H nice data. How many police officers have left the department though and how many have we gained? Could you provide actual numbers for the last three years? >> Okay. In I I can give you the net numbers. So in calendar year 25, we added we were net up. We added 758 officers. In calendar year 24, we added 12 officers. And in calendar year 23, we lost 280 officers. >> All right. Good job with the hiring and the >> Thank you. Thank you. We really tried very hard. >> And talk to us about their tenure. How long? Actually, no. You already provided information that kind of answers that. Um, this is all public info, but still good to have this on the record. Talk to us about the salary of police officers. What's the starting salary? >> Yeah, starting salary is 55,942. After a year and a half, it goes up to 57,976 with increases each year reaching 109,352 after 5 and a half years. And what's the average salary considering the 300 hours that they generally do in overtime? Would you say we add an additional like 30,000 to that starting? >> In calendar year 2025, on average officers earned approximately $26,000 overtime per year. So with an average salary of $103,000, that would total $129,000. >> Talk to us about the police uh response time for different crimes. What's the average response time for shootings, homicides, domestic violence, assaults, and anything else that >> Okay, we track two two different things. Crimes in progress, meaning a robbery that's in well, crimes in progress, and then serious crimes in progress. So, for the first four months of fiscal year 2026, um response times for serious crimes in progress, which is many of the ones you're talking about, are down 48 seconds and response times for all crimes in progress, are down 6 seconds. But the the the crimes that you rep uh said were were mostly the serious crimes in progress. So that's down 48. >> Okay. Uh going back to the overtime issue. >> How much of a role does headcount play on the issue of overtime? I know you mentioned generally it's a few hours of overtime. They have to do paperwork or finalize their day. Um how much does headcount though play a role on that issue? >> Less of a role than you think. So let let's talk about one area where we really we often need overtime and that is for like a detail or a big event or or a parade. That parade and that is doesn't happen every single day. So you don't need to hire an extra officer to work every day for a parade that's going to happen like once a month or a few times a month etc. Um, so there it is related but not directly correlated. >> Okay. Um, I'll pause now. I'll uh call Council Member Hanks who was with us earlier today. Had to leave for a hearing that she had across the street. Um, Council Member Hanks, the floor is yours. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> Thank you. Um, first I want to thank Commissioner Tish and the team here for your thorough and informative testimony this morning. Um, I want to thank you and the and the members of NYPD for their service and for truly the important job that they do in helping keeping New Yorkers safe. So, I wanted to I have questions in a few spaces. Apologies because I didn't think I was going to get called on that fast. >> That's the theme today. >> So, really quickly on the uniform headcount reduction, I know this has been um talked about for most of the uh hearing, but specifically to Staten Island, how many uniform officers are ass to Staten Island today versus prior years? And will Staten Island lose um officers under the 300 um position reduction plan? No, there are no plans for Staten Island to lose any officers and we will provide the staffing numbers for Staten Island to you right after this hearing. Thank you very much. Um, so circling over to the neighborhood safety teams, uh, the department has heightened police presence in city streets and subway stations citywide and deployed precinctbased neighborhood safety teams and burrowwide community response teams. What is the current budget of the neighborhood safety teams? >> Christine, do you have the budget of that? So, the the neighborhood safety teams are part of our patrol services bureau and so unfortunately we don't have here the budgeted um or the dollar value for what that costs. Do you have anything? >> Uh we do have the number of officers however um and in and the neighborhood safety team is 356. And do you have a first CRT? >> Uh first CRT I 173. >> Thank you so much. Um what are the matrix of success in the neighborhood safety teams? This is going to go into the uh the training that you were talking about for your officers as well. >> The neighborhood safety teams go after gun violence. Chief Leetri, do you want to speak a little bit more to the noble and heroic work that NST does? >> Sure. So, we have uh NA neighborhood safety teams deployed in approximately 35 of the most violent precincts across New York City, including all eight patrol burrows that have a neighborhood safety team. Uh the police commissioner described it uh outstanding in that uh violent crime and gun violence are their uh number one uh focus and with the substantial and historic reduction in shootings last year uh obviously the success has been absolutely outstanding. Uh they are vetted extremely uh detailed. We ask for a um a threeyear at least three years of service to to the city of New York. We also ask them and really look at what they've done as the whole body of work. And I I cannot be more proud of of the neighborhood safety team on on number one the success but number two on on the integrity and the uh way they are going about their business every single day. >> Thank you. That is what we are seeing on Staten Island. Chair, may I ask one more question please? Thank you. Thank you. So, in relationship to that, um, Commissioner, you testified for the first time, officers will participate in regular focus week-long service training built around real world performance. I can't tell you how excited I am to hear that. And so, my questions are two-part. one, has the department given any thought to how this training can be mirrored in our crisis management groups throughout the city? And as part of our um neighborhood safety uh team there, what is the community engagement efforts? So, it's kind of like the same question, but um I was very much impressed with the the the training component, but I also believe that the crisis management teams that that are in um >> throughout New York City also need to understand and and maybe perhaps do you have any intentions on mirroring or at least uh educating our community safety teams on the new training aspects or have they informed them? >> Sure. You know, we're always happy to work with the crisis management system and if there is ever uh training that we can provide them that will help facilitate their work, we stand ready to do it. Our community affairs bureau really takes the lead on those um interactions. As for the week-long recurring training that we're going to do in the curriculum, um, a lot of it is going to be very specifically focused to the roles and duties of police officers. So, I'm not sure that all of it would be transferable or useful for the um, crisis management system, but Alex can walk you through what that will entail. >> Yeah. Um, so the commissioner is exactly right. The training will really be focused on a lot of the day-to-day situations that our officers find themselves in that may have been trained originally in the academy when they recruits, but then they go 10, 15 years and there's no chance for a refresher. So, you know, things like defensive tactics or deescalation, obviously compliance with the law, whether it's statutory or constitutional. So, it'll be very policing focused. So, probably not terribly applicable to to the providers in the crisis management system. Um but obviously you know there is communication with them um you know to help them understand where areas might be useful for them to deploy. So that will of course continue. >> Oh I look forward to looking um to working with you on that. Um thank you so much. And before I go I just want to give a special shout out to my sister first deputy Canella from Staten Island. Thank you all. Thank you all. >> Thank you. >> And from the Bronx too, right? >> But now she's from Staten Island. >> All right. All right. So, we have a very uh lengthy schedule and agenda today. Uh we're going to hear later today from the district attorneys, CCRB, Mach J. So, I'll move on to some new topics and then we'll do a brief second round of questions. Want to ask about general civilian positions and then talk about the Bronx in general. Um civilian positions, they obviously include school crossing guards, school safety agents, 911 operators. I want to start with the school safety agent issue. Um, even before asking questions, seems like we have a real problem with with our school safety agent headcount. I've received many videos from parents, from students, from school principles, uh, sending videos of long lines around the schools, basically students that make it 30 or 40 45 minutes late to class because they have to wait that long because there's not enough school safety agents to staff uh, the the scanning equipment. um making it 30 to 45 minutes late due to issues related to our system. Um so talk to us about that issue. Is headcount a problem? Do you need additional funding? What's the budgeted headcount? And how many was the actual headcount? >> 465 is the budgeted headcount for school safety agents, assistant school safety agents and supervisors. Excluding supervisors, the budgeted headcount is 3,915. Right now, we have 476 vacancies in the school safety agent title, which is about 12%. Last year, working with the council, we established the new assistant school safety agent title with a starting salary of just over $37,000 to attract younger candidates earlier and establish a clear promotional pathway to full school safety agent status in order to broaden and stabilize the recruitment pool. Um, we've hired over a hundred of them, which we're really pleased about. We are also currently assessing all of the SSA hiring requirements to ensure that they align with the positions and our recruitment needs. >> Okay. Um, and I know on the issue of school safety agents, there's a lot of different perspectives on it on the need. Um, you know, in that school that I mentioned specifically, I'm not going to question the need for school safety agents. That's a that's a region in the Bronx that that has had safety issues. So, if if you know principles are mentioning, I'm not going to question their uh judgment. Uh but on that topic, how do we usually decide if a school gets school safety agents? >> We deploy one to every school, at least one to every school and then um the first deputy commissioner oversees school safety. Now, that's a big organizational change we made moving it out of community affairs where it wasn't getting the attention that it uh needed and deserved. And so, the the first