into your car Then the event that your car is stolen Right, you can actually track. In fact, where the car is at So you have access to where your car is at all times as well, correct? Yeah, let me make that clear the the new york city police department does not Track these devices. These are just given to the public. Uh, what the what the person does, uh, they can purchase it themselves Yeah, they can purchase in themselves as well. They would basically use their phone to, um coordinate that Apple air tag and open it they register it with their own personal phone And then we encourage them to put it somewhere in the vehicle where it's discreet and it's not visible And I know that there's some car services for like a big fee that offer similar type devices But this is a very inexpensive way you take one of these tiles I'm not pitching one company over the other you throw it into that particular car You come out and you find in fact that your car is not there You automatically have access to where your car was in real time or called to 911 My car was stolen. I'm tracking it. It is on the corner of xyz can help us in fact Relocate your property real quick. So that's something that I would strongly suggest everyone to take a look at We do have some companies out there that have been donating these The message to the companies keep donating you donated. We're gonna get it to the hands We want more and more and more and we're gonna hand them out as much as possible But if you can't get a a free one, I don't believe that that expensive Uh, it's somewhat affordable and if you could afford it take a look at that I'm gonna go to something you said chief though is about the home. This was a Old telltale sign if you had to get into your house How would you break into your own house you left your key you have to get access into your house? What would you do that is the same thing that the bad guy and the bad girl is looking to do as well Don't have these ladders outside because you're given you're basically telling them to come in Garbage cans at times can be used that way as well One of the things that we used to teach was that as you're walking to your door Have the keys out in your hand ready to go to hold up your pocketbook or going through your Your pants looking for the key have the key out access ability to be able to get in As quick as you possibly can these this Kia and his Hyundai talents They cannot operate unless we help them These criminals out there they need somewhat our cooperation So we can put up a fight and is our job and law enforcement to track it Is our job and law firm to investigate it properly is our job and law enforcement to educate Uh, the public and is your job to take that education and do the best that you can possibly to To minimize it. This is a fight that we can win And this is a fight that we certainly have to win. So it's a lot of good information that was taken place here I mean, this is like one of the most informative sessions. There was a lot of takeaways from all three So I just would like to to thank the guests my peers up here A lot of information and for the audience that we were just drawing suggests that you process this information You pass it along to your friends and your family and then you send us your critique And you send us your questions so that we can as a team once again continue to To bridge this gap as we go along our road of public safety So very good excellent Derek. I am going to kick it to you Thank you deputy mayor Earlier this week the administration reached out to new yorkers asking them to submit questions for the officials that have joined us here today We will now get to as many of those as we can with the amount of time that we have left Our first question comes from deputy mayor joshie. It's from suvic in Manhattan Who asks can you explain a little bit more about how traffic light lag works in new york city to keep pedestrians safe For pedestrians across the street. They are very helpful, but I notice seventh av has them but not all street lights Thank you and good observations Not everybody's in tune to exactly how we time traffic lights and how they affect the flow So I appreciate that what we try to do with traffic lights is give pedestrians a head start In crossing the street so that they can be more visible to drivers We do this all over the city. Um, what you've noticed is a difference between seventh av and eight eighth av We do um them in phases So we can certainly check to update on when seventh av is going to be time lagged And see how it compares to eighth av but chances are if you don't see it on seventh av. It's because it's coming soon Thank you Next question comes for the department of education from belblin in the bronx She asks how can we best diagnose students with dyslexia? What are the resources we need to assist these students asap? I'm a district 75 teacher and I believe I have two or three students that could use resources Thank you. I appreciate that question coming from a teacher too because it means that we're starting to pay attention to Markers in the classroom And so what our teachers have been doing throughout is using screeners to assess students Development of reading skills and so those screeners continue to be incredibly important When we generate data from those screeners we can find out What exactly does a child need in terms of intervention? And then make sure that they get a cycle of intervention with the right amount of time and the right amount of support If a child isn't making progress after that intervention We have intensive interventions and we have what we call secondary screeners so that they can actually assess them for risk of dyslexia So we don't actually evaluate for dyslexia itself. You would need a neuropsych evaluation for that But in our school system we can do a battery of tests and we can use secondary screeners to assess for risk of dyslexia And if they a child does have Or does present a risk of dyslexia, there are a number of different resources that are available We're having teachers trained on different methodologies or in gillingham method We also opened this year for structured literacy sites And one of those will become an actual standalone school for students who have print based disabilities In the Bronx next year. We have one of those sites in Harlem and we have two of those in brooklyn We're opening additional sites For next year many many more of those so that we have Access to resources across the city and each district has an academic intervention specialist At the district who can support with this so if teachers have any concerns They should bring those up to their principles and the principles can reach out to their superintendent Who can make sure that those district supports are available too? So we want to make sure that anytime a child needs help That we have someone who can help make sure that they're getting exactly what they need Thank you Next question comes from the police for the police department from katie in the Bronx who asks Can new police officers visit schools to speak to children about safety? Thank you for the question Absolutely, we encourage our officers at every opportunity to engage With the members of the community, especially our youth as they are the the future of the city So it's a great opportunity to expose our young officers to the kids that will sunday Replace them and or replaced all of us at city hall Thank you next question comes for deputy mayor banks or we'll send it to deputy mayor banks from karen in Manhattan Who says we see a lot more officers on the street, but is it having an impact on shoplifting? We see a lot of more officers on the street Well, that's a good thing and is it having an impact on shoplifting? Um, I don't know whether or not there's a direct correlation in