LOWER MANHATTAN — Local officials are calling on the Battery Park City Authority to halt its controversial plan to hire private security, while cutting the number of Park Enforcement Patrol officers in the community.
Elected officials — including Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and state Sen. Daniel Squadron — sent a letter to the BPCA, dated Dec. 2, that asks the agency to hold off on any change to the neighborhood’s security “until the community’s concerns are met.”
The letter comes a month after many residents — and a unanimous Community Board 1 — decried plans for the hiring of a security firm, a plan, they say, that was being put into action without any community input.
At a fiery CB 1 meeting last month, many community members, along with PEP officers and their union representatives from District Council 37, were angered by a proposal that would slash the number of officers — who, unlike security guards, are able to issue summonses and make arrests — while adding 57 unarmed “safey ambassadors” from firm AlliedBarton.
Many residents were perturbed by what they said was a lack of information from the authority about its reasoning behind the change and specifics related to how many PEP officers would actually be cut.
The authority had put out an RFP without notifying the community, and then offered little explanation for the need for a private firm, residents said.
The community board has asked the authority to withdraw its RFP and sign no contract with the firm until more is understood about the plan.
The letter from officials, which was also signed by Congressman Jerrold Nadler and State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, echoed the community’s call for information, and withdrawal of the RFP.
“In fact, it is still unclear how the private security firm would replace, supplement or enhance the current role of PEP officers,” officials wrote."When a community board speaks with a unanimous voice, and is joined by local elected officials, we believe it is incumbent on BPCA to take these serious concerns into account."
On Thursday, a few elected officials, including Chin and Brewer, stood on the steps of City Hall with members from the PEP officers union, DC 37, demanding that the BPCA call off its plan to slash the number of officers.
The BPCA did not immediately return request for comment.