deputy commissioner along with the new fabulous commanding officer of the school safety division, Chief Mary King, they'll make the decision where the others which schools get multiple and how many. Um I would say one of the things that we've done is we've taken there were a huge number over a hundred school safety agents who were working purely administrative jobs meaning they weren't in schools. And so one of the things that we've done that has uh really I think meaningfully contributed to the success we've seen in terms of enforcement at schools going down um and violence at schools also going down is getting school safety agents out of administrative jobs and into the schools um as well as the renewed executive attention on it. So the budget ahead count is 4,65. There's about 12% vacancy. Do you think we need based on the conversations that you've had with your team, but also everything that you've heard from school principles and parents and etc. Do you think we need to increase the headcount on this? >> No, I is that enough? >> I would never I I should slow that down a little bit. I would never ask to increase the headcount when the department hasn't even shown an ability to achieve its budgeted headcount. I think the times to have uh conversations about increasing the school safety agent budgeted headcount is when we get much closer to the current authorized headcount. >> And what are initiatives that we have in place to increase that head? >> Um as I mentioned before, we have this new assistant school safety agent title which is really going to be for younger people and will serve as a pathway into the full SSA title. We're also doing some work with Dcast to make sure that the requirements of the title align with what is what the actual job function is? Meaning does does our does the test meet the reality and and the are the requirements um still all current? >> Is retention an issue for these school safety agents? And if yes, what are we doing on that issue? is that retention is >> um an issue for school safety agents. The monthly average attrition in that title during the fiscal year has been 37. >> And what exactly are we doing to to retain the people that we have? I mean, you have hiring initiatives, but if we're losing them and we're not gaining or we're gaining and losing, then we'll we're never going to make progress. So, what steps are we taking to hopefully >> I'm going to ask the I'm going to ask our great first deputy commissioner to answer that question since school safety reports up to her and um first step the question is about what do we do to retain as much as possible school safety agents. >> So, we try to retain them as much as possible. Um we've been working with Dcast like the police commissioner said to increase the amount exams given. So normally it's two. So now we give it to four. We given four times. >> I think the question is that the the school safety agents that are currently employed by us, how are we or what are we doing for them to retain them? Like I know we make every effort for example to place them in a school by their home. >> Yes, we place them by their homes. We also make sure that you know the the assistant school safety agents it fills in in the in the elementary schools. So that leaves a passageway for them to turn into school safety agents. So to become a assistant school safety agent, you have to be 18 years of age. So um by the time they hit 21 years of age, they can too be it's a pathway into becoming a school safety agent. Thank That's how we attempt to retain them as well. And we we we lose a get a good bit of of our school safety agents to becoming police officers as well. And we do involuntary overtime if you know need to if it's a need to basis. So that's how we help to retain them financially as well. >> All right. Same questions for 911 operators. Uh how's the headcount? What's the budgeted headcount? What's the actual headcount? >> House retention. Um, last preliminary hearing, advocates testified that there was a shortage. >> Yeah. >> Significant progress as I've mentioned in 911. I'm just looking for the actual numbers. Here we go. Um, our budget headcount for police communications technicians is 1412 and we are shy of that by about 125. Although we plan to put in a new class soon, I think in in a month or two. So we plan to hire about a hundred new Ps in June, which will get us right up to that budgeted headcount, which is fantastic. >> What's the starting salary for 911 operators? Is retention an issue? Starting salary is $45,73 and it rises to 47,222 after one year. Top pay is 61,883 which you can achieve after 3 years. We have been in conversations with the office of labor relations to try to increase the salary u during the next contract negotiation. >> All right, same question as for school crossing guards. That's one issue that I'm consistently hearing about anytime I visit a community board, members of the community saying that they've been requesting for years a school crossing guard due to traffic safety issues around their elementary school. So, just wondering um about uh staffing, what's the actual headcount, how is retention, and what are issues that we're having with um hiring. And before you answer, just want to recognize the Riverdale Country Day School who has joined us. Thank you, and welcome to the to city hall. All right. Um, we're doing well with school uh crossing guards. As of March 1st, we employ 2,123 school crossing guard level ones, which is less than 100 below our budgeted headcount uh of 2,219. And for the level twos, we are at 78, which is 12 below the budgeted headcount of 90. We're doing very nicely with school crossing guards. Okay, moving on to the questions related to the Bronx and also the new uh Bronx patrol burrow south. Uh so you mentioned there's going to be approximately 200 new police officers in the Bronx due to the division of the patrol burrow. These are going to be new hires, correct? And if yes, why new hires? Why not experienced police officers? >> No, we will do transfers into the burrows. So, no, the the 200 officers will be transferred in. They won't be straight out of the academy. >> Okay. And talk to us about crime in the Bronx. You've mentioned that, you know, not that crime is down in the Bronx, but mentioned some numbers which would signal progress, but you know, the Compstat report shows that murders up by 26% this year compared to last year. Rape is up by 12.4%, shooting victims 35.7%, shooting incidents 29.7%. Um, and of course, as I mentioned in my opening statement, public safety is a shared responsibility. Police officers cannot do it alone. But just curious, what is the plan to to help resolve this crisis, this emergency that the Bronx is clearly in? >> So, as of today, major crime in the burrow of the Bronx this year is down 10.3%. It is that burrow is leading the city in terms of the overall crime reductions. I just want to make sure that we do not lose sight of that. The other point that I want to make is beyond what is on paper, we well, let me just let me just go through the 10% reduction in the seven major crimes in the Bronx is felony assaults down 3.2%, robbery is down 10.6%, burglary down 19.2%, grand lararseny down to 12.4%, 4% and autotheft down 16.8%. Last year in the Burough of the Bronx and citywide, we saw doubledigit declines both in murders and in shootings. We saw an 18% drop in murder and a 25% decline in shootings in that burrow. The way we that was last year, >> we are three months from last year, >> right? The way we achieved those record numbers was using our violence reduction plan where we or one of the things we did which is taking hundreds of new officers out of the academy putting them on foot posts on the streets and in the locations and at the times where they are needed most specifically to address gun violence. That plan worked incredibly well this year. I also want to be clear that the Bronx as a burrow got the vast majority of the new recruits, the the the footposts, the the people that we assigned to work foot posts. It got way more than any other burrow in the city of New York. So, the resources are there. The staffing in Bronx patrol commands is up. We are doing this additional split that is going to add more focus, attention, specialty units and officers to the burrow. And Chief Leetri can add now more about what his crime fighting strategies have been to address the slight uptick that you are seeing over the past two months. So just you know the the commissioner spoke about uh the reduction in in shootings and the Bronx led the city in in reduction of shooting incidents last year. Led the city of New York with over a 100 less shooting victims. We have seen a a slight um uptick in violence in the Bronx. We attributed to uh three factors. uh some narcotics related shootings, uh some crew related shootings, and we do have a small uptick in some of our licensed and unlicensed premises. Uh we've identified 17 violence reduction zones in the Bronx, the most in any patrol burrow. We've been deploying to those zones uh since the beginning of the year. And while we're deployed to those zones, we've had one shooting in those 17 violence reduction zones. Uh we we talk about precision policing not just with field deployment. Though field deployment is the number one crime strategy for the New York City Police Department. It's also about precision investigations into crews that plague the Bronx community. And I want to give an example. Uh there is a specific crew that uh lives and um really lives within two housing developments in Melrose Jackson. Uh they were an organized younger crew and our gun violence suppression division looked at that. We analyzed that with our criminal group database and we saw that they were the most if not the most violent crew, one of the top three most violent crews in New York City. And once we arrested them and prosecuted them, we have a 40% reduction in shootings in the 40 precinct directly attributed to phenomenal gang crew takedown using precision policing data and some great investigative work. But again, it starts with field deployment. By far the Bronx gets the most field deployment and also um precision. You want to look at three commands in the Bronx right now. The 41 precinct down 25% in crime. The 43 down 22% in crime. the 44 down 18% in crime. The 46 Morris Heights section of the Bronx last year saw a 54% reduction in shooting incidents. Um it is we are laser focused to continue to drive down crime >> and not just in the Bronx. >> I would just end by saying I find it to be um an unfair characterization of the current state to say that uh major crime in the Bronx is up. In fact, it is down and it is down big and it is down bigger than any burrow. It is also the case that on last year's record-breaking shooting numbers that included over a hundred fewer shootings in the burrow of the Bronx last what's that sorry under 100 shooting victims in the burrow of the Bronx last year. Are we up slightly on it? Yes. But we are working