NYPD Response Times In Crown Heights Are Bad, Really Bad

by CrownHeights.info

Whether it is an assault, burglary, or bad car crash, the go-to number to call is 911, and the police show up quickly to help you. Or at least they’re supposed to.

A series of incidents that recently took place in Crown Heights highlight a grave and growing safety concern in the city. It is taking the NYPD way to long to get to emergencies.

Earlier this week, a Jewish woman was assaulted in a gender based attack on a Crown Heights street in the confines of the 71st Precinct. 911 was called while the woman faced continued immanent threat of being attacked once again, only to have the police take over an hour to respond.

While the story of the street attack took place in the early afternoon, another incident Wednesday morning shows that other hours of the day aren’t any better for police response.

Just before 6:45am Wednesday morning, a speeding white BMW slammed into two cars on the corner of E91st Street and East New York Ave in the area of the 67th precinct. Jumping out, the BMW driver fled the scene, leaving three destroyed and disabled vehicles blocking the roadway. 911 was called, and the cars were left to block and litter the street for over an hour and a half before the police arrived. During this incident, NYC EMS did a slightly better job than the NYPD, only taking 45 minutes to arrive at what could have been a rather serious situation.

@swissmendel, a Twitter personality who lives in the area, tagged the 67th Precinct at 7:30am in a message asking if they ever planned on showing up to the scene.

“@NYPD67Pct accident with possible injuries at e91 and eny,” he wrote. “u have been called over 45 min ago. Do you plan on showing up?”

If some of you are thinking that an hour and a half doesn’t sound too bad, or maybe it was just a busy day, how about this example.

A Crown Heights resident decided to follow the motto “If you See Something, Say Something” by calling 911 Thursday when he spotted a suspicious vehicle loitering near a local institution.

“I called 911 to report a suspicious vehicle parked by pump near a big religious Jewish institution,” the resident told CrownHeights.info. “Apparently, this is the kind of emergency that requires a five hour turnaround time.”

The resident had made the call to 911 at 11:53am, and the police had eventually gotten around to checking out the vehicle around 4:58pm, when they were nice enough to call back the resident about the vehicle after only a trifling five hours.

The reasons given for the extended response times vary slightly person to person, but ultimately boil down to one thing. The NYPD says it no longer has the necessary manpower to keep up with the city’s emergency needs.

From record retirements to a lull is quality applicants, the NYPD has noted that its manpower problem is huge, and getting worse. By June of this year, 1,596 officers had already left the department, either by retiring or quitting, according to stats from the New York City Police Department Pension Fund.

“The NYPD is sliding deeper into a staffing crisis that will ultimately hurt public safety,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said “Low pay, inferior benefits and constant abuse from the City Council and other anti-cop demagogues has pushed attrition to record highs.”

While the issue is a problem now, it’s also unlikely to go away anytime soon.

In July of this year, former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton was quoted as saying in a radio interview that “I predict a crisis in terms of manpower over the next several years, because this City Council just will not approve additional police officers.” At the time of the interview, Bratton referring to the prevailing belief that the liberal majority of the New York City Council would under no circumstances ok an increase in the NYPD’s numbers.

That, coupled with the ongoing drain of leaving officers, has left he force unable to blunt the brutal manpower shortage.

CrownHeights.info reached out to the NYPD requesting information on what they are doing to raise response times as they battle their manpower shortage. The request for comment was not yet returned at the time of the publication of this article.

Despite the manpower issue, locals have been demanding that the city step up its response times, an issue that they feel should be a priority as the Big Apple faces a surge in crime making the city uncomfortable and dangerous to many.