 Testing testing. Sounds good. Yep. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for today's public safety briefing led by Chief of Operations for the Office of Public Safety, Justin Meyers. 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 Chief Meyers. Welcome to our weekly public safety briefing here in the City of New York. I'm joined here today by a number of my colleagues from various different public safety agencies across the New York City portfolio. We're going to be talking about a number of important issues and major focuses of Mayor Eric Adams Administration when it comes to public safety. Today we're joined by NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing, Chauncey Parker. The Deputy Commissioner actually holds two hats here in the City of New York. He is both the Deputy Commissioner for the NYPD, but he is also the director of a federal program called the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force, otherwise known as HIDA, for the New York, New Jersey region. We're going to be talking to us about a number of different collaborative approaches that both HIDA and the NYPD is taking to make New York City safe against a number of different public safety challenges from fentanyl and drug trafficking to guns and illegal weapons on our streets. We're also joined by the Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Commissioner for Police and Security, John Cosgrove, who will be providing us with a deeper look at the work of the DEP in protecting our water supply here in the City of New York, and give us an inside look at some of the pretty cool, frankly, tools and technologies they're using to make sure that the 10 million folks that live, work, and visit New York City every day have the best drinking water in the country. And then we're joined by our Chief of Transit for the NYPD, Chief Michael Kemper and Sergeant Patrick Kwan, who are going to be giving us some safety tips and important information for those of us who use the subway system here in the city every day. Before we get into each of those topics, I wanted to give a brief update to the folks who join us every week on crime stats. As I think a lot of people know, oftentimes in the summertime, crime can rise in the city and really across the country. It's the summertime, folks are out more, you can have more incidences. But because of the major focus that the Mayor, Mayor Eric Adams has on policing and public safety and the incredible hard work of the men and women of the NYPD, we're actually seeing a significant reduction in crime in most of the index crime categories here in New York throughout this summer. So the NYPD released crime statistics for the month of July yesterday, and overall crime was driven down by 5.7% in July 2023 compared to July 2022. We saw a drop in five of the seven index crime categories in July, including a 35.3% reduction in homicides, a 17.3% drop in rape, and a 13.6% decline in robbery, as well as a 17.6% decline in burglary. So at a time where historically crime rises in the summertime, we're actually seeing a significant decrease year to date compared to last year's numbers. Hate crimes in the city also declined by approximately 8% compared to last year, and felony assaults have essentially remained stagnant with a 0.1% increase. One area that the city and really the nation is struggling with is grand larceny of an automobile. So we've seen an uptick in auto thefts in specific, in particular neighborhoods throughout the city, and it's also a target of certain vehicles. So you may have heard of some TikTok challenges that are out there and other social media events that are teaching people how to essentially be able to, with relative ease, steal certain models of kios and hondes. And the NYPD, as well as the mayor, have taken a very significant approach at building a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach to education because the first and biggest thing to deter auto crime is educating folks, right? Most crime when it comes to grand larceny of an auto is going to be a crime of opportunity. So people leaving their keys in their vehicles, people leaving their vehicles running, that's going to give a would-be car thief an easy opportunity to steal that car. And so we're rolling out a comprehensive approach to addressing that challenge that we're seeing here in the city. And I think we're pretty cautiously optimistic that we'll start to see a decline in that effort in those numbers given those efforts over the coming months. In the city's subways, major crime has decreased 9.9% in July, reflecting the NYPD and Chief Kemper and his team's ongoing work to improve the overall public safety landscape and to enhance the vital operation of the city's public transit system. And we'll come back for a little bit more detail on the work we're doing down in the subway in a little bit with Chief Kemper. But it's clear that we're moving in the right direction and continuing to move in the right direction. Mayor Eric Adams, when he was elected last year, made a firm commitment to the City of New York that public safety was going to be first and foremost. We have seen significant movement in that front, and I think July's crime stat numbers here in the City of New York really reflect that and reflect the fact that the city is not only moving in the right direction, but that it maintains its status as the safest large city in America. So the first person that we have joining us here today, as I mentioned before, is NYPD Deputy Commissioner Chauncey Parker. I mentioned before he holds two roles here in this city. He is both the Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing and the NYPD, which is a really important role that is about fostering relationships, both in terms of law enforcement, community relationships, and all stakeholders here in the City of New York. Because at the end of the day, to really move the needle significantly on some of the public safety