 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 again today to today's discussion on public safety And like we had spoke previously the purpose of this is to you know, keep the public and New York City informed of some of our efforts You can go online to hear from Eric calm and when you do that we will be forwarding you The topics that we'll be speaking for the next week, but more importantly, we need to hear from you We need to hear the critique we need to hear the suggestions And this is how we as a team as a city progress and move Closer towards this public safety eco chamber that was just be looking to achieve So today, I think we're gonna have a really good conversation today. We have a Four separate agencies here We're going to hear from the NYPD Chief Mike La Petrie who's the chief of the crime control strategies He's gonna be giving an update on the crime numbers and the trends in New York City And we will be talking specifically about grand larceny order order related deaths What we are doing as a city to minimize the impact and certainly what you can be doing to help yourselves Minimize the fact of your car being stolen and I just would like to say when it comes to cars being stolen often times We think of this as victimless crimes, but it is not a victimless crime These vehicles play a very important part in the lives of New Yorkers It's where they go to use to take the kids to school to get their groceries, etc But you're gonna hear a lot of conversations today about what we're dealing with auto manufacturers and some other by partners to help us With this nasty trend We also joined today by Department of Correction Commissioner Lou Molina And Lou Molina's this could give us an update on what's being done to protect the safety of everybody at Rikers Island The staff people who work there the correction offices certainly the inmates Exeter-exeter and what he's doing to limit right minimize and hopefully erase eradicate Contraband that is being bought on the island today We also joined by our New York City Immersive Management Commissioners at school And he is going to be discussing Some of the impact that we're having with this extreme weather whether it's rain whether snow we're in hurricane I believe this is national preparedness week right for hurricane and he is going to be explaining What the city is doing to try to minimize the impact of that and also once again We want to be able to let you know what you can do to To help yourself in this particular area and last but not least We are here joined by fire commissioner Laura Kavanaugh and Laura Kavanaugh They're gonna have some exciting news. I think she had some guests today from different countries in different states come into the FD and wise training Academy if I'm correct and They were working with the unsung heroes of FD and my EMS right and we're gonna hear about this training And I believe we're gonna she's gonna brief us on the use of technology specifically drones and her strategy to implement that All right, so robust conversation. It's a lot of good things. It's going to be happening now and to kick it off I think we're gonna kick it off with the correction commissioner, Melina So look give us an update on what's going on as well. What are we doing to keep the contraband or for the island? Sure. Good afternoon. Thank you deputy mayor of banks, you know drugs are a nationwide problem impacting every community across the country When I've shared this before over a hundred thousand people died from drug overdoses in America 2021 and two-thirds of those two-thirds of those overdose deaths were connected to fentanyl and Likely when the CDC comes out with numbers in 2022 We are unfortunately probably gonna see another over a hundred thousand persons in America die from drug overdoses and the majority of that Likely connected to fentanyl our facilities would of course face the same challenges Especially because many of the people in custody are battling substance addiction before they come into Department of Corrections custody in 2022 six persons in custody I've been confirmed or suspected have passed away from drug overdoses to date to date this year that number is zero We've had no deaths related to drug overdoses in our jail system this year This is because of the practices that we put in place to reduce the flow of Contraband or drugs coming into our jail facilities and the hard work of our officers and staff to execute these strategies Along with our partners from correctional health services We are changing the way that we do things last year. We brought back our tactical search operations as well as increasing our facility Let's search operations. It's a strategic way to search our jails by carefully and diligently Sweeping areas for narcotics and contraband. We are more efficient now in the inspection of our mail and packages Visitors as well as staff We are finding and removing more narcotics and contraband to make our jail safer our tactical search operations in our facility Let's search operations led to the seizure of over 1600 narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia from in the system. We've also unfortunately had to arrest a 174 visitors over the last 16 months for bringing in contraband into our facilities in Addition to that on occasion. We've also had to take action against staff members and other contract providers for bringing in contraband We will not tolerate this in addition. I've often spoke about mail and mail Being being used to facilitate bringing contraband drugs into our facility. We have successfully Interdicted it's been a 90% increase Fiscal year to date over the last 10 months when you compare the first 10 months of last fiscal year had a 90% increase in the interdiction of drug contraband coming in through the mail All of these efforts are to minimize not only against overdoses happening in the facilities But also as well as violence when you