the situation that you speak of of direct More police having direct on shoplifting But the administration just released just released a retail depth plan and I say the administration But it was a collaboration for many people inside the administration other elected officials the district attorneys played a great role The attorney general tis james played a fantastic role in it But there were also the retail theft industry played a role So in this particular case that we are going to see and we're starting to see the remnants of retail theft We're starting to like grasp The the problem is starting to turn another way. Is it directly related to more police? I cannot say that or that it is I believe that there are many situations that you do need more police But there's certainly many situations where less police is better, right in this particular case here now We do like to see officers going into stores We do certainly think that the presence outside of these stores are very very helpful But in order for the tie to be turned to retail theft there has to be a collaborative effort Among many the merchants the district attorneys Certainly the police the bids that are taking place And the awareness of the employees and the shoppers itself. So we are going to turn the tide on that Um, and it's a good question and uh, I do appreciate it I don't say that often about the questions, but this was a good question And I certainly appreciate it and we're going to uh, we're going to as a city we're going to combat that problem Thank you. The next question comes from for deputy mayor joshie from pala and staden island who asks What has been the biggest success of vision zero? I hear the term a lot, but i'm not entirely sure how it works Uh, you know vision zero is Really about changing culture and culture is extremely hard to change But i'm especially proud of the work that's been done in new york city Because we've raised awareness about the importance and really what the message is Is speeding kills cars can be weapons and we should never put money over safety How we've done that is in a number of ways We've done it through enforcement where we've gotten through the state legislature An enormous amount of authority that we didn't previously have to do Automated enforcement against speeders and against people who run red light cameras We worked hard to make sure that the speed limit in new york city was reduced to 25 miles per hour in many areas We've done a lot of work in enlarging our Exclusive bus lanes and our protected bike lanes and our city-wide bike network We've done a lot of work on redesigning our streets so that it calms traffic People often say why are you changing the street like this? It really is to change the pace of the way traffic is moving We've done an incredible amount of work with our raising the standards for our professional drivers And they can set the tone for our traffic throughout the city That's a fleet of 100 000 drivers that drive uber and lyft and taxis They are some of the safest drivers we have in the city and they do set the tone But it really is also about the individual decision that each and every one of us make when we take on A trip in the roadway and so the education and awareness campaigns that you see around the city Are a vital part of that getting into the schools And educating children is a vital part when your kid starts telling you 20 is plenty You know that we're getting the message across And also I want to just raise two other things. You look at something like seatbelts, right? That took time to convince people that putting on a seatbelt was actually a lifesaving adventure And now today you click it you get in the car and you click it the auto manufacturers have made it Almost impossible for you not to so once you start changing the culture about these fundamental safety Techniques you find that the market will follow and so it's really important for us to do that car seats is another example And so there's so many ways in which we've we've really worked towards getting to the goal zero And it's called vision zero because the goal remains zero. So any death is one death too many We made a lot of progress In a few years ago leading up to covet and reducing our Our fatalities and serious injuries and like everywhere else in the nation when covet hit Cars were not on the street a lot of reckless driving ensued And so like the rest of the nation our serious injuries and fatalities went up So we're looking closely at where those trends are we see the trends in the increase in reckless driving And focusing on how we can get to those reckless drivers Through automated enforcement harsher penalties and making sure we get after those that continuously are offend They continuously get speeding tickets. They continuously get red lights and I want to leave on this note We find with automated enforcement that there isn't a lot of recidivism if you're caught you're not going to do that again It's those that are caught multiple times that are generally the factor behind a rise in serious injuries and fatalities So we know who that group is and we really need to focus our efforts on getting to them But again, this is not something we do single-handedly. We do this as a city government institutions private industry and individuals making a choice that safety matters That making sure they get home safely and the other people on the road get home safely too And it's a choice that I think we can all improve on every day as we conduct ourselves in our public space Our next question comes for the nypd. It's from Denise in Manhattan who asks Does the nypd increase police presence around drug clinics? There is one in my neighborhood In general, we don't necessarily increase police presence there if obviously if there's an issue with any particular location Individual precinct commanders will lend attention to those locations But as a general focus, we don't normally put police officers at those locations But if we get calls and we get three one one calls and we get calls to the precinct then right that would spur absolutely, sir Yes, okay Great and our final question comes from Marie in brooklyn for the deputy chancellor who asks What is the plan to keep literacy support in secondary schools next year? Thank you for that question Our goal is to support all of our learners and i'd mentioned prior that's from birth all the way up into until they graduate So while we announced recently that we're rolling out curriculum for birth to five and for k through five grade five rather We are still providing those intervention supports that i'd mentioned We want to make sure that schools are still using screeners And we're promoting literacy across the different Courses that a child takes in in secondary school. So whether you're in six through eight or nine through 12 And we'll provide training in those spaces We're also going to be building out some of those structured literacy sites in middle school and high school So that we have spaces where teachers and leaders can learn about what it looks like to provide comprehensive support as a school and they'll provide training will have outside providers as well as internal folks Who will work together to provide training to those spaces to create real sort of? Spaces for learning so that other schools can visit and they can see The practices that are in place in addition to that we are looking at different curricular options And we'll begin to engage the community and what those curricular options can be for grades six through eight and then for nine through 12 as well On behalf of the Adams administration I would like to thank everyone for tuning in to today's briefing and wish everyone a safe memorial day weekend We look forward to seeing you all at our next one. Have a great day. Thank you