Hyperdermic Needle Found Near Roosevelt Island Children's Playground This Morning - Meeting Tonight On Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department Practices And Policies, You're Invited To Attend And Share Views

Reported last August 7:

Roosevelt Island activist Frank Farance disagrees with certain actions, policies and procedures of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Public Safety Committee (PSC). The PSC invited Mr Farance to form a separate committee to address the issues he believes are important. Mr. Farance has done so... 

This new committee is meeting later tonight and all concerned Roosevelt Island stakeholders are invited to attend and participate in a discussion of Public Safety Department practices and policies.

Here's the Agenda for tonight's meeting from Mr. Farance:

Date: August 21, 2013
Time: 8 PM
Place: Island House (555 Main) Community Room

AGENDA
1. Introduction to Participants
2. Review of agenda
3. Review of progress
4. Brainstorming on three-pronged approach
5. Brainstorming on increase NYPD presence
6. Brainstorming on RIOC/PSD oversight
7. Any other ideas
8. Wrap-up

and a review of the August 7 meeting from Mr. Farance:

We had a successful meeting, it lasted about 90 minutes. It included about a dozen participants: four who had provided comments but who could not attend in person, and 8 others who attended in person, including Ron Schuppert (former NYPD officer, and former RIRA VP and RIRA Public Safety Committee Chair).

We focused upon a small number of items and hope to make progress by the next meeting (August 21). We felt the focus should be on the whole community, including residents, merchants, and organizations; and we were interested in better policy, including better oversight -- definitely different from RIRA PSC. Also, RIRA PSC is focused upon removing/firing officers Bryan, Suarez, Yee, Hernandez, and Torrens ... we're not going to focus on that, we feel we should be addressing better law enforcement, which touches upon PSD, RIOC, NYPD, NY DA's office, etc. - again all different from RIRA PSC.

At the next meeting we hope to have some initial feedback from merchants and organizations, and some suggestions from former PSD officers and NYPD officers. We are looking to understand and address the level/kind of patrolling on the Island.

Lastly, we plan on addressing an issue on congregation/noise at night (see letter in WIRE on July 5 early morning crowds). Our approach is three-pronged:

(1) If there is someone or a group of people disturbing the peace, then this condition needs to be corrected promptly. We didn't say either way on how it was corrected (shooing away, warnings, summonses, arrests, etc.), we agreed that it needed to be corrected promptly.

(2) If someone or a group of people are congregating peacefully and legally, they should be allowed to do so without retribution.

(3) There needs to be a social policy component to provide places to congregate. We noted that simply opening the Youth Center in the evening is not a solution, some kind of additional programming (at Youth Center, Sportspark, somewhere else, some combination) is necessary.

So instead of just saying: Add More Law Enforcement To Deal With The Noise, or Don't Arrest Kids Who Are Doing Nothing Wrong, or Just Give The Kids A Place To Go At Night, we are looking at a three-pronged approach.

We will have a brain-storming session at the next meeting, and we will review this with PSD Interim Director McManus.

Feel free to make comments/suggestions.

PSD Director McManus will not be able to attend tonight's meeting.

A Roosevelt Island Parent reports today:

Found a hypodermic needle on the ground next to the playground near the basketball courts this morning.

I threw it away but kids should keep their shoes on. Not to mention the glass and baggies all over the island.

If you are concerned about Roosevelt Island Public Safety issues, please attend the meeting tonight.