look at our size and population as a correction department And you compare it to other similar size departments across the country. You see what we are doing well Improving each month. This is the sustained success and reform that the Adams administration is committed to and I often talk about this We are an action oriented reform Administration when it comes to reforming and enhancing and evolving the criminal justice system in this city While we talk about these successes and efforts, there was a very troubling incident earlier this week a Legal professional attempted to bring narcotics into our facility This is the second instance that a person providing legal defense services Attempted to use their client privilege to smuggle in narcotics into our facility or to a person in custody This is despicable behavior and it puts in danger the health and safety of our officers and persons in custody I will not tolerate anyone be it staff Contract providers visitors volunteers or those providing legal defense services would bring it in contraband narcotics into our facilities You will be arrested and you will be prosecuted simple as that But thankfully During that incident one of our most diligent and furriest of employees canine cult was there Cult is here with us now and cult is a member of our canine unit And they are an integral part of how we search our facilities and ensure that we are preventing drugs and contraband from entering our facilities We've expanded our canine operations throughout our city's jail system. In addition to that What was really game changing for us is that we collaborated with our federal partners so that our canine Dogs can be imprinted with the common compound found in fentanyl so that even if fentanyl is Tainted on paper or other clothing objects our canines can detect those and prevent that deadly drug From entering our facilities and putting someone in arms way. So it is a game changer first So thank you canine cult for all that you do and your colleagues do to keep us safe So so the door's name is cult correct and how long have you been working with cult? My five year. How long do you have in the department? Almost 10 years. Okay. Excellent. Great. Thank you. Hey, so commissioner. I just want to ask you a couple of questions You have mentioned that you have worked with some of your federal partners and and I just No, we don't want to get into this that everybody just packed yourself on the back because they are As the mayor always says is that, you know, there are problems in these agencies And you have to recognize the problems and then you have to address those particular problems And you have to lay out the roadmap to be able to get to a good place And I think that there's a lot of problems as you know better than anyone And certainly as I know because of our almost Daily nightly calls that we speak about A lot of issues that have been plagued and right as I was for such a long period of time So I just want to commend you because I think you're a fantastic Commissioner and I do know that we're not there But I clearly clearly With the Department of Corrections is moving in the correct In the correct path But the mayor had Early in administration talked about these silos or break it down these silos And the more people you talk to and the more people you work with you get better ideas You work together as a team and he had instructed us to reach out to our federal partners And we reached out to the federal partners and I believe that they were very instrumental in helping us Give us advice and training. So can you just speak briefly on sure? So, you know, we connected with our federal partners that were using canines and they had actually developed a training curriculum And programs so that they can imprint because they're faced with the same challenges We are with this fentanyl epidemic that's sweeping across the country So one is one day we're first of all impressed with the level of our canine handlers abilities In managing their canines and being able to use them for search operations So that was really good to have somebody outside sort of show that our officers Are are performing at a high level But in addition to that they took the time to partner with us so that they could train our canines to imprint fentanyl the common compound funding fentanyl So that we can enhance the capabilities and abilities of our cadre of canine That we have within the department so that we can make the jail safer Now I just wanted to ask you one question that we had a lawyer Right who was representing a client That attempted to get on to the island right to contact with you know contact with their client And they had contraband on him, correct? Yeah, so is that what the uh colt was able to do? So colt detected um someone who was associated with a legal defenders legal defense services Um, they might have been a lawyer or paralegal that's still under investigation as to their proper Role that they were playing that they for that organization that they work for But colt alerted on this individual Bring having unnarcotics on them and when a search was conducted contraband narcotics was discovered on this individual And deputy mayor if I could just add about our recruitment just yes, you know listen I'm thrilled to say that we're hiring This week we've launched a recruitment campaign to really the most toughest and rewarding job in law enforcement In the new york city correction officer So the filing period closes may 23rd for our exam, which is going to be given on wednesday july 5th Those that are looking for a rewarding career in law enforcement We are we are we are looking and we are hiring We've just enhanced our academy training our new field training curriculum is up and running So anyone looking for a rewarding career in law enforcement We ask you to go online to nyc.gov backslash join the boldest and sign up for our next exam Okay, thank you Okay, so