challenges of our time, we need to be working together. It has to be a partnership. All stakeholders have to come to the table, and Deputy Commissioner Parker really leads that effort from the NYPD perspective. He also holds an additional role as the Director of HIDA, the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area of New York and New Jersey. So it's a federal program that focuses in New York and New Jersey and pulls together federal and local law enforcement partners into one area, one office space, where we can be working together on major trafficking issues that we're seeing in our region. So HIDA is a federally funded program that was created to invest in public safety and public health partnerships, and was designed to reduce drug abuse and its consequences. And Director Parker has been able to build off of that core mission and really implement some innovative ways to leverage those relationships and the HIDA program to address a number of different public safety challenges that the city and the region is facing, including gun crime. So the group now also does a lot of great work on that front in the New York City Metro area, which is of course a top priority for the mayor. And I just want to really briefly, because it's Commissioner Parker's first time with the public safety briefing, and this is really one of my favorite parts of what we do at the public safety briefing. It's kind of pull back the veil of government and get an opportunity to introduce to the public so many folks who work tirelessly every day for years and even decades to make this city the safest large city in America. Commissioner Parker has a 35 year career in criminal justice. He served as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He was also formerly the director of criminal justice for the state of New York, where he oversaw all state criminal justice agencies. And of course now he is the deputy police commissioner for the NYPD. So Commissioner Parker is uniquely qualified to oversee the two areas that he does both at the NYPD and HIDA. And I'm really excited to give him an opportunity to share with us a little bit more detail about the work you're doing at HIDA and how important it is to the impact on public safety here in the city. Thank you so much, Justin. My work at HIDA and my work with the NYPD are both based on the same, really the mayor's vision of the importance of partnership of however we have to get everybody from all corners of government or corners of the community to work together to achieve a common north star. And HIDA, as you said, HIDA is a federal grant. It invests in law enforcement partnerships to build safe and healthy communities. Those are the north stars for that program and everything we do in that program at the center of it is the NYPD and all our law enforcement partners. Some of the kind of investments that we're involved in, we invest in drug task forces, for example, the task force that was the lead on the Chapo Guzman-Sinaloa cartel case. So major international drug trafficking investigations, money laundering investigations, fugitive task force investigations, getting America's most wanted. We also invest in a partnership with public health and 20 other partners as part of a city initiative called RxSTAT. And that's getting all our public health and public safety partners to work together to try to reduce drug overdoses and save lives. And it's all about partnership. We also are very much involved in prevention, which is a lot of it is creating the opportunity for young people in the most vulnerable communities is investing in programs. We've invested asset forfeiture money that we take from drug dealers that cause so much harm in the community is then investing that into the community. So with that funding, we've been able to renovate 15 basketball courts in public housing over the last couple of years. We're building an indoor baseball center. We are a big investor in the Saturday Lights program, which the mayor has it started with one gym is now 140 gyms across the city every single Saturday night. There's a place for kids to play through the four corners of New York City. So it's a lot of different partnerships, but always focused on that. Keep us safe. Keep us healthy. I think one of the most important initiatives that we've we invest in that we partner on is called the gun violence strategies partnership with the GVSP. And that was we just celebrated our two year anniversary. And that is 20 plus agencies, federal, state, local law enforcement agencies who meet every single morning at Haida at 10 o'clock in the morning every single morning over 500 days in a row. Focus laser focus is the mayor has told us laser focus on the very, very small number of people who shoot people in New York City and make sure that we're building the strongest cases possible. This is a meeting that was has been hosted. The mayor has the president United States has been to this meeting and every other sort of major leader from there has seen this because it's really a model for the country of the power of partnership federal, state, local law enforcement locking arms toward a common goal. It's on that platform that we're going to be working also to implement the mayor's vision with the gun violence prevention task force, which is what can we do to make sure that young people never ever ever get to that table. What can we do to prevent crime in the first place so it's a great it's all about partnership it's all about working together and it's all about being laser focused on the goal. It's amazing and I've had the privilege of joining you for some of those meetings and it really is an amazing place you know historically law enforcement you know decades ago was not always an industry that was the best at collaborating. But when you're when you're at Haida and you you're in that room for these meetings. It's really incredible to see all of the different agencies that are represented, whether