Roosevelt Island Is Safest Place In New York City Says RIOC Public Safety Director To RIRA Public Safety Committee - Vertical Patrols, Roosevelt Landings Hallway Marijuana Smoking, Dog Waste, Helix Bike Signage, Officer Training Discussed Too

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Public Safety Director Jack McManus told the January 27 Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Public Safety Committee meeting that according to the FBI's seven index crime statistics, Roosevelt Island is:

... the safest place in New York City....

Below is the RIOC 2015 report of Roosevelt Island Index Crimes

and Calls For Services/Responses.

Roosevelt Island PSD Stats


The RIRA Public Safety Committee submitted the following reports to the February RIRA Common Council meeting.

RIRA Public Safety Committee (“PSC”) Meeting Minutes December 30, 2015

The RIRA Public Safety Committee met on 12/30/15...

Erin reported that the Helix ramp signage is in the works, according to an email from Charlene. Erica was on vacation so no further update was possible.

Chief McManus provided updates on various agenda items:

Vertical patrols statistics were not provided. Update on the implementation of the Access system revealed that RIOC was still looking for a vendor able to be inclusive of all sites, at a reasonable cost.

The scaffolding is down and work completed on time at Roosevelt landings. PSD is focusing on ensuring emergency access with the façade work and Con Ed work on Main Street. This requires a significant amount of PSO time. In the event of a terrorist attack, or shooting, Deputy Director Marmara indicated that there are response teams located in NYC and Queens that would allow efficient response time in an emergency by FDNY, and NYPD.

During the past year crime statistics indicated that crime was minimal on RI in 2015. There have been very few complaints, QOL complaints (e.g. noise and marijuana complaints) have been decreasing. Grand larceny: 5, Assault, 13, Burglaries 13, and Robberies 6. This brought attention to the number of calls that are coming out of Roosevelt Landings and the collaborative work between Chief McManus and Urban America in apprehending the perpetrators. Romano provided the committee with building updates. With respect to new doors/locks at RL, new shareholders mean more money will be available for upgrades – possibly including cameras. Urban American is doing a better job at notifying tenants – with Notices to Cure and Notices to Cease and Desist due to collaboration with McManus. There are about 25 complaints a month at RL. Access control is crucial.

Chief McManus reported that there are currently 34 PSOs on the PSD, 5 more PSOs were hired. Collaboration with the 114th is strong.

PSC will reach out to Officer Mathis, the new CPOP officer to invite him to meet with the PSC.

Officer Cabassa is now the training officer of PSD. This topic was controversial. Romano questioned the choice of having Officer Cabassa in charge of training, referencing behavior RL residents had observed when interacting with residents recently in their building. It was noted that historically Officer Cabassa was named in civilian complaints when Guerra was PSD director. Chief McManus expressed his confidence in Officer Cabassa’s ability to handle this role.

Although informed by Chief McManus that there were mandatory trainings in 2015, such as on de‐escalation, the number of officers’ trained, and specific trainings that were held was not stated. This request will be submitted for the next PSC meeting.

With respect to the Explorer program, only four kids were recruited – though transportation was provided. It was thought there may not have been enough publicity about the Explorers program.

There is a looping device at the PSD office. Issues around the “policy” requested by Ron were tabled until the next meeting. Frank mentioned that the CERT has a training program focusing on emergency response with respect to the ADA.

The question of parking areas for unloading on Main Street will be discussed at the next meeting, as will a discussion of TAP.

Respectfully Submitted,
Erin Feely‐Nahem, PSC Committee Chair

and:

RIRA Public Safety Committee (“PSC”) Meeting Minutes January 27, 2016

Updates;

Helix Signage: Two signs have been completed and are to be hung shortly. One is a yellow, diamond shape sign with a picture of a bicycle going up a steep incline, and reads, “Steep Incline”. The second is a grass green rectangle, with a picture of a pedestrian and a bicycle, with a hand below the picture pointing with “Elevator” written next to it. Comments from committee members were minimal, except for Frank who stated he would send his remarks via email. Once the signs are hung, the committee will request feedback from members if they are adequate to enhance safety.

Officer Training: Deputy Director briefly outlined trainings. She will send Chair break down on training that are conducted annually, differentiating between trainings conducted by an outside vendor and those conducted by Sgt. Cabassa.

Vertical Patrols: Provided number of vertical patrols which totaled 1200, including Motor gate patrols. WIRE building patrols numbers are as follows: IH 91, WV 96, RL 460, RC 59, and Motorgate 483.

Roosevelt Landings (RL) issues: A number of tenants from RL came to discuss quality of life issues in their buildings, which focused around the use of marijuana being smoked in front of their doors, in the hall ways and stairwells. Doryne Isley was called by Romano and put on speaker phone. Doryne suggested they work collaboratively to address the issues and informed the RL tenants that she was willing to hold a separate meeting to discuss the issues and possible solutions. Later on, after hearing input from tenants and Chief McManus Committee members offered suggestions which included calling PSD, documenting incidents and sending them to UA via certified mail. It was concluded that even with PSD submitting incidents to UA the installation of cameras or door station personnel would be beneficial in addressing this problem

Dogs / clean up / playground rules / enforcement: Many had complaints by dog owners not using leashes, cleaning up after their dogs, and letting them play on the fields. PSD has difficulty enforcing the ECB ordinance as the Officer must witness the violation. Lynne spoke about the educational campaign initiated by SC&E. Deputy Director discouraged residents from taking matters into their own hands. Rossana suggested that RIOC post the laws which state that all dogs are required to be vaccinated when using dog runs etc.

Parking Areas for unloading: Jack has brought this to the attention of RIOC President who is investigating if and how this can be done.

Respectfully Submitted,

Erin Feely‐Nahem, PSC Committee Chair