The number of murders in the United States has jumped nearly 30% since 2020 and has been considered one of the largest single-year increases ever recorded in the country. The overall crime rate, which includes murder, assault, robbery, and rape, increased around 5%. While the number of murders and shooting incidents in New York City declined compared with August 2020, there are still kids being gunned down and junkies taking over the streets of Midtown Manhattan.
Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the crimes hitting the Big Apple during his daily City Hall news conference, adding that their police departments would focus on “customer service” more than anything else. He talked about having a “paradigm shift” in the New York Police Department and putting a “community guide” in each of the stations to greet people at the door. He did not mention the costs of hiring more workers and providing these services seven days a week but explained how he had been motivated by years of complaints about the cops who seemed too gruff or dismissive.
“Customer service has to be what the NYPD is about. So many people who just were trying to exercise their rights to get information or file a concern or complaint, find out what’s happening with a case, they were treated in a way that doesn’t have anything to do with customer service or respect. That’s not acceptable and it’s not going to build the bond we need,” de Blasio said.
NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes adds that the police officers are greeters but that De Blasio’s plan would help create a “warmer, kinder, friendly…gentle environment.”
De Blasio has continued to defend his initiative to focus on customer service, adding that the improvement of police-community relations is a “prerequisite” to being as safe as they can be. He claimed that the NYPD was ‘always focused on violence” and that they need to have their eyes on both areas instead. The program will begin next week with 77 of New York’s police precincts being assigned a community guide.
Many people have lashed out at the program, including one NYPD cop who called the customer service plan one of the most “horrific ideas” they’ve heard since being on the job. The cop asked when policing became like walking into a T-Mobile store and called it “just stupid and crazy” to treat the business like it’s pretty when it’s not.
“If someone is coming to a precinct, they have a problem that we need to deal with — not hope they give us a 5-star review on ‘UberPolice. I can’t wait for the next chief’s bright idea to put every member of service into an Instagram and we all get rated. Failure to have a minimum of followers will result in termination,” the cop said.
Democrats think that everything is about customer service and unity when it’s really all about self-service and helping themselves. Between the skyrocketing crime and defunding the police, a customer service initiative only makes things in the Big Apple worse than they already are. For de Blasio, it’ll be customer service to the criminals, not the citizens.