it's federal agencies, New Jersey, local law enforcement, New York State, New York City, local law enforcement, the district attorneys and prosecutors and you're able to sit there with those teams and walk through a particular crime that may have happened in New York and then have someone in New Jersey or a prosecutor raise their hand and say actually we have another case with that we have those details that you may be missing in this case to solve that murder and you're able to you're able to move the needle on multiple cases on significant impact players in the criminal space pretty dramatically. Can you share with us just a little bit about maybe how that kind of plays out on a day to day basis. Well, the way we're on a day to day basis we have a team of detectives who come to work at five o'clock in the morning, and they review the cases over the last 24 hours, and they are laser focused on the people who have a history of gun violence who have now been arrested for a gun felony. So it's a very narrow it's maybe two, two people three people a day but it's a very, very narrow group to really focus on that. And then over the over the next couple hours they they review those cases we send it out to our partners which include all the district attorneys probation parole ATF our federal partners everybody across the criminal justice team they review it and then we meet at 10 o'clock everybody compares their notes and you can see that this person who is out on a gunpoint robbery in the Bronx just got arrested for a robbery in Lower Manhattan. And so those two offices those two partners the Manhattan and Bronx they talk to each other share their notes also turns out that the that the person with the gun is on social media waving a gun around and there's and there's evidence that could be there turns out also that the last time he was in Rikers Island he stabbed somebody in the throat or something you know so there's evidence that a judge really may want to know about that particular case could be that they're on probation and probation would want to know and be able to get the information. It's all about pieces of the puzzle coming to one central place. I think what holds it together because it's remarkable over 500 days in a row. I don't know any meeting that 500 days in a row that people come to that meeting 20 different agencies and nobody has to be there. There's no grant that funds this. It's just the power of partnership that brings people together. But I think it's also the power of the mayor's vision when he sets a North Star as he did when he when he took office and he didn't say let's reduce gun violence. The mayor said we're going to end gun violence. There's nothing natural or inevitable about gun violence is we're going to end gun violence. That's a North Star wherever you are in law enforcement you share that North Star if you can just create the platform to bring people together. And I think that model is what he's doing in all sorts of other areas of city government is the is seeing having people see that they share that North Star and the power of working together how much stronger we are when we work side by side. No doubt. And the future of public safety is really about being precision precision law enforcement precision policing really finding people who are driving violent crime who are major traffickers and being able to take those folks off the street and shut down their operations. Tell us a little bit about how important it is to have strong working relationships with federal and state law enforcement agencies all at the same table as local law enforcement and how that helps you as a deputy police commissioner continue to to drive crime down and and really move the needle in a positive direction. How does that partnership impact. Well I think it's just everybody has something to add and they have value they have a piece of the puzzle or they have tools in their toolbox so to speak. I'll talk about one ATF. So ATF has a vital they you know with guns we want to trace the gun to figure out where the gun and illegal gun came from house was it a long time to crime in other words when was it purchased and when did it get to the streets of New York were particularly focused on short times to crime if someone bought the gun a relatively short period of time was a part of a multiple sale. So they they're a partner that has that kind of information about the trace. I think in particular what ATF has as an example of one just one federal agency is what is called Niven information is that when somebody shoots a semi automatic when they shoot a gun the the ballistics from that gun or as unique as a fingerprint as unique as DNA and the ballistics from that spent shell casing that ends up at a crime scene. If you could find the gun you can match the ballistics to that that particular gun. So now fast forward that we have a case this morning where somebody gets arrested with a gun. Turns out that that gun there spent shell case there were six other shootings that that gun was involved in because we know this because we have the gun that was we have the spent shell casings from six other shootings over the last year. And now we have the gun that the person who gets caught with the lab test it and the spent shell casing comes out. They test the ballistics from that to the spent shell casings. You know that that's not just any gun. That's a gun that's connected to six shootings and this person had that gun. It's like DNA and how vital it is for investigating and solving sexual assaults and it's just a vital vital tool. But that federal agency partner sits at the table every day actually works side by side in the NYPD intelligence center day and night. So it's that that's just one example. Yeah. Excellent. Thank you so much for being here commissioner. I really appreciate it and thank you for your service to the city. As I said it before 35 years of service to the city and to the state of New