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Education Leaders Want NYPD to Hold Off Eliminating School Emergency Units

By Shaye Weaver | August 4, 2015 4:17pm
 Members of the Community Education Council 2 are looking to keep the 19th Precinct's schools unit for as long as possible before the NYPD eliminates it under a new community policing project.
Members of the Community Education Council 2 are looking to keep the 19th Precinct's schools unit for as long as possible before the NYPD eliminates it under a new community policing project.
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DNAinfo/Shaye Weaver

UPPER EAST SIDE — District 2 education leaders are calling on the NYPD to hold off on plans to eliminate an NYPD special unit dedicated to school emergencies at the 19th precinct — after hearing of its impact at other precinct.

The NYPD is planning to eliminate the special schools unit at the Upper East Side precinct, which responds to emergency situations, like a fight or a mental health crisis, and replace them with new officers who would be dedicated to patrolling neighborhood beats — a move that CEC members worry will ruin the relationships between schools and police, according to members of Community Education Council for District 2 said.

The idea of the new policy, which rolled out this spring in four precincts — the 33rd and 34th precincts in Washington Heights and Inwood, and the 100th and 101st precincts in Rockaway — is to assign officers to patrol geographic beats so that they get to know the area's businesses, residents and schools better.

The restructuring is expected to roll out all over the city, beginning with the 19th Precinct in the near future, but CEC District 2 members said they're concerned about the new officers' ability to keep their schools safe, especially after hearing what's been happening at the precincts that have already experienced it.

Councilwoman Beth Cirone told the council on Monday night that schools from the 33rd and 34th Precincts have already expressed concerns about the new officers' lack of local knowledge.

"They’re saying they're seeing problems where officers go into a school and don’t know what their roles and missions are and don’t have the development the [schools unit] officers had," she said.

CEC members had initially made a resolution last month that would give their blessing for the new structure, under the condition that the Department of Education keep them updated on the restructuring and that it work closely with the NYPD to make sure that only trained and experienced officers would assist schools.

But on Monday, the council voted to scrap that resolution because they felt it didn't have enough teeth. Instead, they are planning to come up with a new resolution asking the NYPD to hold off on eliminating the schools units until a better solution can be found.

"I think they should at least keep the units in place in District 2 until the program is rolled out and implemented in a meaningful way," Cirone said. "I know a lot of people don't want to do that but I'm just worried."

With a vote of 5 out of 8, the CEC decided to reject their previous resolution and to return with a new resolution in September requesting the NYPD make an alternative plan for the 19th precinct, and that the department hold off on eliminating the school units there until then.

NYPD did not immediately respond to request for comment, but a rep who attended a CEC District 2 meeting last month said no timeline has yet been set for the new policy.