the same playbook, doing the same things and on top of that creating a new patrol bureau and I have every confidence that we are being acting responsibly. >> Right. And and you know the numbers support some of your points, right? Robbery is down 10% and etc. And if you take all the crime categories, maybe those numbers show a specific point, but I'm specifically referring to the progress that the city has made on the issue of gun violence. Shootings are down citywide. In the Bronx, they're up 35.7%. >> We understand that in a nice >> So, it's safe to say that the progress related to shootings >> hasn't reached the Bronx. >> Last year, over a hundred fewer people shot in the burrow of the Bronx than the previous year. Last year, the single largest shooting declines were in the burrow of the Bronx. >> So, >> I'm talking about this >> year just ended. It's We have had three months this year. Let's look at the data. But I'm telling you, we are using the same playbook that we used last year, which led to recordbreaking results citywide, but particularly in the burrow of the Bronx. >> Okay. Uh so I'll conclude that topic uh on the Bronx crime, but you know, we made progress last year, but it seems like we're going backwards. >> This year is probably the second safest year for shooting incidents and shooting victims in the burrow of the Bronx ever. I will confirm that. But I don't want you to um I don't want this to be mischaracterized. We are seeing really a huge amount of progress on crime fighting generally, particularly gun violence generally citywide. >> You know, the police commission has said it, but I just want the Bronx right now leads the city of New York in overall crime reduction. Leads the city of New York. We have We understand small up we understand the small uptick in gun violence and there's >> you know New York City Police Department >> is front and center to reduce violence not just in the Bronx but in the city. >> Okay, cool. So I'll move on to the next point. But again, I get it. We've made progress in general when you consider all the crime categories, but the numbers related to shooting victims and shooting incidents and murder going up this year compared to last year, that compared to last year, those are numbers that we cannot ignore. Last year was a record break for gun violence. And I will not have the work of the members of the New York City Police Department mischaracterized. >> Okay, moving on to vehicle theft. So throughout the city, we've uh seen a drastic increase in vehicle wheel, not even vehicles, specifically their wheels. Uh there's a few pages that I follow on social media run by members of my uh community. Uh I know the precinct that I'm in, uh that's been a big target. Every single day there's new pictures of cars basically on the floor, no no wheels. And based on the pictures and the videos that I've seen, it seems like it's the same crew basically literally working 24/7. I'm making that assumption because there's been a few videos of the same exact white BMW basically removing the wheels within seconds. Uh, and it seems like this has been going on for years. Um, and I speak to members of my community, they feel basically helpless given that every single day it's five or 10 new cars. So, just wondering, I'm sure all of you know about this issue. What's being done about this? Has the has there been any investigations, any arrests? >> Of course, there have been investigations this year. Thefts of tires and rims are down 30% citywide. We auto crime works on a number of long-term cases. I will be very honest, there are not meaningful consequences for this type of crime in the city of New York unless we are able to put together long-term cases, which is what we are doing. But onesie twoosie, there are no consequences in our criminal justice system for stealing tires and rims in practice. And so, um, the police department can, no pun intended, keep spinning our wheels. But that is one thing that you should look at if you have concerns about, um, thefts of tires and rims. I >> I I just want to add, um, the Bronx this year in tire and rim theft is down 45%. 45%. So it leads again the city as far as percentage reduction on and I know the police commission alluded to it that tire and rim thefts are down 31% citywide led by the Bronx. Yes, we do have internal investigations into these crews, obviously very sensitive, and we are deployed specifically uh mainly on the midnight tours to focus on these these types of thefts along with other uh vehicular accessory thefts like air, airbags, and sensors. And I talked about it just uh before phenomenal arrest last night in in the Bronx. Though the clue went over to the Queens, we kind of were very focused on the intelligence aspect of that. We operationalized that intelligence and we ended up arresting two individuals. >> Arrested how many? You said >> two. >> Got it. Um, a few questions. These are from uh I was speaking with our wonderful Bronx board president uh last night. Uh, by the way, former uh chair of the public safety committee. She had a few questions that she want me to she wanted me to ask. Any updates on the Rodman's Neck Firing Range renovation project in the Bronx? And also number two, has the NYPD thought about creating a harbor unit for the Bronx? >> Have we thought about what? >> Creating a harbor unit for the Bronx? >> No, we have not thought about creating a harbor unit from the Bronx. And Christine, could you please answer the question on Rodman's Neck? >> Yes, on Rodman Rodman's Neck. We're commencing the work there. There's a lot of infrastructure work that needs to be done. So it'll, you know, you're not going to see new building structures for a while, but essentially we've started um and uh the phases one, two, and three, which are creating a facility, storage building, working on the underground utilities, like I said, uh and then um the utility work throughout the facility, new sewage, new electric, uh everything that's needed there, uh to do the state-of-the-art training facility. The project is on schedule and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2029. What are factors that you would consider when thinking about creating a harbor unit? My understanding is that not my district, but my understanding is that the city island section of the Bronx has issues in their waters and generally they rely on the police from Queens or the harbor unit from Queens to help resolve issues in the Bronx. So, what what are factors that would >> given that we're not considering it at this time, I want to uh provide you a follow-up answer where we can be more thoughtful about what factors we would consider, but it is not under consideration at this time. Okay. So, I'll pass it on to council member incarnion for a second round of questions and then council member Wong. >> Um, I actually So, I know the last uh round of questions I just threw in a narcotics question. So, I wanted to kind of give it some some context. I know that many of the issues that we're seeing in the Bronx um also but in East Harlem, I serve both uh Manhattan and the Bronx around 125th Street is really around drug selling. It's it's the drugs that are being sold there. Um you know, the carjackings, the thefts, the retail thefts. A lot of it is about buying drugs. And so I wanted to kind of get an idea of what the stats are in terms of, you know, I haven't heard of like big drug bust um things like that that are happening in in those communities specifically, but also just around communities that have high levels of shootings or theft. I mean the retail. >> You want to know our narcotics enforcement numbers? >> Correct. Yes. >> We can get you I mean if we probably don't have it here for your specific precincts, but we can get you follow up with our narcotics enforcement numbers across your commands. Yeah, I it was also a plug because I know that as we look at how do we >> Oh, the chief has it. >> I I don't have like specifics, but I could just tell you tell you this. Last year in in the city of New York, there was over a 20% increase in narcotics arrest with the Bronx leading the number one the number one uh burrow with over 7,500 narcotics arrests. I've had personal conversations with DA Clark and uh you know her top leadership and specifically have given them 13 uh blocks or areas within the Bronx that really are plagued by narcotics uh narcotics deals and and use and we have really seen you know a nice partnership with some of the consequences that we need to see when it comes to arresting these individuals. Great. >> Thank you for that. And then um in the the 17 violence reduction zones, how do you see those being broken up once we break up North and South Bronx? Like where do most where were most of them? >> So I would say the South would probably get uh more than the North just because of again the the the data mining and the data data analytics that goes through it also with a little bit of a historical knowledge on it. But I would say the south would have more than a north. I I also have to say that the the characterization that underserved communities are not experiencing the same crime reductions that the rest of the city are experiencing in in the opening statement. That's entirely wrong. it. The communities that have been historically plagued by gun violence are leading the crime reductions in the city of New York because that is where we are putting our field training officers and our resources on footposts to prevent the gun violence. >> And I I understand that leading in crime reduction doesn't mean that there isn't crime anymore there, right? There were very high numbers to become continues. But what I am reacting to was the chair's characterization of the fact that the the parts of the city with gun vi or with historically high levels of gun violence are not experiencing the same reductions over the past year and a half or year and three months. They certainly are leading the way. Commissioner, respectfully, I was just reciting the information on the comp stat which shows that shooting victims 35.7% increase shooting incidents over a record over a low year and I agree with you. >> I was just reciting information. I like to set records every year and I intend to do that this year including in the Burrow of the Bronx. I do not appreciate the mischaracterization of the general work of the department when you said in your opening statement that this underserved communities in this city are not experiencing the same reductions that other parts of the city are. In fact, they are leading them and they are leading them because that is where I have put this department's resources. >> Oh, no. I was just waiting to see you're good. Okay. Um I think because I think my question was around uh crossing guards we we we took care of that. Um and then the the khaki pants unit which we we also addressed as well. Um that's my word for them. I know it's not the official name. I think all of the questions that I had for the second round are were answered. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Now, Council Member Wong. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, uh, Commissioner, uh, in my district, uh, it's been years and years that there are huge problems on abandoned cars, cars with the fake plates, fake insurance stickers. People move uh, here from out of state and decide to leave their cars there because there's an industrial area and then they leave their weeks or even months. And and I want to thank the transportation bureau and the traffic agents who work in and around my district. They have been extremely responsive and they do everything they can with the resources they have. Uh my question is are there any plans in this fiscal plan to increase the headcount for traffic enforcement agents citywide and especially in Queens North? >> So on traffic enforcement agents we are not yet to our budgeted headcount and so no we are not now requesting additional uh traffic enforcement agents but I agree with you. I am very proud of the work that has been done on rotos if you look at which is really addressing abandoned and derelictked vehicles 2024 we had 25,760 2025 was 30 over 34,000 removals. >> Okay. Um please see if there's a possibility if you can increase the headcount. Um the other limitations is uh that we hear is pound space. There's only so much room to store vehicles, especially chronic illegal parkers and abandoned cars. Are any plans to expand pound capacity? Uh particular >> Yes. Um our deputy commissioner of management and budget, Christine Ryan, can answer that. >> So, we we are still unfortunately uh working with reduced space after the closure of the Manhattan Towel Pound. As you can imagine, uh real estate is very expensive in the city of Manhattan. So it has been a challenge to find a piece of real estate that fits that will work and that also uh can be done with limited fiscal resources. Uh so we have been you know towing as we can to uh Bronx Towound in the north. We take the north half of Manhattan um and uh the other and south but Queens citywide uh we do rely also on an outside vendor to help with some of our uh vehicles as as well. Uh so we we're trying to make this work. Um, but >> closing the Manhattan toe pound really put enormous strain on the entire system and I don't think that that was a well-conceived or well thoughtout decision. We should be careful before we close police facilities willy-nilly. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, my next questions regarding auxiliary officers. They volunteered their time often late at night and we knew from past tragedies that their work can put them in real danger. Um my understanding is that many auxiliaries are now operating with expired bullet uh resistant vests. Uh what is the current condition and replacement schedule for auxiliary vest and has the department requested uh funding in this financial plan to fully replace them? >> Yes, we have requested funding to replace the vest for the auxiliary officers. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, chair. No more questions. Thank you so much, Council Member Wong. Uh have some few final questions and then we'll conclude. We have a very lengthy agenda. We'll hear from our district attorneys next. I know we're a little bit behind schedule. So, a few questions on the I guess I'll start with the bomb squad. Recently, as we saw at Gracie Mansion, the surrounding area, there was a bomb threat. What is the budgeted and actual headcount for the NYPD's bomb squad? And do you have sufficient equipment for the bomb squad like the disposal robots? >> The head count for the bomb squad is 37 totaling approximately 6 million in PS costs. >> What's the other part of the question? >> Uh do you have sufficient equipment for the bomb squad? Like the >> It's funny. I'm actually meeting with I just spoke to the CEO of the bomb squad and meeting with him uh soon to go over any new requests that they have for equipment. >> At the executive budget hearing, I heard you talk about spray mace. What other equipment does an officer have access to? I saw video with officers with shields. So, patrol officers are equipped with tasers, with expandable batons, with straight batons, with OC pepper spray, and they have access to uh protective shields. >> Last year, I heard the contract for tasers was $11 million. Wanted to get an update on the cost of that contract, and also, did you transition to the Taser 7 or go beyond the newest model? >> So, the current cost for the Taser 7 is $10.7 million. That includes 10,000 devices and cartridges for all members of service. That's both training and field usage. The NYPD is currently piloting the Taser 10 with the most recent roll out for the emergency services unit. >> All right, thank you for the information. Anyone else has any other questions? All right, so I think we are concluded with the first part of this hearing. Uh thank you so much for joining today. Thank you for the testimony and thank you for for all the work you do. Queens. I have special. >> I was just making sure Hallelujah. Good. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. If you're here for the public safety preliminary hearing, you're in the right place. Sh. Keep it down, please. Let's keep it down. If you're here for the public safety preliminary hearing, you're in the right place. Uh before we start, make sure you silence all electronic devices. Please do not approach the deis at any time. If you need assistance, just get the uh attention of one of the sergeant and we'll be more than happy to assist you with whatever uh which whatever whoever you need to meet. Uh in the meantime, make yourself comfortable, please. We should be starting shortly. Please settle down. Please settle down. We're going to begin shortly. Please find your seats. Settle down, guys. Please find your seats. Thank you. And also of an update. No one approaching the deis please. No one is to approach the deis. All right. Uh, welcome district attorneys and also special narcotics prosecutor to our public safety budget hearing. It's great to see you all again. Uh, thank you for being here and also al also thank you for all the work you do. Uh, so uh, I'll provide time for all of you to make an opening statement and then we'll ask, uh, questions. But before that, I'm going to pass it briefly to the committee council uh to swear all of you in and then we'll start your with your opening statement starting with the Bronx district attorney and then we'll go from right to left. And we are joined today by uh Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon, and Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridg Brennan. >> If you could all please raise your right hands. Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before this committee and respond honestly to council member questions? Noting that all witnesses answered affirmatively, you may begin your testimony. >> Is this on? Good morning. Oh, good afternoon. Good afternoon, Public Safety Chair Oswell Feliz. Uh I don't see uh finance chair Linda Lee and all the members of the public uh safety committee. Uh, Council Member Enion, uh, Phil, uh, Phil Phil Wong, Sandy, Nurse, Camila Hanks. Thank you all for being here this morning. This is, thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you today. I am Darcel Clark, Bronx District Attorney. I've just spent 10 years of delivering justice. This year marks my 10th anniversary as Bronx District Attorney. There are many challenges to serve the 1.4 million people of the Bronx, but undoubtedly these have been the most rewarding years of my life. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the ADAs and professional staff who stood beside me over the years and modeling excellence. To each staff member, present and former, I say thank you. The Bronx is safer and a better and better because of you. You inspire me as we pursue justice with integrity together. Recently, a Daily News front page headline described the Bronx as the most deadly burrow. The article provided data showing that the Bronx has suffered half of the city's murders thus far this year. My prosecutors and NYPD work swiftly to charge defendants in 10 of those cases already. But to me, they're not just cases or stats. Every death represents a person who belong to a family, a community in the Bronx. Each person has people who love them and mourn them. From a father and hardworking Uber driver shot by a man who crashed into his car to a 16-year-old high school football player who was forced to run from shots fired near a McDonald's to a unsuspecting 19-year-old man shot randomly while walking down the street at 2:00 in the afternoon. Behind each violent incident, there's an underlying truth. The burrow in dire need of help receives the least resources. My testimony today echoes my pleas before the city council two years ago. The neighborhoods suffering from high rates of poverty and crime remain the same as when I was a child. The tragic difference today is that more of our youth have access to guns, creating a spike in youth violence. The Bronx has 20% of the city's youth population, 30% of youth gun arrests, and nearly half of the youth arrested for shootings. Here's the sad fact. More than a third of the city's youth shooting victims are in the Bronx. Too many kids are losing their future to the barrel of a gun. My burrow needs resources that will encourage our young people to seize an opportunity over picking up a gun. Opportunities improve chances to improve employment, access to education, pathways to housing, and open doors to mental health and substance abuse services. addressing the underlying conditions that lead to crime. These resources are not optional. They are necessities, tangible investments that will bolster our community and provide hope. They are concrete solutions for reducing crime and improving our community. And when the Bronx succeeds, the city succeeds. My office is doing our part. We held several re-entry and employment fairs throughout the year with a focus on neighborhoods where many formerly incarcerated people reside. Each event leaves me more inspired. At one fair, I was approached by a man who was recently parrolled. He was there getting an ID, trying on a donated suit to wear to a job interview, and speaking with potential employers. He said to me, "I can't believe that you're doing this." And he kept saying that to me, and he said, "Thank you." This is a small example of how my office intentionally serves the people of the Bronx who need more. Given the community needs, our budget requests focus on therapy for crime victims, revitalizing youth justice, holistic engagement for families in violent neighborhoods, alternatives to prosecution and incarceration and detention, and continued support for a South Branch community justice center. The NYPD sub submitted 52,211 arrests in the Bronx to the Bronx District Attorney's Office in 2025, a 9% increase from 2024 and a 22% increase since 2019. In 2025, our Crime Victims Assistance Bureau delivered free support services to 8,774 new and existing clients. 