York. You're someone who is truly a legend in the public safety space has an unbelievable reputation have done so much for the city and the state of New York over the course of your career. I just wanted to say thank you for being here today. Thank you. So next up we have our deputy commissioner for police and security for the DEP police. That's the department of environmental protection. John Cosgrove is the deputy commissioner. Commissioner Cosgrove is also a former deputy chief with the NYPD and he's now tasked with working with the environmental protection office. The environmental protection agency oversees and protects New York City's water supply. And I think it's a really interesting thing. You know when we were talking about you know who to have on to the briefing today and talk about you know the DEP or water supply may not be on the forefront of everyone's mind when it comes to public safety. But the reality is is that clean water supply in a city like ours particularly where our water supply comes from specific areas. The safety and security of those water supplies is absolutely critical. Right. There's there's no room for error. We have to have clean drinking water. We have to have water supply for for 10 million plus people on a daily basis. So it's just it's an enormous operation and it actually takes place mostly outside of the city in in lands that the city owns in upstate New York where we generate our water supply and bring it down here to the city. So the environmental protection agency helps protect those water supplies and the and as well as our environment by reducing air and noise and hazardous materials and pollution here in the city. Many of us take for granted that we have the safest best tasting drinking water in the country. But there is a whole lot that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that when we turn on our taps here in the city of New York. We're getting high quality drinking water and the tools that the DEP uses to maintain a safe water supply have changed to incorporate new technology that just as we have across the entire public safety arena made investments into public safety. So is the DEP they really are taking a 21st century approach to making sure our water supply is is protected on a daily basis. And so you may not have woken up this morning thinking that the DEP is public safety and is something that you were interested in. But I would remind you that without the clean drinking water that we have here in the city of New York, we wouldn't have bagels and pizza. So Deputy Commissioner John Cosgrove, thank you so much for being here at the briefing and tell us a bit about how you guys do this monumental task of protecting the drinking water for the city. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is John Cosgrove. I'm a deputy commissioner for police and infrastructure security at the Department of Environmental Protection. New York City's water supply system traces its origins to the original Dutch settlements hundreds of years ago and to a small pond in Lower Manhattan, just a few blocks north of here that provided inadequate consumption for human consumption and even basic fire suppression. Over the years, starting in 1845, the Croton water system was developed and developed to deliver better drinking water into the city, which was then at that time Manhattan. Right around the turn of the century in 1900, the predecessor to the DEP began constructing the Catskill Aqueduct, developing a series of reservoirs further up in a higher elevation, creating larger and newer water supply for the city. Over the ensuing century, that water supply system has evolved into an engineering marvel that provides New York City with one billion gallons of high quality drinking water each and every day from a watershed that spans an area the size of the state of Delaware, essentially north and west of the city. Our coverage area is vast. It's an unrivaled system that stretches 125 miles north and west from City Hall and runs through eight suburban and upstate counties. The men and women of the DEP police department have been maintaining the security of New York City's water supply and its infrastructure since before the First World War. I think we have a slide, the way in which we protect the 2000 square mile watershed and the technology we use to do it has evolved just the same as we have evolved. During World War I, police were known as aqueduct patrolmen and they rode on horseback for hours just along a portion of the Catskill Aqueduct to ensure its integrity against sabotage. Today, the DEP police aviation unit uses state-of-the-art technology that can survey the entire length of an aqueduct in just one day. That one billion gallons of water per day that we spoke about, it comes from 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes that collect our drinking water through the Delaware and Hudson valleys. The geographic area surrounding these reservoirs comprise what we call the watershed. Many rivers, creeks and streams within the watershed flow into these reservoirs. Through some brilliant engineering that connects these reservoirs and lakes are connected and deliver water through a series of aqueducts that go to a series of treatment facilities and eventually down into the city. At these treatment facilities, the water is tested, treated, retested, stored and eventually distributed throughout the city. We do this using multiple redundant control centers, which not only facilitate the efficient delivery of the world's finest drinking water, but we also ensure a reliance system for continuity of operations and our operational technology for generations to come. The DEP utilizes a robust combination of operation, laboratory and information technology to ensure the safety and quality of New York City's drinking waters from the reservoirs to your faucet. We perform water quality tests upstate in the reservoirs on its way to the treatment facilities, at the