next we're going to hear from uh commissioner zack iskall Uh, who is the commissioner of nison? And he is going to be talking about their response to emergencies And I know as we discussed recently, you know last year we had some severe Veer flooding that had an impact. There was loss of lives recently. We had some significant flooding But there's just a host of extreme weather conditions that take place That that the commissioner takes the lead on so so tell us, you know, what what should the The citizens know what could things that could they be doing? Let's give us our update. Yes, sir So as many of you know this weekend, we had some flooding across the city This was nothing like some of the flooding we've had in the past like during hurricane ida this weekend We had about four and a half to six inches of rain across the city to put that in perspective During ida. We had over 10 inches of rain within three hours That amount of rainfall overwhelmed our infrastructure that caused a lot of the flooding that went through, you know Sewer backups into people's apartments, which caused the loss of life during hurricane ida So this was a different sort of in a type of weather we had over the weekend It was definitely not that significant But we now live in a time when we have an increasingly warmer climate a warmer climate means that we have more moisture that's held in the air Which means that we do have greater amounts of precipitation and rainfall And these types of events that are setting record numbers of rainfall amounts per hour in the city Our infrastructure is prepared to handle about 1.7 1.8 inches of rain an hour So when you get up to three inches an hour it overwhelms the infrastructure This weekend and and just during most extreme weather events The city really comes together As one team to prepare for these types of incidents. So starting days in advance We're monitoring the forecasts. We do that in close collaboration with our partners at the national weather service We also work with our we have an in-house meteorologist Wonderful young man named josh rap air force reservists, and then we also use a third party vendor that provides weather forecasting services Some of our partner agencies, especially like when we're talking about winter weather with department of sanitation They also have forecasting services that we use to really make sure we're getting a robust picture of what that weather event will look like And as that becomes clearer We then start coming together in daily meetings sometimes more often than that with all of our agency partners And so for rainfall events flooding events something like what we had this weekend You have organizations like department of environmental protection and dot and dsn y clearing catch basins to make sure water is flowing off of streets properly We have we can pre-stage based on the type of weather. We're getting emergency response police fire across the city to make sure we can rapidly Respond to events across the city. We work with our state partners the mta Bridges and tunnels to make sure that that those are clear department of buildings is working across construction sites making sure cranes are tied down Parks we have the downtree task force to clear park debris along with emergency service units For example from some of the rescue units the fire department from nypd's esu units So there's there's a host of sort of agencies that collaborate the tow truck task force to make sure that we are all prepared working together We have the resources we need Our infrastructure Partners like conned psc and g you know during winter storm eliot conned Fluent teams from across the country to make sure that we could deal with down power lines in the run up to frozen temperatures down lines So the point is the city does a ton to prepare for these events Even ones that are not as significant as ita like the rainfall we had this past weekend Um, but I think one of the points I want to hit on is is the big question Then is is what are new yorkers doing to make sure that they are prepared? And this is really really important when we talk about extreme weather Uh heat, you know right now the city is preparing for heat season this summer Heat's one of the biggest killers in the city. We leave about 300 700 new yorkers a summer to extreme heat Some of our most vulnerable, uh new yorkers die because of of heat And when we start talking about extreme weather like extreme rainfall coastal flooding Hurricanes, um, it's really important to understand When that incident is occurring if there's a flash flood if there's a hurricane It is going to be very hard for first responders to get to you our police our firefighters our ems They are heroic. They will work tirelessly to make rescues. They will put their lives in danger But during an event it is incredibly difficult for them to get to you and that is why it's so important that every new yorker Is prepared they have the information they need and we have a number of resources that we provide to help them do that So three basic steps for new yorkers to be prepared as the city, uh is in the run up to these events Number one is make sure you have a plan Number two is is gather supplies and number three is is stay informed and i'll talk about each one of those So making an emergency plan You can download a copy of the ready new york my emergency plan By going to nyc.gov backslash ready new york or you can scan the qr code that's on the screen You can also request a physical copy, which uh can be reviewed. Um, this is plan is available in 13 languages And uh, there should also be a link available for you to see uh through that qr code Number two gathering supplies we encourage every new yorker to make a go bag Uh, every new yorker is going to need a different go bag based on your needs My wife and I we have four kids and three rescue dogs That's a different go bag than somebody that might have an