CIVIC CENTER — NYPD union leaders again failed to reach an accord with city officials after meeting with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for two hours Wednesday evening.
The leaders of the five police unions have been at odds with the mayor and police commissioner over what they see as a lack of support for officers during recent protests following the Eric Garner decision, the death of two detectives in Brooklyn and the wounding of two plainclothes officers in The Bronx.
“Our concerns are member safety and the safety of the public we serve,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said outside One Police Plaza after the meeting. “We saw last night our police officers who could have went home, who could have closed their lockers at the end of their tour and ignore the radio. They did not. They ran out and tried to stop a robbery and they got shot for it.”
Lynch added that he did not trust the mayor’s office to solve issues like officer safety.
“We don’t believe there is a willingness on the part of City Hall to solve these problems, so we as union leaders will take the time to sit down, discuss these issues and come up with solutions to them.”
This was the second meeting between union leaders and officials and the first since the funerals for officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
Union leaders said Mayor Bill de Blasio had “blood on his hands” after the two detectives were shot while sitting in their patrol car in Bed-Stuy.
Hundreds of officers then turned their backs to the mayor while he spoke at each funeral.
The mayor called the action “disrespectful to the families” of the two officers during a press conference about yearly crime statistics Monday.
“I can’t understand why anyone would do such a thing in a context like that.”
The commissioner did not immediately comment on the meeting.