treatment facility, when it departs the treatment facilities, when it gets stored and even through its distribution system here in the city. We have nearly 100 water sampling stations throughout the city where we do these water quality tests. Following this September 11th attacks, the security profile of the city's water supply infrastructure was raised significantly and remains at an elevated level today. In the years immediately following the attacks, the city and federal government have invested billions of dollars to ensure the safety and resiliency of our pristine water supply. By law, the city is compelled to allow access to some portions of our reservoirs and adjacent lands upstate in the watershed for recreational use, but we monitor the supply closely. Public access permits are required for certain activities, including fishing and kayaking on the reservoirs, and the DEP enforcement division enforces trespassing regulations through a combination of helicopter, marine and shoreline vehicle patrols. The DEP police have been using drones for over the last five years, and we have several FAA certified drone operators. Thanks to the recent technology initiative from the mayor's office, in fiscal year 2024, we have a plan in place to train an additional 15% of our uniform staff for FAA certification, and to increase our fleet of drones to enable each DEP precinct, of which there are seven, to have a drone first responder for our areas that are difficult to reach by foot. This will enhance our shoreline patrols because we can deploy a drone across the water from shoreline to shoreline, which we cannot do with a vehicle, nor can we circumnavigate a reservoir by vehicle as well. Effectively, one officer can patrol the entire shoreline from one location. This will provide a more efficient use of resources, reduce vehicle emissions, improve on-water safety, and protect against unwanted material getting in the reservoirs. We are continually looking for ways to integrate artificial intelligence in the use of drones and robots, including robot canines, into our existing network of cameras and sensors. Many of these critical infrastructure facilities where we treat and store the water before distribution are not open to the public. They are hardened facilities with traditional physical measures in place to deter, detect, and delay any unwanted intrusions. Access-controlled entrances are supported in most cases by crash-rated vehicle barriers and crash-rated cable fencing, perimeter detection systems, and surveillance cameras. Thanks to Mayor Adams' emphasis on cutting-edge technology, for fiscal year 2024, we will be piloting the use of robots at one or more of these facilities to augment our uniform patrol services there and our perimeter defenses. Naturally, no discussion regarding security of this critical infrastructure would be complete without touching upon the largest category of attack vector, cybersecurity. The DEP has a robust Bureau of Information Technology led by some of the most knowledgeable IT experts in the city government. Our profile on cybersecurity is enhanced through deep cooperative relationships, preparation, and readiness exercises with the FBI, the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation, the Homeland Security, Joint Terrorist Task Force, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of DHS. We continue to exceed all federal standards in securing our systems and infrastructure. Under Mayor Adams' leadership, the DEP police and the measures we used will continue evolving with the water supply itself to help ensure every New Yorker has safe and secure access to high-quality water for generations to come. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Chief Commissioner. Excuse me. I really appreciate you coming out. So I really only have one question. Like, what is it about the water that makes the bagels so good? I've never made a bagel in my life, but I've eaten plenty. So I'm not quite sure what the, you know... Whatever you're putting in the drinking water, it's working. Thank you. Finally today, I'm joined by the NYPD's Chief of Transit, Chief Michael Kemper, and Sergeant Patrick Kwan, who we're here to talk about subway safety. Chief Kemper has been a member of the NYPD for 32 years, has held more positions with the NYPD leadership positions than I can count, and Sergeant Kwan is in charge of community affairs, education, community outreach for transit. This is a new team, a new leadership team that's come into transit earlier this year and has really done a tremendous job at continuing to drive crime down in our subway systems dramatically. And so, before I turn it over to Chief Kemper and Sergeant Kwan, I want to take a little bit of time to give folks an understanding of kind of the current state of crime in our subway system. You know, we often talk about public safety being two things. Public safety is actually making people safer by driving down crime, but public safety is also making people feel safer. Because if you don't feel safe in your city, in your subway system, in your community, it almost doesn't matter what the reality is in terms of crime statistics or statistical probability. And I think a big part of people feeling safer in the city of New York is to really understand the facts and context of what crime stats mean and how likely of a probability there is for an individual to become a victim of a crime. And that isn't to downplay any crime, right? A single crime, a single person becoming a victim or having to suffer an event is one too many. And it's why the city spends an enormous amount of resources every single year focused on specific crime areas to help drive down crime in our communities and make everyone as safe as possible in this city. And as I mentioned earlier, the city's subways major crimes have decreased 9.9% in July. And that's, and they're down approximately 5% year to date compared to 2022. So we often point to transit