elderly parent that they need to take care of Um, so we have a also in that ready new york, uh, there are some Uh materials and questions that will walk you through how to build your own go bag to make sure that you have What you need copies of important documents make sure they're in a ziploc bag to protect them from from water damage flashlight money first aid kit hygiene materials Uh radio batteries Um, and everybody including your pets should have their own go bag um Finally, uh, not finally, uh two more things know your zone So new york after hurricane sandy we divided the city into six hurricane evacuation zones Hurricanes are different than rainfall events like ida This is mostly the concern is water coming in from the ocean We have six evacuation zones. It's really important that every new yorker knows what evacuation zone you live in Uh, when a hurricane is coming a lot of people try and game the system, you know, it's a category one category four storm Uh a category one storm going into northeast direction northwest direction Is as damaging to the city as a category four going into northeast direction So don't just pay attention to the category Pay attention to your local leaders to your emergency managers So we're telling you that if we need to evacuate zone one and two Heed that warning and evacuate. We will also set up coastal storm shelters Uh, we will help evacuate people if needed But you can learn your zone by going to nyc.gov backslash know your zone or by calling 3 1 1 Um and finally and I would say most importantly Please sign up for notify nyc. This is our public messaging system. We have over a million subscribers It's available in 14 languages including american sign language You will learn about emergency alerts significant events public health events planned events major traffic disruptions public beach notifications mass transit disruptions weather updates Ferry regional mass transit disruptions This is the primary means by which we communicate with the public and we urge every new yorker to sign up You can sign up by going to nyc.gov backslash notify nyc or by calling 3 1 1 So please sign up for notify nyc. So you have the information you need to keep yourselves your loved ones safe Uh last week we launched our basement alert Uh system So, you know, we lost 13 new yorkers who lived in basements during hurricane ida If you live in a basement, uh, especially one that is not up to code It is really important that you register for notify nyc and especially that basement group So you have the information you need to stay safe Before these types of events occur. Thank you So commission, uh, just a couple of quick things because that was a lot of information very helpful And to our listeners out there information is your wealth The more information you have the better prepared you can save your life or certainly a loved one's life as well That was a lot, but just real quick the plan Where does someone get a template planner? Would they get a plan out again in order for them to be sure? Uh, so you can go to nyc.gov. Okay, uh backslash ready new york Uh r a r e sorry ready ny to be clear or you can scan the qr code I don't know if we can bring that back up on the screen Um and that will allow you to download the plan go right to that website We will help you build a plan Uh build your go bag and then they'll also have information there about you know the things like signing up for notify nyc Knowing your zone, etc. So if you could just real quick real quickly, so I'm gonna take up time Just once again kind of clarify Uh category one category two four the differences that we don't need to just Yep, get married into that. So I think one of the things that a lot of new yorkers What happens when you live in uh in a area that's impacted by coastal storms and you hear that a category one storm is coming Right, you might not be as concerned as if you hear it's a category four storm Uh, I think a lot of us forget that hurricane sandy was actually super storm sandy. It was not even a hurricane Uh, and we had just been hit by a hurricane a year before iran that was nowhere near as devastating to the city The direction of the storm and where it is pushing that water Really makes a difference because that water getting pushed northwest into jamaica bay into new york harbor Is very different than if that water is getting pushed to the east away from the harbor and away from jamaica bay So we will have that information that will be part of our forecast Don't game the system listen to us when we say there is an evacuation zone that needs to be evacuated Um, it's based on more sophisticated math than simply the category of the storm Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Excellent Okay, great. So now we're gonna hear from three star chief the nypd michael petrie For a lot of people out there who've heard the term of comp stat and nypd. Mike is the architect of that So every thursdays or sometimes get you doing on fridays or mainly thursdays It's he's the face that the precinct commander's Probably dread the most But he has his hands on on the crime the trends and responsible for coming up with the uh big part of solution Chief advisor to the police commissioner. So Mike, we've been battling. I know that statistically We're down in uh violent crimes Statistically, we might be up just to blip the other day and major felony crimes But our grand larceny or autos right still persisting to be a problem Yes, sir. Yes, deputy mayor. So You know grand larceny is basically driving the increase in new york city crime this year along with a small increase In uh felony assaults. So i'll get right into what we're seeing with the grand uh larceny of the auto So for for april we were up 37 almost 37 in april and grand larceny's and if you look what's driving those grand larcenies are specifically Two types of vehicles the hondi and the kia almost one Out of four cars stolen