493 of them were children. CVAB provided nearly 55,000 direct assistance services and referrals to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, and elder abuse. Our trauma therapists provided 22,000 sessions to 230 new clients and 74 pre-existing clients. They provided trauma therapy to 60 children. We provide all of these services without cost regardless of whether there is an active criminal case. I stand with victims of crimes and their families. I stood with the parents of Nicholas Dominichi, the toddler killed by exposure to fentinol in a home daycare center that was a front for a narcotics operation. fulfilling my promise that the operators of the daycare would face justice in the Bronx for their beautiful son's murder. And on March 4th, I stood with them as the defendants were sentenced to 25 years to life. CVAB advocates and therapists were there, too, and will be with them for as long as they need them. Unfortunately, CVAB has a shortage of therapists. To bridge this gap in service, we're asking for $2.2 million in fiscal year 2027 and $2.1 million in baseline funding to hire more therapists. When considering our youth, I note that we raised the age, but now we must lift a generation by revitalizing the youth justice system to stem the loss of our young people to gun violence, death, and prison. I established a youth justice bureau with ADAs and professional staff all of whom have been trained on adolescent development programming alternative dispositions that are available to hold youth accountable when appropriate. During its first year, the Youth Justice Bureau screened all juvenile and adolescent matters through a youth justice lens and strengthen relationships with the courts, law enforcement, community partners, and service providers. When staffing is complete, the bureau's prosecutors will handle all cases involving youth defendants. This bureau is vi is is piloting an initiative called the justice innovation for Bronx youth or jiby as we call it. The goal of this program is to serve high-risk youth with partners providing clinical screenings, case management services and an assessment tool and training, mental health and substance use services, credible messengers and spiritual guidance. The JIBY pilot is funded in part by a federal grant of $650,000 over three years. To receive these funds, our office must match the funding received over three years. I'm asking the city to provide $600,000 to cover the total cost of this pilot. Upon its success, it will serve as a template for expansion. In January, I held a youth justice stakeholders convening to increase cross agency and cross sector partnerships and identify practical strategies for prevention intervention diversion and re-entry support. Our shared goal is to build a more equitable, effective youth justice system in New York City. There was a consensus among the 40 plus participants that the should the city should seek further resources. I am informed I informed the stakeholders that since raise the age law was passed and funded as part of the state budget in 2017, the city has been excluded from receiving state funds. I'm pleased to report that the assembly will include a new proposal to make New York City eligible to receive state funding to support expenses for raise the age. And the Senate has a bill to carve out $50 million to establish the youth justice innovation fund. Another resource my office developed is called Bronx Restore, a prevention and engagement program for 30 high-risk individuals in the St. Mary's Park area and form area which have high rates of gun violence and other violent offenses. The state invested three million in this public health approach to the root causes of violence. Community-based partners provide a stipen for participants who partake in trauma therapy, job readiness, financial literacy, conflict resolution, restorative justice, internship opportunities, mentorship, and case management. For years, I have been advocating for a South Bronx community justice center. The mayor's office and the city council each allocated a million dollars in operating costs for the cityowned site at 630 Jackson Avenue at the nexus of man M haven Melrose and Marisa and I have to tell you I'm deeply appreciative of that. However, there are significant additional costs in capital expenses. I ask that the city make the South Bronx Community Justice Center a priority now by committing to baseline operational costs and funding capital expenses for renovations, upgrades, and repairs of the site. Every other burrow has at least one justice center. The Bronx is long overdue to have its own. In closing, I'm here today proud of my exceptional staff and advocating for the 1.4 million people of the Bronx. Their admirable persistence, resilience, fortitude, and optimism, in a word, their grit, represents the best of this great city. When the Bronx succeeds, again, the city succeeds. The Bronx is not only where I serve. It's the place that I've always called home. For me, this is personal. I speak from my heart and I hope that you will take it to heart. Thank you very much for your time. >> Good afternoon. Uh certainly a hard act to follow. It's been my privilege and honor to serve 10 those 10 years alongside DA Clark as District Attorney of Staten Island. Good afternoon. My name is Michael McMahon and I'm also honored to sit here with my other colleagues uh who represent the best in prosecution uh not only in our city but in our country. Um some of us are also uh alumni of alumni of this august body. Uh and it's always a pleasure to come home if you will. Uh, and I thank you, Chairman Feliz, uh, and minority whip, majority whip, uh, Camila Hanks, uh, from the great burrow of Staten Island, uh, Council Member and Carion, uh, Council Member Nurse, and, uh, Council Member Wong. Thank you for your attention, uh, to our testimony today and our giving us the opportunity to discuss with you uh, these very important issues. As Staten Island's chief law enforcement officer, I am incredibly proud of all the work we have done in my office together with our partners in the NYPD, neighboring law enforcement agencies, and all of our partners who call our beloved Staten Island home to make our burrow a safer place. While there remains much work to be done, everybody here today should be encouraged by the record low crime numbers reported on Staten Island last year. Violent crime, particularly homicides and shootings, reached historic lows in our burrow in 2025. For the third straight year, Staten Island recorded doubledigit decreases in stolen vehicles. Catalytic converter thefts were down over 90% in 2025. And as I stand here or sit here before you today, incidents of retail theft are down almost 50% on Staten Island. Additionally, we also saw encouraging progress in our fight against the opioid and overdose epidemic with Staten Island recording a 49% decrease in opioid overdose deaths, the largest decrease in all of New York City. And while Staten Island proudly remains the safest community of 500,000 residents in the country, now is not the time for us or anyone else to take a victory lap. We know that domestic violence, youth crime, and the omniresence of scams remain massive public safety issue issues for Staten Islanders and their families. And we are committed with your help to doing everything in our power to turn the tide and help restore both public safety and peace of mind back to our beloved burrow. However, in order to do that, we need the administration and this council's help. During my testimony before you last year and the year before that, I warned the council that Staten Island was facing a dire shortage of uniform police officers and detectives in our burrow. Despite our persistent pleas, Staten Island has 20% fewer cops patrolling our shores now than we did 5 years ago, and fewer cops deployed on Staten Island than there were in 1968 when our population was half the size it is today. Our burough and New York City as a whole needs the uniform personnel and staffing necessary to prevent, deter, and properly investigate crime. Now is not the time to roll back the gains that have been made. A persistent but underrated significant driver of crime on Staten Island and one where we as a city must dedicate more resources to combating is domestic violence. a terrible reality that impacts far too many families and we know goes widely under reportported on Staten Island. Domestic violence helped to drive a significant increase, more than 25% in incidents of rape last year, as well as the majority of felony assaults committed in our burrow. As it stands now, domestic violence accounts for nearly a quarter of all index crimes committed on Staten Island. And while we think while we thank this body for supporting the creation of our intimate partner sexual violence unit, we once again ask that our city council members support the life-saving work of our domestic violence bureau and victim services unit and with and continue the dove uh funding allocations. While there are many pressing public issues ch uh safety challenges, none are more important right now as the alarming increase in youth crime and the harmful impact of New York State's raise the age laws. Raise the age reforms began with the laudable goal of minimizing the exposure of 16 and 17 year olds to the adult criminal justice system. Half a decade later, however, our communities have seen the flaws in this approach that was adopted. All too frequently, adolescent offenders face little to no consequences for serious crimes, including the majority of gun crimes and the most violent assaults. Furthermore, courts and prosecutors are forced to disregard patterns of violence and recidivism, and victims lose access to justice when cases are rerouted to the family court system. Unfortunately, the numbers support this growing concern. Overall, youth arrests were up 44% on Staten Island last year with felony youth arrests increasing by nearly 40 54%. Even more concerning, as of this month, 12% of New York City's shooting victims are between the ages of 10 and 17. 