crime statistics as a metric of how safe our subway and buses are. But it's, as I just said, it's really important to put those things in context. So here in the city of New York, we have the largest subway system in North America, the only subway system on planet Earth that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So the transit unit in the NYPD is as an enormous task and unlike really any other law enforcement agency in the Western world who's tasked with protecting a transit system. And the work they're doing is really moving the needle. And I think, as I said, it's important to put it into context, how big our system really is. So in 2023, the average ridership for New York City's subways and our bus system, so our public transportation system is 4.3 million rides every single day. So that's close to a billion individual public transit rides so far just this year, a billion and a half across our subway and bus systems in this city every single year. Year to date, there have been 1,262 reported crimes in our transit system, so in our subway system, right? So that's roughly one incident for every 730,000 rides. So when you swipe your card and you go into that transit system, you have a one in 730,000 chance of being a victim of a crime, right? In your lifetime, you have a one in 15,000 chance of being struck by lightning, right? So the statistical probability of becoming a victim of crime in the New York City subway system remains incredibly low. And again, that isn't to diminish the 1,262 people who were a victim of crime. And it's why Chief Kemper and his team worked diligently every single day and every single night, 24-7-365, to continue to make our subway systems the safest systems in North America. And so with that, I want to introduce Chief Kemper. Thank you so much for being here for the public safety briefing. Looking forward to hearing from you and from Sergeant Kwan on some subway safety tips that folks can keep in the back of their mind as they're riding our trains. Thank you, sir. Before I pass it off to Sergeant Kwan, who has a quick PowerPoint presentation, I just want to recognize and thank John Cosgrove and his team at the DEP for making sure we have bagels and pizza. Two of my favorite foods, so I can't thank you enough. The DEP is very proud of the water they produce into the city, and I'm sure they're going to be delighted to hear that. We'll bring that back. Thank you. Sergeant Kwan. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Chief Myers. So this presentation that you're about to see was born out of the city's recovery and rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. We heard from our employees returning workers, they were citing public safety as a major hurdle to them going back to in-office work. And so we heard that and we, the NYPD saw fit to conduct outreach to arm our riders with some really salient points, some safety tips that could really better their commute. And so what you've seen, what you're about to see right here has been broadcasted and presented at multiple corporate venues at council offices throughout the city of New York. Next slide, please. And there you have it. There's the New York City subway map. We've come a long way over a century ago. The first train run roared north from just beneath our feet here in Old City Hall. And we have now grown to a network of 472 stations, upwards of 650 miles of track. And like Chief Myers said, upwards of 4 million riders per day in the subway system alone. Now I would bet that most, almost every New Yorker would recognize the subway map. And the aim of today's presentation is to point out some of the things that have been hiding in plain sight that could really better your commute. Next slide, thank you. So hiding in plain sight on that very subway map is a little blue shield icon. And that icon indicates to a person who's looking at that map where a police facility is located inside the New York City subway system. Now we have 12 transit district facilities that are scattered throughout the city. They range from places in Columbus Circle, which are high traffic areas, Union Square, Yankee Stadium, and to far-fung places like Briwood and Queens. Now when you're in that subway station, you're going to see signs and wave points, like that picture on the right. And that's going to point you and direct you to exactly where that police facility is located inside that subway station. Next. So now we're on street level. Now here we are outside a typical subway entrance, and we have these color-coded globes. We have a green globe and a red globe. Now, these are not Christmas decorations. These globes are indicators to our riders. Again, part of the landscape you might have never understood exactly what they meant, but it's an incredible importance to you as a rider. A green globe indicates to a rider that that particular entryway is in fact an entryway. When you make your way down the steps in that particular picture right here that you're looking at, you're going to encounter a station agent inside a booth clerk or a metro car vending machine or turnstiles or one of those revolving entrances. If you make your way down that staircase with a red globe, you're going to encounter a non-entry gate. You're only going to see an emergency exit gate that can only be opened from the inside out. So again, green means go, red means go. Moving on to booth numbers. Now, booth numbers, again, part of the landscape, incredibly valuable to us in the first responder community. Whenever there is a call for police, fire and EMS, we are dispatched to the station and zeroed in via the booth number. Now, by no means are we asking New Yorkers to memorize every single booth number and commit it to memory. But let's just say you are in your commute and you come across a person in need of a medical assistance and you're in Penn Station, a huge subway complex with multiple entrances and exits and booths. If you can just provide