april were either a hondi and a kia and that is being driven by the Social media tick tock video that really surfaced Towards the end of last year We've seen a surge in these types of vehicles being stolen since september of of 2022 And who's stealing those vehicles? Well 88 percent of people arrested In those vehicles are under the age of 25 and 55 percent are under the age of 18 So what else are we also seeing so one out of four? In april were hondi or kias correct and 55 percent of people you were arrested were under the age of 18 Since september of 2022 when we saw The sharp increase it's it's been 55 percent under the age of 18 being arrested in those vehicles and like i said 88 percent under the age of 25, but what's also disturbing especially in The Bronx is we are seeing these vehicles also being used then to commit some violent crimes, you know shootings and robberies so, you know what we've done and what we will continue to do obviously is You know prevention is number one and make arrests when we do encounter these stolen vehicles. I'd also like to just speak about Something that we're going to be doing on saturday. So on on saturday the police department Will be issuing out will be issuing 500 apple airtags air tags will be distributed starting at 11 o'clock At 1990 brokner boulevard in the Bronx and the confines at a 4 3 So i'm sure some people so why'd you pick the 4 3 because that is the precinct that is driving A lot of our grand larceny of auto namely the hondis and the kias there is a there is a criteria The vehicle owners must have an an apple iphone to pair with the apple airtag The key of vehicles must be a 2011 to 2021 the hondis must be a 2015 to 2021 The vehicle must be registered in new york state and it must have A turn key start Just some other things that i just very quickly like to to discuss in regards to the the april crime Crime numbers so like you said deputy mayor 55 less people got shot in the month of april new york city compared to last year There was a decrease of 31 33 or 33 incidents 72 incidents in april versus 105 for last year april for the year shootings continue To decrease we have 112 less incidents And we have 56 less victims for the year shot We have decreases in four out of our five geographic boroughs With small increases in one of the patrol boroughs in in queens Robberies and burglaries were also down in april and also continued to to decline for the year You know, we've been talking a lot about retail thefts a lot and we've done a lot of work with a lot of our Partners and law enforcement Obviously the mayor's office And we have and we continue to see decreases in retail theft. We have a we had a decrease in april We've had a decrease in for the year, but obviously still at unacceptable levels enforcement Continues to be at historic levels Strongest april for seven major index crime arrests since 1998 It's 25 years gun arrests Continue to be at historic highs the last three years We're at historic highs where you got to go back 25 26 years just to have higher levels So the men and women of the nypd are out there. They're working And they're going to continue to drive down crime in new york city. Thank you It's just you know, I used to work with mike when I was commanding off of the 7 9 preset and mike was my special operations lieutenant Which was the lieutenant that coordinated all of the The special units in the precinct and he was absolutely fantastic then I actually think you're fantastic now mike I just remember a conversation That we were having had a community meeting and mike had said at that time he was lieutenant He says, you know, it's interesting to say we're down 20% in shootings But to the person who was a victim of a shooting or the family member those are hollow words So I do know that we do like as a city to be down in violent crimes But the ones that are still taking place they are victims behind that and I think sometimes they get lost in that particular conversation I know that the man but I certainly know You mike have you been accused your whole life mike lives eats and breathes this stuff consistently I call mike one o'clock in the morning. It doesn't ring one full time He picks up the phone and he's like shooting up the top of his head all types of statistics and all types of Different strategies. So for the people out there who've been the victim of a crime um You're gonna for me just because the city is in violent crime is Statistically going in the right direction. Uh, that is not the cherry on the top That means that we just have a lot more work to do But mike a couple quick questions about the auto because that's been plaguing us for a very long time I know the mayor had a press conference recently about these air tags Certainly, I think she left my team ported out a meeting that I think samsung had with google Or apple had with uh about these air tags, right? These are like cheap low-efficient ways to be able to help you throw it into the back of your car It's on your phone if somebody steals your car calling the police There's a great great chance that we can track it the mayor's looking for ways in which so that we had a donation from a A non-for-profit group recently. We're looking to solicit as an administration um other um of our private partnerships to be able to assist with that for the Our owners who may not be able to afford it. We are contacting Auto manufacturers and stressing upon them the need at every point of sale that they stress upon their customers That this is a low ineffective way in which we can possibly fought Um this particular crime and once again, I want to say this is not A victimless crime, right? First of all the chief just spoke about this robbery so people are still in cars oftentimes. They have weapons Uh, and there may be a small element of joy riding, but You come out your car is gone Right, you have to take your kid to school You have to go to work or you want