Roosevelt Island Public Safety Being Trained in Verbal Judo - Take a Poll on How Public Safety Department is Doing Job

You Tube Martial Arts Illusion video from Boxist

Below are examples from the Roosevelt Island 24 hour Public Safety Incident Report of typical recent interactions between Public Safety officers and local residents. The 24 Hour reports from January 19/2008 to date are here.

0700 hrs 02/25/08 to 0700 hrs 02/26/08
Aided - female fell f/o 560 Main St. on sidewalk. Aided taken to hospital.

Found property - person turned in wallet to Public Safety. Wallet contained no money. Wallet secured in Sgt's closet. Unable to ID owner.

Open Container of Alcohol - 3 subjects were observed drinking in public. Summonses were issued.

Aided - Tenant called EMS because she was not feeling well. Officer on scene. Aided taken to hospital.

Past Robbery - Victim reported to PSD/NYPD of robbery. Victim refused EMS.

Reports were taken for all above incidents.

2/26/08-700 AM to 2/27/08-700 AM

Criminal Mischief- At 516 Main Street 1 St. floor Hallway there was a broken window . It was broken from the outside. UA Handyman responded. The Glass Co was notified and will respond to replace the window.

Hazardous Condition- At 688 Main Street in the Motorgate Garage the lights are out in levels "3B", "6A", and "7B". Central Parking attendant notified. Public Safety to monitor the area.

Aided- On Main Street a parent of a child alleged that the RIOC Bus Driver closed the rear doors as her daughter was exiting the bus. EMS refused. Bus Driver stated no incident occurred all day.

Petit Larceny-At 544 Main Street in the General Store 2 subjects put on 2 wool hats and exited the sore without making payment. NYPD and PSD conducted a search of the Island for the Subjects with negative results.

PUBLIC SAFETY RESPONDED AND PREPARED REPORTS FOR THESE INCIDENTS.

3/8-3/9

Unsecured Vehicle- At 688 Main Street (Moorgame Garage) Central Parking notified owner who secured vehicle.

Petit Larceny/Harassment- At 455 Main Street (Duane Reade) there was shoplifting of mechanize. PSD and NYPD responded but subject had already left. Search for subject yielded negative results.

Aided- An ill person was taken to the Hospital by EMS

Tree Branch- R/O 1 Main Street (Goldwater Hosp) a large tree branch fell on the street. No injuries. Dir of Operations was notified.

Investigation- At 30 River Road a resident reported unknown male had tried to gain access with a key. Subject did not gain entry and left. Search made of the area with negative results.

Unsecured Door- At 555 Main Street a rood wasn't locked. PSD responded and conducted a search but subject was not there. Doorman was notified to secure the door.

Locked out Youth- At 560 Main Street a youth returned home late and parent did not want to provide entry. PSD responded and parent did allow youth inside apt.

A reader asks:

Would you have a poll on the PSD and how residents view them, Exc. Good, Fair, Poor with comments and nay incidents they may have had with them.?

The Public Safety poll is on the right side column. When responding remember that there is a new Public Safety director so that problems associated with the Public Safety Office in the past need not be attributed to the new administration. The 2/23/08 Main Street WIRE (PDF File) has an interview with the new Public Safety Director Keith Guerra who explains that:

“I want to improve the way that my officers are perceived by the residents here on the Island.”

Guerra plans on effecting this improvement by changing the uniform and by having the officers go through training and retraining. “They will be going through a number of different trainings whereby they are going to raise their proficiency in defensive tactics.” Guerra says that they will be specifically trained in “verbal Judo, a martial art of the mind and mouth,”which “consists of being able to interact verbally with the public, whether that’s engaging in a conversation that is very pleasant... all the way up the scale to a conversation that may be confrontational in its nature.” He says that they will also be changing the current baton, “which appears to be a stick or a club,” to an expandable baton, “which is more of a defensive instrument with offensive capabilities.

Here is link to the web cast of the February 15 2008 RIOC Operations Committee meeting which has a discusstion of Public Safety issues.

For comparison purposes here is the Brooklyn Police Blotter page from the Brooklyn Paper.
From Fort Greene:

The 47-year-old was hanging around the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Fort Greene place around 4 pm when he saw two men, one of whom he knew, fighting on the street. He started to chuckle, and his acquaintance noticed and turned to him.

“Stop laughing,” he said.

The bystander and the brawler were soon arguing, and the violent 26-year-old got fed up, went to his car, and pulled out a long metal object. He struck the older man in the head, causing injuries bad enough to send him to Brooklyn Hospital. But the joke was on the perp, as cops happened upon the scene and put him under arrest.

And Williamsburg:

A hard week for twenty-something men using the Bedford Avenue L station ended with hard time for one teenager.

It started on Feb. 25, when three thugs jumped a 28-year-old man in the station.

“Just give it to me,” said the ringleader, a 6-foot guy in a gray hoodie, pointing to the victim’s wallet. A second thug, also 6-foot, proceeded to put the North Sixth Street resident into a choke-hold and pull him to the ground, at which point all three punched and kicked the victim.

Then, the ringleader grabbed the punchee’s wallet, before the entire gang fled toward Driggs Avenue.

Inside the New York University grad student’s $100 billfold was $41, two credit cards, a $50 Whole Foods gift card and a monthly MetroCard.

A few days later, on March 2, a teenager approached a 27-year-old at the same station and asked him for his ID at around 8:30 pm.

When the adult complied, the kid, surprise, stole his wallet, too.

Dumbonyc reports of increased night time crime:

A few residents have emailed saying that there have been a few attacks by “a group of boys” on foot. On Thursday night, there was a robbery on the corner of Front and Washington Street. Another story said that the “same group” jumped a man and tried to “pull his eye socket out”. In another incident, the group pulled a man between cars and mugged him

Does this mean that in exchange for having very few close by and convenient city amenities like restaurants, book stores, bars etc. Roosevelt Island also has little crime? Is that the trade off?