Commissioner Kevin D. Kim, Department of Small Business Services: Good morning, everyone. My name is Kevin D. Kim. I am the commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services, or SBS. SBS is really proud to oversee the city’s broad network of Workforce1 Career Centers, which each year serves over 90,000 job seekers.
At our 18 Workforce1 Career Centers located throughout the five boroughs, not only do we provide New Yorkers with free job training, career counseling and one-on-one support, we also then continue to work with these same individuals until they get connected to good paying jobs.
While New Yorkers can just walk in any time to any of our centers or virtually connect with any of them, in the Adams Administration, we don’t just wait around for people to come find us. We take a proactive approach to economic empowerment.
And that’s why I’m thrilled to be here today in Brownsville as part of Mayor Adams Working People’s Tour with Mayor Adams’ First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, NYPD Chief Michael LiPetri, A.T. Mitchell, who’s co-chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the brave men and women of the 73rd Precinct and Community Partners, very important community partners like the Brownsville Community Justice Center, Brownsville Partnership, Pitkin Avenue Business Improvement District, Jobs First NYC, and the Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation.
We are all here together to announce today this new exciting initiative to bring our Workforce1 job services and career service experts directly into communities most impacted by gun violence. In addition to Brownsville, SBS outreach will span neighborhoods from Mott Haven to East New York.
I now have the privilege of introducing to you a mayor who truly understands that public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity and that upstream solutions like helping New Yorkers get a good paying job can forever change the course of not only that individual but their family and their entire communities.
So, it’s no surprise that under his leadership, we’ve seen double digit drops in crime while at the same time, we are setting all-time highs in the number of New Yorkers employed, over 4.7 million New Yorkers. Ladies and gentlemen, our keep New Yorkers safe and our get New Yorkers jobs mayor, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much, commissioner. And as you indicated, just some amazing partners and just this whole Brownsville team that’s here, they saw the vision and they knew if we combine good solid public safety policies and programs and initiatives match with opportunities, people were rather be on a pathway to an employment than in a pathway of any criminal justice apparatus or participation in any criminal activity. And we see the victory of that.
And to see SBS join with NYPD and join with community-based organizations and leaders like my good friend A.T. Mitchell is a real indicator that this just works. It’s successful. We are seeing about being on the ground that beautiful van that’s behind us, giving people the opportunities that they look forward to.
And kudos to our First Deputy Mayor, Sheena Wright, who has really coordinated the whole apparatus around looking at the hotspots where gun violence is taking place and how we bring these activities on the ground. And the SBS team, they are up every day and they’re excited about the opportunities of how do we give businesses the support that they deserve.
Over 22, 23 months ago, we went on this clear initiative of dealing with public safety being a prerequisite to prosperity, but we knew the police could not do it alone. We were very clear on that, and that is why we assembled together our community-based organizations, our business community, the Police Department, all other entities that come together as one team, one team that dismantled the walls that historically have divided us from operating as a unit. And we’re seeing the results of that.
Chief LiPetri will make it clear with his stats. I think he sees these stats in the middle of the night and he looks at the numbers all the time. But in 2023, New York City has seen a drop in five of the seven index crime categories, including a 12 percent decrease in homicides, a 26 percent decrease in shooting incidents.
We’re seeing crime on our subway system continue to go down. We have a 45 percent decrease in shooting incidents here in the 73rd Precinct Brownsville in Brownsville. Because of the team that’s behind us, Brownsville has witnessed an unprecedented number of decrease, good police work, good community involvement, good teamwork all the way around.
We also have a 45 percent decrease in shooting incidents here in this community in Brownsville, and a 17 percent drop in overall crime in this city over…in this community over the last year. So, we’re seeing the results we’re looking for, but we’re doing it the right way, upstream.
Giving someone a job prevents them from participating in any wrongdoing or takes away the incentive to do things that are improper. And we’re seeing that right here in this community. I’m really excited about this initiative. I’m excited about the expansion.
As Commissioner Kim has mentioned, we’re going to be expanding to other locations. We worked out and found the best way to implement this procedure, and we’re going to see it expand across our city. Job well done. Good work. Let’s continue to drive down crime. It is very clear. Crime is down, employment is up, 4.7 million jobs and most jobs in the city’s history, more jobs in the city’s history. This is what this Working People’s Tour is all about. Thank you very much. Thank you, commissioner.