21% of shooting perpetrators fall within that same group, age group. Over a quarter of all gun arrests on Staten Island last year involved individuals under the age of 20. Numbers on paper can feel abstract, but in the real world, numbers are not statistics. They are lives. Arrests are up, victims are up. How can anyone say that the law is working as intended and doesn't need to be tweaked? It is for these reasons and and more that my office remains dedicated to addressing the underlying conditions of crime while encouraging supportive programming that builds families and our youth up. Thanks to vital funding allocated by this body, RCDA has partnered with the Center for Justice Innovation to engage and support at risk youth impacted by the criminal justice system. With $635,000 coming from RCDA and an additional $125,000 coming from the city council discretionary funding, CJI maintains a wide variety of youth programming including restorative and peer facilitated diversion programming, leadership development, violence prevention and community healing, placemaking, and so much more. Once a young person ends up in family court or before us in the youth part of criminal court, they have likely experienced so much trauma and missed countless opportunities for intervention. That is why programming like that being offered by CJI and their partner organizations is so critically important because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of prosecution, particularly in the case of our kids. I am equally proud to share that my office utilizes close to 40 different diversion programs from a variety of different providers, ensuring that nearly 40% of all arrestes on Staten Island are offered some sort of an alternative to incarceration. However, for far too long, Richmond County District Attorney's Office has done this critical work with one arm tied behind our backs. Staten Island remains without a community justice center. And while we graciously received $5 million in capital funding uh two years ago at the request of Council Member Hanks, capital funding is desperately needed to correct this in inequity and bring this dream to fruition. As my office continues to work tirelessly to combat these challenges, our success depends entirely on us working together to make our city as safe as possible. We have remained vigilant and consistent in our dedication to the rule of law, to the protection of victims of crime, as well as the rights of the accused, and the overall improvement of public safety on Staten Island. But I must reiterate in the strongest possible terms. As always, we need your help. With that said, I will focus the remainder of my testimony on highlighting our greatest challenges as well as our priority budget needs for fiscal 2027 uh with fuller uh explanation of them in the written testimony that we submitted. First and foremost, as I mentioned, Staten Island is the only burrow without a physical community justice center. We have a uh an old courthouse identified as a site. uh it needs a capital uh uh uh ingestion of u infusion of money and with that we could give Staten Islanders the same uh advantages uh to uh uh getting out of the criminal justice system that others have in the rest of the city and we request your help for that. Um second, uh we would request the addition of three felony uh assistant district attorneys to the domestic violence bureau. Um right now we created for the first time a freestanding domestic violence bureau in Staten Island. Uh we continue to focus on that issue. It is a major one for us and we need the personnel and the people trained to deal with victim centric prosecutions. Uh and with your help we can make that a reality. We would like your help in expanding the workload of our juvenile justice unit uh by giving us uh the uh funding to hire the personnel necessary to deal with the youth crimes that both myself and DA Clark have already uh outlined and what a what a challenge they are for us. Uh fourth, um the issue of cyber security and scams is real. I'm sure your constituents are telling you about all the fishing email and and and and texts that they get and how they are victims of that. And we would like to train and have in each one of our felony bureaus someone who is trained in the area of cyber crimes. So whether it's around a domestic violence crime or a traditional grand lararseny uh that we would be able to uh investigate and prosecute those cases. Um as we all know uh mental health is a major uh crisis in the city of New York and our country. Uh and so we have a request uh for uh hiring experts uh in the mental health substance use disorder and alternative to incarceration unit so that we can uh better provide people who are in in mental health distress uh and to try to keep them out of uh jail or prison. And then lastly, um I believe we're the only I like we like to say that on Staten Island, we're the only ones who don't have a general counsel in the office and as our office has grown in size and importance uh in the issues that it deals with uh we would like your help uh to have the funding to hire a general counsel uh so that the men and women in our office and issues of employment uh have the same rights and protections that uh other city employees have and that we can provide uh continue to work to strive to uh the type of office that the people of Staten Island deserve. I want to thank you for your time, attention, and consideration of my testimony. It would be my pleasure at the end to answer any questions, and we look forward to our continued partnership with the New York City Council, in particular, Council Member Hanks and uh Carr and Morirano, uh our representatives striving to make Staten Island uh the best place that it can be and the safest and strongest community that it possibly can be. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, uh, Chair Oswald Feliz, uh, to all the members of the committee, and of course to Council Member Sandy Nurse, as I am her constituent. Um, it's good to see all of you here today. Uh, it's an honor to join my colleagues and I appreciate the opportunity to share in the progress we've made in Brooklyn improving safety and fairness and I ask the city council for your continued support. I'm happy to report that last year was a record year in Brooklyn. In 2025, Brooklyn set a new standard in safety with the lowest number of homicides and the the lowest number of shootings since the NYPD began keeping these statistics. That momentum has continued so far this year. Homicides are down an additional 64% from last year's historic lows and shootings are down approximately 15%. As someone who grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City in East New York in the 80s and 90s, this transformation is truly incredible. I'm grateful for the hard work of my staff and our partners in the NYPD and of course the many community leaders and partners who show up every day in the county to do the hard work. But while we're setting new standards uh for safety, the Brooklyn DA's office remains hampered by a structural funding inequity rooted in the cost of our rented commercial office space. We remain the only district attorney's office without uh space in any municipal buildings. Uh Brooklyn prosecutes the highest case volume in the city by far. Last year it was approximately 80,000 cases, 79,000 in change. We're up 5% this year, looking like we'll be over 80,000 uh this year. We also serve the largest population, one of the most diverse populations, and we handle thousands more felonies than any other burrow, including thousands of more violent felony offenses. But because Brooklyn has such a large part of our budget consumed by rent, what's left over to actually do our work is severely compressed. When you adjust for the cost of our office space, our peer offices, some have up to 51% more funding per arrest than Brooklyn. I'll say that again. 51% more per arrest than Brooklyn. The disparities are also, if you look at by resident, uh, and they're even more stark. Uh, two of the offices have 80% more funding than Brooklyn per resident served after accounting for rent. Now, my point is not that any of my colleagues here deserve any less money to continue to do the their important work. My point is that Brooklyn is in unique uh need uh to catch up. When our prosecutors are stretched too thin, they have less time to evaluate each case. They have less time to engage victims and witnesses and they have less time for diversion and restorative justice approaches. I'm asking the council to address the structural inequity. And it is within that context that I ask for your support uh for these requests this year. First, we're seeking dedicated funding to combat hate crimes. Something I was grateful to discuss with Speaker Menon earlier this month. Brooklyn typically sees among the most hate crimes in the city and our numbers remain up um year after year. In fact, we're up 137% in hate crimes in the past 5 years. When I established a hate crimes uh bureau in 2018, the first in the city, uh we didn't receive any funding for it. We simply diverted resources from other parts of our office. Um but because hate crimes have more than doubled since 2018, we need dedicated funding to properly meet this challenge. Um, of course, uh, you know, much of this hate crimes in Brooklyn, more than 50% of those hate crimes are anti-Semitic hate crimes, and it's an increasing, uh, number of cases, uh, each year. We're also asking for support for our diversion and restorative justice program. These approaches, I think, uh, you know, most of the co my colleagues here agree, help to produce low lower recidivism and higher victim satisfaction. But handling cases with individualized attention uh requires labor intensive work. I know many members of the council at large have expressed interest in restorative justice work in particular and I hope you'll support the investments needed to embed restorative justice into the culture of our office. Our budget request this year also includes funding to create a housing justice bureau to protect seniors and others from deed fraud and predatory scams. These crimes can force victims from their homes and rob families of generational wealth. Um much of Brooklyn is ground zero for these cases, especially central Brooklyn. Members of our Brooklyn delegation have raised this issue directly with me because of the impact on vulnerable con constituents and we need your support for a comprehensive reproach that would include prevention through education, harm mitigation using appropriate civil uh tools and prosecution as appropriate. But this bureau would also do more than uh simply prosecute people uh in that thing. It would do some of the work that we really need to see in this uh city. Holding uh unscrupulous landlords accountable during illegal uh shut offs, lockouts, and other harassing practices that rise to the level of criminality. Many of you have read the stories in the paper where uh someone will claim there's a leak and they come back into their apartment and the landlord had entered the apartment when they weren't home and removed their kitchen, their bathroom, uh making the apartment uninhabitable. Um and I know many of you also care about animals as do as I do. Uh but due to the compression in our budget, we've been unable to establish an animal crimes unit. These cases are often heartbreaking and they require careful coordination with the NYPD and the ASPCA and extra attention to the evidence, which is usually a living animal. We're asking for funding to create a dedicated unit to ensure these cases receive the attention they deserve. We're also asking for critical investments in information technology. Our IT staff is less than half the size of other offices. Yet, we manage a higher case load and we add terabytes of new digital evidence every single day. We