to joy ride yourself and you can't do that You should not be robbed in new york city of that particular experience there So I just want to I know that you've been on top of this mic I just want to appreciate it But as an administration we're going to be looking to put a lot more attention on to that And how do you do it back at home if you can't afford? Uh Some type of air tag or I don't want to promote any one product over the other Any type of tracking device that you can It would be beneficial for you to be able to do that It helps us track the vehicle and get the vehicle back to you As quickly as it possibly can so so thanks a lot. It's a lot of good information here. Mr. Mayor if I could just Mr. Deputy mayor if I could just add one thing still a quarter of new york city steals We do try to either the car left running or possibly a key far being left in the car So so a quarter of new york city steals that that is down slightly from last year But again, still that's something that that people so we're leaving the fobs in our car ourselves or the car left You know somebody runs into the store or a gas station leave the car running and then somebody would steal the running car Or the key fobs left and that's something you know to new york is we we can make an indent I think you're saying we we are it's down a little bit grand loss in your auto No about us people leaving the fobs in the car. It is it is down from last year We're up almost we were about 30 percent of our steals and this year it has come down a little bit to about 22-23 yeah, so just and that's a that's I mean that's just like we're just being a little bit I don't want to use word careless, but you know, we're not thinking we're The keys in our car. We're running out to get something You know, we could make a little more concentrated effort, you know, we don't need to make Our cars being stolen any easier for the bag out of burger the bag got a bad girl to do it So let's just pay a lot more attention to their father make sure we don't leave it But you had mentioned something to me When we spoke last about these Hyundai the Honda's how are they getting the Honda's because I think it's a little different On how they're getting their keys and the Hyundai's right? Yes. Yes, sir. So we had recently made made an arrest in Manhattan and During that arrest in the inventory of the stolen vehicle we had discovered that Uh, there was a computer system that was inside the vehicle that was basically reprogramming key fobs and then Ultimately that key fob would start a specific Honda So so they can come up like next to your car behind your car with a computer and actually create your fob That is that is correct. And again, we just recently have made uh, did make an arrest and and did Did recover that evidence So markable if we take somebody genius or somebody's cameras and put it to a good use where we would be as a society So the outside your house or wherever you are behind your car next to your car with a computer They can create the fob. They take the fob and they go steal your car. That's correct And how are they still in the Hyundai's and the keys? So the Hyundai's and key is it it's a software issue where they're basically Like the old school way of doing it is they break the steering steering column and then they insert An object into What now is the internal ignition and it starts And have we looked at how quick does it take for them to do that? Is that it takes you two hours to steal that car or Minutes So they can get into your car within minutes with that Hyundai kid. Have we reached out to Hyundai or kia? So we have spoken to Hyundai kia. So they are offering a software upgrade For those for those models and they also are offering I believe but definitely a software Upgrade or possibly a locking device for the collar Okay Okay, thanks. Thanks chief Okay, so now um our final uh presenter today is the fdmr commissioner lord cabernal lower. How are you today? Good, how are you? We had a lot of visitors today, right? We did have a lot of visitors Yeah, uh 10 countries in 26 states. We had emergency medical professionals from all over partnering with us And what we so tell us what what the so I just came from the fdny search and rescue field medicine symposium What does that mean? Our emt's and paramedics practice really advanced, you know, medical procedures in really uncertain Really dangerous conditions and the way that we make sure that they always have The training they need the support they need is to have things like the symposium where because we're the largest Fire department in the country the most advanced certainly the leader We want to show everyone how we are using cutting edge technology cutting edge training To really make a difference for first responder safety and public safety And so that's what we were doing today We were going through all these trainings and evolutions and I really can't emphasize enough If you think about the sorts of medical interventions that our ems members are doing It's the type of thing most people are doing in a hospital and they are doing it in uncertain and dangerous conditions often in someone's home and so it's really You know critical to realize how much complexity that puts into their work and so they were doing that today and one of the Modules I just came from was the use of drone technology in search and rescue in actually triaging patients in the middle of an emergency And that was really incredible to watch. Um, first of all, it gives more situational awareness that makes our first responder safer Before they go into these but then it also allows us to save more lives because as our first responders are safer and more available They can get to more patients more quickly And ensure that more lives are saved And so we were demoing some of that drone technology today and as commissioner is goal mentioned You know, there's so many different complex scenarios