that booth number to the 911 operator, that will really help us zero in exactly where we need those services. Moving on to metro car vending machines. Now, with the advent of the OmniTap system, these metro car vending machines will soon be relics. They might soon become museum pieces. But in the meantime, they're still operational. And what we see at these metro car vending machines is these are places where we have New Yorkers presenting their valuables, their possessions. These are places where you open your purse, your wallets, and it adds to your vulnerability there. And so what we've seen is sometimes we have folks that are opportunistic thieves, try to take advantage of a person who might be unfamiliar with the system, particularly visitors and offer unsolicited help. And before you know it, that good deed by that scam artist nets you a valueless metro car as they walk away with the metro car that you purchased with your money. So again, something to keep in mind. I mentioned the OmniTap system and there it is. It's been fully integrated into the subway and the bus system. Now it offers payments via a RFID equipped credit card, debit card, a smart phone. And I really want to point out the wearable, the smart watch. Again, these are turnstiles and like the chief will mention in a little bit, these are incredibly valuable points of entry and gateways into the subway system. And here, the one tip I would have you take away is that if you can enter via one of those wearables, that is a payment system that is number one adhere to your body. It's not something that you have to present, fumble around in your pocket for. It's a great option. Okay, so in that circle is a conductor's zebra stripes. The zebra stripes is indicated of where the conductor will be positioned when the train pulls into the station. So for a commuter that feels a bit more comfortable riding in the train car with the conductor. That's a great place to position yourself. Additionally, it's also the place where most of our police officers deployed along the platform. They typically deploy at that conductor station to liaise with the conductor. So it's a great place to find a police officer should you need one. Let's talk about connectivity. The MTA has invested heavily in these recent years in standing up Wi-Fi and cell service within our subway system. So if there's ever a need for police service, if there's ever a need for any type of police service, do call us. We hear this a lot. People, they hesitate to see whether they should call 911. They don't know if this particular thing that they're observing merits police services or fire services. Just call us anyway. Let our 911 operas triage exactly what you're seeing so we can get there and respond. Same for text 911. It's a great way to notify us surreptitiously just through a text without actually getting on the phone. A continuation of the connectivity we have on the picture on the left, a station help point on the picture on the right, a on-train intercom. These are great ways to get in touch with MTA staff and MTA crew. If you depress any of those buttons, you will get either a person at the rail control center where we have fire and police officers standing by 24-7. And the picture on the right, the on-train intercom will connect you with the on-train conductor. Great tools. I want to point out two things. We get asked this a lot. Is there a particular part of the train car that is safer, less safe? I just want to just take a look at this photo right here. We have a person that is buried in their phone, headphones on, full audio immersion. Now listen, I enjoy my movies and my podcasts as much as the next person. But a lot can be said about just being aware of your surroundings. And so I know the noise cancellation options on your AirPods is a great way to drown out the world. But maybe just dial it down a little bit, be aware of your surroundings. I don't think this person realized there was a police officer and a 70-pound police dog next to him for about 15 minutes until he looked up. Next. Okay, we're going to end with this. Dropped items. Dropped items. Now, we've sadly seen tragedy strike with people jumping onto the track bed to retrieve dropped items. I would say 99% of stuff, we will come out and get it for you. We will retrieve it. There's an MCA team that is on call 24-7 and they will come out to pick whatever you dropped. Now, if it's a slice of pepperoni, leave that to the pizza rats and just cut your losses there. But if it's anything else like a cell phone or an AirPods, we'll be there in 15, 30 minutes tops. Again, just a little bit of timing. I know New Yorkers want to be on the go, but it's not worth your life. I want to leave with this. Now, I know the Chief is going to touch upon this as well and Chief Myers touched upon this as well earlier. The investment by this administration in subway safety is unprecedented. I have about 10 years within the Transit Bureau and I've never seen such commitment to the safety of the Mass Transit Network. And I thank you for your time, sir. Thank you, Chief Keper. Yep, if I may just, you know, write to that, the commitment to public safety in the subway system. Look, it's been said before. We say it all the time. It's the truth. Mayor Adams and his entire administration has been crystal clear from before the day he was sworn in. Public safety was going to be his top priority. And public safety in the subway system, it certainly includes public safety in the subway system. You know, when looking back last year in 2022, the first 10 months of the year, we were spiking in crime a little over 40% in the subway system. And people were concerned, and rightfully so, as were we. And that's when the mayor, you know, working alongside with our state partners, came up with the COPS camera and care program tremendous investment into public safety in the subway system. And, you know, between the subway safety plan, the COPS cameras care program, which was launched in October of 2022. Again, historic investments into public safety were made, which included the increased deployment of upwards of 1200 cops in uniform a day into the subway system to secure it. And those investments, and to be quite frank, the hard work of the men and women in the NYPD are COPS. It really, really paid dividends because crime not only stabilized, but crime began reducing and going down steadily since. So from where we were in the first 10 months of 2022, up 40%. You know, right now, for the year, we're down 5.1% in crime in the subway system. 