cannot handle this growing volume efficiently or safeguard our cyber threats. Uh without this investment, um it's critical. And just to put some additional um emphasis on it, because we have thousands more cases, we we take our digital needs are even higher and they're growing. Um, just on body cams alone, you know, a terabyte uh is literally well over a 100red iPhones a day. That's how much volume we're being asked to store a day. And we have to store that often for 25 years or more. And finally, we're asking for funding to continue and expand Project Restore. This is the program that the city council has funded for the last uh few years and I want to say thank you. This program gives young people caught in cycles of gang violence a real off-ramp. It's counseling and job skills, life skills, and restorative justice that saves and transforms lives. I think it's a big part of the reason why Brooklyn has seen a tremendous reduction in shootings and homicides. Uh especially in the area where these uh these programs work. We've seen that those areas have seen tremendous declines in shootings. It was launched in Bedstey. Gun violence has gone down there. Um and we're bringing this model finally uh to Brownsville. I'd like the city council to understand that when Columbia University reviewed our program um and the great success that it had in transforming lives, it also noted that for every dollar invested into the program. Uh the city saved $6.70 in incarceration uh and emergency cost. So, it's not just a proven public safety approach that's in Brooklyn and now coming to the Bronx. It's also sound fiscal policy. Our work in Brooklyn has also proven that we can lead with safety and fairness. Um, even with the limited resources that we have, but the structural compression of our budget is imperiling that continued progress. So, I ask for your support to deal with some of this. I've testified about the structural inequity in our budget before. Uh I am grateful to the city council for the funding that you did give me last year, especially for Project Restore and some other programs dealing with uh domestic violence and youth violence. Uh I grew up in a different Brooklyn uh than the one that we have today, but I'm looking forward to make sure that we can continue that success. Thank you. >> Good afternoon. My name is Melinda Katz. I am the Queen's District Attorney. I want to uh thank you for welcoming us back. I was a council member for a lot of years with Michael McMahon. Always nice to be back in the house. I want to congratulate uh our chairman uh chairman Philis and uh thank my council member from Queens uh Phil Wong for being here and all the other council members. I know there's a lot to do as council members and we appreciate that you have stayed to hear us and our needs and what we hope that we have accomplished uh as district attorneys of our counties. Um so Queens County is also a very busy county. Uh and what's interesting is those that are members of Queens know that historically we have been underfunded in a lot of the issues. It's not just criminal justice. A lot of it's cultural affairs. A lot of it's different um uh subjects that have come up through the years. We had the same fights when I was on the budget negotiations committee uh 15 years ago. Uh and we continue to have those arguments um about Queens. Uh my stats in my office, uh we have handled 60,000 arrests in 2025. We arranged 45,000 cases. We resolved 44,000 cases. and we assisted nearly 5,000 victims uh through our crime victims advocacy. Um while shooting incidents were down 24% uh overall in the city, Queens County saw a decrease of 25%. And while the number of shooting victims citywide decrease 22%, we saw a decrease in 25%. Interestingly enough, in my office, we also have ADAs that go to almost every crime scene um that is a violent crime scene or a homicide or vehicular uh crime scene. Um in 25 we visited 159 homicide crime scenes and 74 vehicular collision cases. So we do that on a daily basis. It helps when we have ADAs at the scene. It helps the police do the investigation. It helps with our warrants. It helps know the case from the very beginning. Uh and we have found that to be priceless. Uh in our office, um we are asking for an additional $12.5 million, but I'm going to get into that in a second if I can. I would like to go over some of the uh the ways that we have utilized our budget. Um first of all, in the bro of Queens County, we get less per person in almost everything in New York City, right? So we get on the average about $40 less a resident than any other burrow on the average. We get less per arrest. We get less per arraignment. Uh and it has been historical. But I have no no doubt that this council and will try to um help with our inequities and we would appreciate um that. But despite all that, we have a crime strategies. So we have made getting guns off the street a main priority in Queens County. Our crime strategies and intelligence bureau continues to lead uh against the fight of ghost guns. Uh we took 38% of the ghost guns off the street uh last year or the year before uh and continued it in 25 uh 38% of them in the whole city of New York came out of Queens that we got off of the street. We also work to make sure that the gangs are investigated and uh and dealt with um in a way that helps our young people not be determined to to think that gangs are their chosen family. We don't accept that in Queens County. We don't accept that hopefully in the city of New York. We have a violent criminal enterprise bureau that started under my administration. Um, we have taken uh many investigations and moved them to uh make sure that we're not only arresting and getting off the street the gangs, but also working to make sure that any young person that got caught up in it is also getting the help they need to stay out of the criminal justice system, which is why we developed the gun diversion program a few years ago in Queens. Uh the participants in the gun diversion program, which is very heavily vetted, by the way, uh make sure that they have a year where they're going to school or they're working, but also that the rest of their time is taken care of as well with services. We work with the Fortune Society on that. We have found it to be extremely successful in making sure that people graduate from there and don't end up back in our system. We've also participated in 12 gun buybacks. So we can pro we can't prosecute our way out of problems. We also need to do gun buybacks. Uh we've gotten 700 guns off the street through a gun buyback and uh we are proud of that. That means 700 guns that are not shooting anyone that are not in the hands of people that are going to utilize them in the community. And so we work closely with the churches and the community on those programs um as well. Retail theft is a huge issue in Queens County. We all know the feeling standing online waiting to pay your bills. Someone walks in, takes a knack, and walks out with a bunch of items. We use our investigations department to investigate long-term uh thefts. Last one which we arrest we we went investigated and managed to uh work and get a Home Depot uh group of individuals that were going uh state to state. Nine different states, 128 Home Depots uh 26, you know, 22 over 2,000 um places or items that they went in or incidents that they went in and stole items from a Home Depot from. And we think it's really important because that really says a lot to the community. You know, we can all tell you the gun numbers are down. We can all tell you that shootings are down, but when you're standing in line at that uh store and you see someone walking out with items, to you it tends to be 100% because you're seeing it right in front of you. At the same time, uh we do have a Bureau of Housing and Worker Protection and um we've spent a lot of resources on deed theft. Uh de theft is um has become a major issue in Queens County in addition to squatters. Uh and you know, we managed to get people's homes back. The legislature passed a law about two years ago that allows us to get homes back to third party third parties who have bought homes that they were not able to buy and people that sold them had them illegally. So we work um quite often in making sure that we get people's homes back, you know, homes that they've worked for for generations sometimes and we make sure that we get them back. At the same time, we spend a lot of our resources on the community. We go into the community. We go to the community boards. We go to precinct councils so that people feel comfortable referring their cases to us. So that there is a knowledge of law enforcement that we put a face to law enforcement force that we gain hopefully trust and cooperation from our witnesses and from our victims. Um and I believe that's a very important part of what our office does. But that and we also send people into our schools and we don't just send them into junior high schools and high schools. We also send them into elementary schools so that they also put a face on someone that is not an attorney who cares deeply that our youth does not end up in the criminal justice system. And I do have a youth empowerment group that does that uh every single day and that's all they do is work to make sure that our young people don't end up in the criminal justice system. Uh and it has been quite successful. The schools seem to like it. the community groups, have them speak at their organizations and the youth then feel comfortable going to the people we have in the community uh and asking for help and their parents or guardians feel comfortable as well approaching us. But all of this is done with less money per individual per resident per arrest uh in the city. So I am requesting uh money not only for um helping out because we also have that issue where we pay rent. We are actually 900 950 people in five locations. Some of which we pay rent to, some of which we don't. Um and so we spend a lot of money on that as well. But the money that we do need um extra is going to fund the rehabilitation and restoration services bureau, our crime victims advocacy interpreter staff. We need more interpreter staff. We need people more people that speak different languages. We are 190 countries and almost 300 languages in the bureau of Queens County. I need to be able to service my witnesses and my victims when they come in for help and the defendants when they come in for help to make sure that people understand and that there's someone that is accessible on those services. um for for human trafficking. We also have a bureau of human trafficking which uh has been unbelievable in researching those individuals that are forced not only into sex trafficking but into labor trafficking as well, forced to work uh forced without pay being pay being held, passports being held. So we want to expand those services as well. The details of our funding application is in um my testimony that we have handed to you. Um I can only say that we