Commissioner Kim: Thank you, Mayor Adams. I now have the honor to introduce NYPD Chief Michael LiPetri, who’s been an incredible partner to SBS in addressing retail theft challenges. And under the leadership of NYPD, Commissioner Edward Kaban and NYPD Chief LiPetri, they have seen some of the steepest and fastest drops in crime in New York City’s history. So, my honor, to introduce Chief Lap Petri,
Michael LiPetri, Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Police Department: Good morning. Very happy to be here. Brownsville Community is near and dear to me. This is where I started my career in 1994, right here on Belmont Avenue, I think was one of my first foot posts. So, let’s put it into perspective on what’s going on in the city when it comes to crime.
As the mayor said, we are trending at levels that we saw pre-pandemic. We’re talking over 300 shooting incident reduction from last year, over 500 shooting incident reduction from three years ago. And there’s no command in the city, no command in the city that is trending at better direction than the 73rd Precinct.
Six murders. Is that six too many? Yes, it is. Six murders in the 73 Precinct. That is historic lows from the CompStat level, historic lows.
It’s amazing. It really is amazing and it’s a collaborated effort. It’s a collaborated effort between the community, the businesses and obviously, the NYPD. Like the mayor said, transit crime is down in Brownsville.
Housing crime, I look at the likes and news houses right here. Housing crime is down in the 73rd Precinct. Overall crime in the 73rd Precinct, six out of seven major categories. 31 less people shot from last year.
An initiative across the city, our violence reduction initiative, which started in May, the 73rd Precinct had three zones that we established. We saw pockets of violence. They were down 70 percent in those zones for the summer in shootings. And we know unfortunately, what usually comes in the summer, we see more shootings. But the 73rd Precinct saw less shootings.
Every category of enforcement, the right enforcement. I want to really stress that. We look at enforcement, want to make sure it’s precise, precision. It’s the calls that we’re getting, the quality of life calls that we analyze, and then the offices of the 73rd Precinct led by Deputy Inspector Vasquez go out there, use discretion and do it right.
But I’m very proud to be here. I’m very proud of the work by the men and women ni the 73rd Precinct, PSA 2, Transit District 32, Transit District 33. I just want to put something else in perspective. 73rd Precinct number two overall in shooting reduction. Number one is the precinct right next door in East New York. So, two of the communities that unfortunately we do see concentrated violence has really, really had a nice decline in violence and crime. And thank you very much.
Commissioner Kim: Thank you, Chief LiPetri. Can we just give it up for the 73rd Precinct one more time, Deputy Inspector Vazquez as well?
So, the jobs tour will continue over the next several months. Tomorrow, our SBS team will be in East New York at the New Lots Brooklyn Public Library starting at noon. So, we hope that every one of you will join us. Thank you very much for attending today.
Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams: How are you?
Question: I’m good. I want to ask some details about the van. Where is it going to be, how long does it stay there? What are the services available and how does this play into bringing down crime?
Commissioner Kim: Sure. So, this van here, we affectionately call it [Moby]. If you go on our social media, you’ll see it’s very active. It circles the five boroughs. It has a very, very busy schedule.
But what’s unique about the mobile unit is inside, we have secure workstations so that any New Yorker can walk up to it. We can have career experts there who can type in and get them started on the journey to get connected to a good paying job.
It also serves business owners as well, because not all business owners can come to our offices around the city, but we go to them and they can just pop in, learn about all of our loan grant programs, about hiring New Yorkers, about getting just all the different types of services that we have to help navigate government. This is what it’s all about, going to where New Yorkers are.
Question: And then can you speak on how this type of initiative helps when it comes to public safety?
Commissioner Kim: Absolutely. Well, I think as the mayor has said, all about public safety leads to prosperity and economic prosperity. I think that the jobs is really that upstream solution. When people do get a job, they’re less likely to engage in activities that we wouldn’t want them to. So, this mobile unit can go into the communities where employment has been an issue and right away on spot connect people to job opportunities.
Mayor Adams: If I could add, what we have noticed and we hear all the time is that people state they need jobs, they need employment, and no one wants to go down a pathway of a life of crime. When you give them opportunities, they don’t go in a negative direction.
And our workforce development team is really looking at the fact that is the double digit unemployment among black New Yorkers is higher than any other group? And by pinpointing and doing a real analysis, we’re seeing high unemployment is equal in the same communities where you see high crime.
And by being more proactive and not reactive and only relying on the police to address the issues around driving down crime, we want to use all of our agencies. And that’s what A.T. Mitchell and First Deputy Mayor Wright put in place by looking at what are the proactive things we can do at every agency, DYCD.
When we put in place real good alternatives for our young people over the summer, we didn’t see them participating in criminal behavior. We know these upstream solutions work, and that is our focus to go upstream, prevent the atmosphere that causes crime and not only react to crime. Thank you.
November 14, 2023 New York City Hall
Source: nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor – Midtown Tribune News –