9.9% alone in July versus last July. But, you know, looking at that bigger picture, the 5.1% for the first seven plus months of the year, that represents upwards of 70 less major crime victims alone in the subway system versus just last year. A lot of questions come my way about, you're not comparing to pre-COVID. Well, I'm going to compare it to pre-COVID right now. And listen clearly, crime is down over 6% this year versus 2019 in the subway system. Crime is down over 6% versus 2018 in the subway system. Matter of fact, when looking at the first seven months of this year and comparing it to historic numbers, this is only three years that have lower crime numbers in recorded history, when not comparing versus the COVID year, which is unfair, but three years only in recorded history in the subway system. Again, this is all part of a plan hatched by our mayor, by his administration, and the hard work of the men and women of the NYPD, the results speak for themselves. Again, and we can't do this alone. Certainly our partners at the MTA and certainly our ridership, so supportive. They deserve to take a journey in the subway system, not only without being afraid of becoming a crime victim, but free from fear also. And that's what we work very, very, very hard on. So before I pass along, I just want to thank our partners in our efforts, and certainly thank this administration for not only the support with the increased personnel, but just really the verbal support which goes a long way to our cops, who again, each and every day come to work with really one goal, is to prevent crime and help people. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Kemper. And thank you to the entire NYPD Transit Bureau. It is a difficult and challenging job to be in NYPD Transit. And certainly when we came into office last year, when Mayor Eric Adams took office in January of last year, the transit system was in a difficult position. But thanks to the hard work of your team and others, certainly not a mission accomplished moment, but incredible work to drive crime back down to historically low levels and return New Yorkers a subway system where they can feel safe and comfortable riding on a daily basis. So excellent work. Really appreciate the effort, Chief, and looking forward to see what you and your team's next act is. Yeah, and I think you just touched on something important. And you know, we are having success with reducing crime, but our work is far from over. And we clearly recognize that we have a lot of work to do. But we're committed to getting that job done. Excellent. Thank you, Chief. And that concludes what we have for today in the public safety briefing. We'll move on to, I think, what's kind of the best part of our briefings is to take some questions from everyday New Yorkers who get an opportunity to talk to the leadership here who helps to impart public safety here in the city of New York. 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're almost up in time, so we'll get to as many of them as I can in the next few minutes. First question is for Commissioner Parker from Rocky in Brooklyn who asks, how do most drugs make their way to New York City? Is it cars, trains, boats? Most of the drugs that come into the United States and into New York City come across the Southwest border. The two major cartels in Mexico are really the base of operations, and it's over the Southwest border. It can be, for the most part, it's trucks and cars coming across the Southwest border. It can be people, it can be drones, it can be tunnels, but that's the key point where drugs, whether it's fentanyl in particular, fentanyl pills, other drugs, that's coming across the Southwest border. Next question is from Ramsa in Queens for Chief Kemper who asks, can you give an update on the department's work for moving homeless people from subways? Yeah, I can. So look, this is the topic of homelessness. It's complex yet it's important that, important work we deal with every day, particularly in the subway system. But first and foremost, it's really about balancing the needs of an individual that sadly sees the subway system as a place of refuge and also the needs of a ridership. I say this a lot and it's so true. Being homeless is not a crime, right? Homeless is not a crime, but nobody should be reduced to having to live or seek shelter in a subway system. It's just New York City, it's 2023, right? We can do better and there are such better, safer, viable options that we have. You know, we're talking about plans and it's part of the mayor's subway safety plan that was released in February of 2022. This very topic was discussed and a unit was stood in the NYPD Transit Bureau. It's called the Subway Safety Task Force and it was stood at the direction of Mayor Adams and his subway safety plan. And that unit's primary mission is to focus on this topic. They work seven days a week. They don't work alone. They work with their partner agencies, whether it's DHS, UHMH, or BRIC, and they go out each and every day. They look for individuals in need. They offer them options. And this important work certainly will continue. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have left for today. On behalf of the Adams Administration, I would like to thank everyone for tuning in to today's briefing. We look forward to seeing you all at our next one. Have a great day.