“In the past, we haven’t seen spiking of crimes due to economic downtown,” said Kelly at police headquarter during a special briefing to Foreign Press Association (FPA) in New York on Wednesday, “The crime rate dropped even last week”.
When asked whether he would run for the mayor, Kelly answered quickly “No.” “Bloomberg will be a terrific Mayor for the third term”, said the commissioner. Kelly emphasized that he would rather focus on the public safety of New York City.
Though there have been no major terrorist attacks in the past seven years since 9-11-01, Kelly would not claim it as a victory. He attributed the attack free years to many aspects, like border tightening, city vigilance, Al Qaeda’s diminishing numbers, and the timely breaking of six plots to attack New York.
Described as a “very unusual” opportunity by Lt. Eugene White, the members of the FPA got the special treat of seeing the recently established Real Time Crime Center (RTCC).
RTCC is the first centralized technology center for the NYPD. Its primary purpose is to give field officers and detectives instant and comprehensive information to help identify patterns and stop emerging crime.
As explained by an NYPD officer in the center, The Real Time Crime Center is the first of its kind anywhere in the world of law enforcement. Data can be gleaned from various sources like wireless phones, complaint reports, surveillance cameras, and helicopter feeds.
“This is the beauty of having all the information”, the officer attributed the center to the “great vision” of NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly.
When it comes to balancing anti-terrorism measures and civil liberties, Kelly said that NYPD has been working within constitutional rights: ”That is what this country is all about”. He said that a court warrant always goes before a wiretapping.
Kelly also mentioned the department’s Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, designed to protect the heart of New York City’s economic center and monitors the business district south of Canal Street, is safe from state and federal budget cuts. 3,000 surveillance cameras and 96 fixed license-plate readers are well on the way.
”We love cameras”, said Kelly. However the funding must be secured to place more of such surveillance apparatus.
When asked about the relationship between the police department and local community, Kelly said ”Our relationship with the community is better off than ever before". Yet he feels a little disappointed that the media has not been writing about that.
Are the police perplexed by the Sean Bell incident? Or has the NYPD found less enthusiasm among new recruits due to reactions? “Not really”. Kelly said the applications for NYPD officer had been “way way up after that,” “Their enthusiasm is not impacted”, said the commissioner. However due to citywide budget cuts, Kelly acknowledged that new recruitment cannot open probably until early next year.
When a reporter asked what his reaction would be if she were to do something offensive during a press conference, Kelly chuckled that he would probably request her to take shoes off before entering the conference room, apparently referring to the recent episode of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President Bush.