that present us as a city and it's getting ever more complex And so one of the scenarios we actually looked at today is if there was a major large scale disaster How could we use a drone in terms of a weather emergency? To more quickly locate and assess patients and know what resources we're going to apply And you know, I'd really like to emphasize that, you know, technology for us is not technology for the sake of technology It's technology for the sake of safety And we are really seeing and we saw in the anstreet collapse a couple of weeks ago Directly how that could work, you know, within a few minutes We get a 911 call and all we know is there's been a collapse. We don't yet know who's inside We don't yet know the stability of the building. We don't yet know how it's going to unfold and how dangerous it is And so we were able to use Our robotics unit, you know first to assess the stability of the building and see How we could get in how we could make sure our first responder has gotten safely And then we were able to use the drones to quickly search and see whether or there are patients in locations That may typically we may not have even known about before we had this technology So we've seen the real life application of this and what we demoed today is talking about all the future iterations And then make sure, you know, we're partnering Desi lowing as we talk about all the time here in city hall and making sure that we're sharing this technology with the world You know, that's uh, I always remember it was a commercial years ago Had dealt with fire and the fire You know, it came to the scene and the person said dollies inside dollies inside and The fire officers went in and turned our dolly was like a doll, right? That was just beloved by the individual was right and then they put the officers in danger, right? And I was remembering it was very clear it was a tip And I remember from years years ago about the proper communication. So if I'm hearing you correctly These drones we could utilize to go into what would otherwise be a very unsafe condition Assess what's going on actually taking the evaluation of the patient and then being able to know even when you're going in What resources was never said is that something along exactly? Yeah, you know the more Information we can give our first responders in these rapidly evolving situations The safer they're going to be and also to your point they can know Maybe what they need so if they know that a patient is trapped in there and needs an IV They can bring that in with them and that's going to get to the patient faster and give them a better chance of Saving that life. So this really is um incredible technology that really allows them to get more information than we could ever get before And really assures that you know, it's a dangerous job and and that can't change But it lets our members know exactly what they're walking into and how to keep themselves safe And thus get to to more patients more quickly now you have presented to me in the last year and so with drones, right? We uh, we went outside of the fdmy headquarters in brooklyn and you did a presentation, right? Me and the mayor and then I've been up to the fdy academy numerous times, but recently at entry, right? We had the um, we had the Situation where we had to utilize the drones, correct. Can you just speak briefly on it? Yeah, exactly. I we utilize both the robotic dog that we've We've talked about and you and I have demonstrated as well as a number of different drones and so we were able to Send the dog in to see you know, what the stability of the building was and then we were able to put the drone Over the site so we could see whether or not Not only were there patients in locations we couldn't see but also, you know, what was the condition of the building What was the condition of the collapse? How could we help do be even assess whether or not we could send anybody in and so both of those technologies came together to really Highlight how we can use technology to save lives Okay, Derek take it from here. Thank you deputy mayor We will now take a few question a few on topic questions from the media related to today's presentations. Fabian Hey, John, I wanted to ask about the Investigation in a Jordan Neely Right now, where does that stand and how likely is it that it goes before a grand jury next week? For you do that white beauty on that. So any on-top questions about what's discussed today? It's related it's I mean, I have an awful question too, but just for the sake of an awful question I know in talking about these Kia and the Hyundai issues I know that there was an earlier in April the city said they intended on suing Hyundai and Kia I don't even update on Where that is I guess it's causing a lot of strain on the police department that they haven't updated the technology in their car So does anyone have an update on it? Uh, the lawsuit has not it's still being debated. Uh, Kia and Hyundai have made some Enrolleds to Improve the outreach to the owners So they are following some of our particular recommendations. So it's not off the table, but it has not commenced This is for the NYPD talking about the retail crime. So it's down, but still unacceptable There's a video out of san francisco everyone's seen where the store is completely everything's locked up Is that something new yorkers potentially Might look forward to here or do you think we're moving away from Being able to go to a local drug store and not have to constantly ask someone to unlock something We have we have you know, we have worked So hard, you know with the business Owners and and you know the small mom and pop shops to to Really give as many resources that we can to to suppress retail theft We've moved offices in business districts hundreds really And one of the reasons why we move the offices to to those businesses District is to suppress retail theft and you know, we we are seeing