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Read the press release here.

Don't Text and Walk, Police Warn in New Campaign

By Carla Zanoni | July 28, 2011 1:43pm
Police from the 34th Precinct warn about the dangers of walking and texting or talking on a cell phone in public.
Police from the 34th Precinct warn about the dangers of walking and texting or talking on a cell phone in public.
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NYPD/34th Precinct

UPPER MANHATTAN — Texting. Tweeting. Talking. These activities have become an ordinary part of most New Yorkers' daily lives.

But as thefts of electronic mobile devices on city streets continue throughout Manhattan, police in the 34th Precinct are campaigning to educate residents on limiting the risk of theft and accidents while distracted by the technology.

The precinct’s “Don’t Text and Walk” campaign tells people to put down their devices.

“Currently we are distributing the attached flyer to cellphone and communication stores reminding ... their customers to remain alert and safe when using their cellphone and electronic music devices,” Officer Haydee Pabey of the 34th Precinct wrote in an email.  

Local police precinct meetings regularly include warnings about robberies of electronics — including cell phones, smart phones, iPods and iPads — and include pleas from law officials to put away the devices in public.

Jose Navarro, the precinct’s deputy inspector, has warned about muggings involving residents who were targeted while walking or using their electronic devices in the subway at every community police precinct meeting since last August.

Petit larceny, which includes thefts of devices of this kind, is slightly up in the precinct from last year, with 334 thefts in 2010 and 336 this year to date, according to a NYPD CompStat report from July 11th to 17th.