it decrease though again It is at unacceptable levels and we are working very very closely With the district attorneys across the city About the recidivists that really are plaguing Most of of of the businesses, you know, I continue to say it, but there is you know Just a few hundred people That have been arrested over 5000 times for retail theft Those are the individuals that we are talking to the to the district attorney's office about You know keeping that felony when it rises to that level at arraignment and you know possibly looking for incarceration Again, not individuals Who maybe have one arrest or going in there and and you know shoplifting? at at a low level the individuals that are Praying on businesses across new york city and just I just want to Just because I think it's a really important question Is I don't believe we're heading that way But i'm not going to look at you in your face and tell you we're not heading that way for the first part That's a you know, these are private businesses. They have decisions to make. I think they're very frustrated. I think that they sense that The City and these it's not just to maintain you or have not done enough to heed what they've been saying for a very long time I don't believe we're heading that way But if we do if it comes to that that's just an indictment on the entire city because we can do better than that We just have to be able to determine what kind of city we want to become If you're comfortable going to a store where everything is chained up. I one is not happens in my neighborhood It's just the ones that are the war greens and cbs that are not closing down So I don't believe that we are and I honestly do not feel that we are But I would not sit here and tell you that's a private business decision We are working with them. We have a lot of communication with them They are seeing some good things and i'm not saying they're saying good things from the amazon administration They are seeing good signs from various districts. Are we moving quick enough for them as a city? I'm not sure but I am relatively Optimistic if I can to be able to say that we won't get to that particular point because that would be a fair year if we do Thank you 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 Cullaby in queens For commissioner melina is there a way for doc to partner up with children's services to conduct random surges inside of detention centers Occupied by young people No, thank you for the question And I think you know, we've had a lot of success in a number of strategies Particularly when you think about the robin endeavor and center also known as rndc We have seen fiscal year-to-date reductions in violence there by 60 Count the year to date that reduction is over 70 percent So we would be happy to share our strategies on partner and training with children's services But I think um children's services It's really the primary agency that manages these adolescent facilities But always happy to share our strategies with any city agency on what's achieved our successes Which we're seeing today department wide fiscal year-to-date slash and staffings are down 21 percent and calendar year-to-date They're down almost 40 percent Thank you Michael for queens has a question for chief lapetri. He asks does the nypd Including peace police officers and school safety officers stop vehicles that they pass when they can clearly see and smell marijuana I ask especially in in an adjacent to school premises Yes, so we do uh that That smell emanating from a specific vehicle is probable cause for us to to act upon that as always, uh for for Low-level offenses, uh, you know discretion is is is built into that, but we absolutely enforce marijuana in motor vehicles, whether it be the vtl charge or it could also be uh, you know, a Somersault offense other than vtl And thank you for that question Our next question comes from pier from queens for commissioner cavanaugh He asks with an increase in house fires recently I would like to see a partnership with the fdny and schools to bring more resources such as information and safety equipment To family and children about fire safety. Is there a fire safety month in schools? So that's a great question and actually chancellor banks and I were just speaking last week about expanding our services to schools We are in schools, but we're looking at a number of different ways, especially to get to parents So we'll be talking more about that soon I'd also just remind everybody who's watching that we do have a fire safety website fdny smart And that everyone should go visit that especially parents with kids who want to talk about Safety plans making a plan and what to do in the case of fires And we'll definitely be looking forward to coming back to one of these soon to talk about our expanded outreach with schools Our final question comes from sam from Manhattan for commissioner cavanaugh The new york city fire department works hard to fight fires and lithium ion batteries profession prevention efforts What are the department's next steps for this? So this is a multi-prong approach working off of the mayor's blueprint around the batteries We were looking at both regulation with city state and federal legislators We're also looking at significant public outreach to make sure especially folks that have batteries in their homes now That are likely not regulated. Do they know how to safely use them? Or are they aware that they could be a danger in their home? And then we're working with you know partners across city government the other deputy mayors and the private sector Especially the delivery companies to make sure specifically We're finding ways to make sure that the delivery workers can access safe bikes and safe batteries Thank you on behalf of the adams administration. I would like to thank everyone for tuning into today's briefing We look forward to seeing you all at our next one. Have a great day