try to do justice uh at every level with any amount of money we have. It would certainly be a better thing for our office if we were able to spend the money not only on prosecution but also on making sure we keep people out of the criminal justice system. I do believe that we are owed we owe our constituents that as a balance. Uh I thank the council for our funding for last year for we got money for a crime lab which will be unbelievably helpful in making sure that we're able to download phones and computers and we can do it right on site. Uh and so thank you for being so responsive to that request and I look forward to working with you this year as well. Thank you. >> Good afternoon chair and members of the committee. Malvin Bragg, the district attorney for New York County. Um, unlike uh DA's Cats McMahon, I was not a member, but I was a staffer. So, I also want to thank not just the members, but the incredible staff here uh at the council. Uh, I'll start with just data about Manhattan, as my colleagues have. Uh, and it's encouraging. There's more work to do. Uh but in 2025, total index crime in Manhattan was down 4% from 2024 and down 13% from 2022. Uh which outpaces the citywide uh decreases. Uh the data on um violent crime is particularly encouraging. Uh homicides are down almost 50% compared to four years ago. Uh last year the 53 homicides reported in Manhattan were 22 fewer than in 2024 and on par with uh prepandemic levels. We're encouraged thus far to see that trend continuing this year uh with three homicides in the burrow uh as of March 15th compared to nine. Uh the data on shootings uh is very encouraging. Uh almost a 70% decrease in shootings in Manhattan uh since 2021. the last four years. Uh shooting incidents were down 38% in 2025 compared to 2024. Uh and notably, uh if you compare it to the pre- pandemic levels, we're down 25% in shootings compared to the prepandemic levels of 2019. Um District Attorney Gonzalez mentioned uh East New York, and I often compare notes. I grew up in central Harlem, which uh historically uh is the the part of the borrow with the most uh violence. I still live there. we see the benefits of of this progress uh but we have a lot more work to do. I wanted to highlight three areas of our work and then and then specifically highlight some of the asks uh in in the written testimony. Uh the first is hate crimes uh and it comes with a very big thank you uh which is a recurring theme uh from Manhattan to this council. Uh a few years ago we requested and were given $1.7 million by the council to expand our hate crimes unit. We went from two to 15 specially trained prosecutors. Uh we hired new investigators and new analysts. We expanded our community outreach. Um the the funding that you provided to us uh has helped our our survivor services bureau hire and retain victim service advocates uh with cultural competency to assist the Jewish AAPI Muslim and LGBTQ communities. We're profoundly um grateful uh for that money and that funding to do the work. Um, we're encouraged uh that Manhattan reported hate crimes were down 30% in 2025 compared to 2024. We know it's an under reportported crime. We will continue to do the outreach uh and continue to support, but I wanted to thank the council and report back on what what we've been doing with the funding you provided. Second, retail theft. Uh again, the numbers are heading in the right direction in Manhattan, but there's more work to do. Retail theft complaints were down 11% in 2025 compared to 2024. Um this uh is in part due to the work that of our Manhattan Small Business Alliance. We've brought together small business owners, bids, law enforcement, and service providers to target our efforts. Uh we've zeroed in on those who are doing this conduct over and over with a focused deterrent strategy. Uh, and in 2025, we prosecuted 6,700 m misdemeanor retail cases and another 1,800 felony retail cases. Uh, we're getting people in meaningful treatment for drug and mental health issues through our Pathways to Public Safety Division when appropriate. Um, and where appropriate, we're seeking incarceration. In addition to sort of this day in day out work, we're also following the money. Um, DA Katz talked about work she's doing in Queens. Um, similarly in Manhattan, we're actually scheduled to go to trial uh shortly uh this year on a case against brother and sister tandem that were we allege uh operating a a fencing operation uh with approximately $1 million in stolen goods. So that complements our approach uh to retail theft. Um, third, uh, kind of worker intent of protection. Uh, and and again, this comes with a very, very big thank you, uh, funding from the council. Um, helped us start our worker protection unit, uh, and helps us to continue to stand up for hardworking New Yorkers and hold accountable companies, uh, that are lining their pockets at the expense of employees. So, just to report back, um, in 2025, indictments resulted in nearly $600,000 being returned to 22 workers from unscrupulous employers. Uh, we're also able to return over $1.4 million to the New York State Insurance Fund through uh, eight cases prosecuting companies that defrauded the fund by failing to pay proper workers compensation insurance premiums. Um, we all know about the affordable housing crisis uh in in in the city and in Manhattan and our tenant protection unit has been focusing on criminal misconduct uh by landlords. Uh the cases we brought include charges for abusing governmental affordable housing programs like 421A tenant harassment uh deed fraud uh and rental scams. uh just by we have one example we indicted and are prosecuting uh Daniel Oep Shalam uh and his companies for multiple counts of harassment of rent regulated tenant in the first degree and we'll continue this important work uh with your support. Uh now I just I want to want to sort of just raise up from the written testimony um three specific um asks. Uh one relates to our domestic violence work and our special victims division. Uh as I think we all know domestic violence is among the most common among one of the most common crimes in New York City and the nation. Uh yet uh it is still under reportported. Uh when I took office I created the special victims division uh which houses our intimate partner and special violence bureau. Uh and again I want to thank the council uh for providing funding for our survivor services bureau. That work is so essential uh to all that we do but in particular our domestic violence and intimate partner violence work. Uh just to put some numbers on this, in New York City, domestic violence comprises about 40% of all felony crimes. Uh as of March 12th of this year in Manhattan, we have more than 1,600 intimate partner violence cases pending, including about 500 felony intimate partner violence cases. Uh and again, we know there's under reporting in this area. Uh we know that there's a lot more to do in terms of outreach. One strategy that we've piloted and we would like additional funding to expand uh is uh our early engagement team. Uh we've uh identifi we are identifying lower level intimate partner violence offenses that could signal a high risk of escalation to more serious violence and then responding to these high-risisk situations uh with urgency and appropriate resources uh including a team of prosecutors, analysts, investigators, uh and victim advocates working closely with the NYPD to review domestic incident reports before uh there's even an arrest. uh that team works to connect uh with survivors and provide support support and resources uh and at the same time we are investigating along the NY side the NYPD uh we've piloted we'd like to expand it we need additional resources uh for our special victims division to support that work so that's uh one additional ask second uh relates to uh mental health and the work of our pathways division which has been focused uh on this I mean I think we we all know the the brokenness of our mental health system. If you go to I think probably any of our criminal courts, but I'll speak for Manhattan, you'll see that uh on full display. Uh I'm proud to continue noting the success of our Pathways to Public Safety Division, which again um this council has helped support. Those prosecutors are proactively screening all of our street crime uh cases uh felony cases with within 45 48 hours of arraignment and reviewing thousands of misdemeanor cases each year. uh cases con considered uh are reviewed individually and holistically uh in conjunction with independent clinical records. Uh with the creation of the division, uh my office has more than doubled felony problem solving court referrals. Uh close to a quarter of our indicted felony defendants in Manhattan uh awaiting a felony disposition are on track to take a plea in one of the four felony problem solving courts. uh and our record of success is clear uh based on encouraging data to date uh shows uh lower recidivism rates uh than we compared with other approaches uh and it's making Manhattan safer and while uh it so we we request more money to sort of continue to expand that work for ourselves uh and then while it's not particularly a funding request for for us um we can't do this work without the support of the ecosystem so uh we are also uh would would love to see ATI programming being funded uh that would not be funds to our offices but to the service providers in the space because uh without without them we can't do the work. Uh the third and final request that I would mention um is a is two programs which we call the navigator programs in our office. Um one is a $6 million project um that we funded through our asset forfeite funds. Uh our partners the bridge social service outreach program. Uh these neighborhood navigators are currently operating in several high needs across Manhattan. They go out, they cross the street on a cold day like today and engage with people whom, you know, many of us would cross the street away from. They build rapport. Um many of them themselves have been unhoused or justice involved and they're connecting with people uh and and ultimately um doing things like connecting them to housing. And so we again have seen that work. Um we funded that out of our forfeiture funds. We would love a when I say we need uh funding from the city to continue that important work which helps keeps us safe. In the same vein uh and lastly we invested $3 million in a similar initiative uh the court-based navigators program uh which we've done in partnership with the Fortune Society. $3 million from our forfeite funds funding the Fortune Society which I think we all know uh the work they do. uh these these navigators again folks with lived experience stand in the back of the courtroom and they ask us a simple question when people leave armis what do you need sometimes that's food um sometimes it's other forms of connections um and sometimes it's housing and they literally have a car parked right in front of our office can take you straight from arraignment uh to uh to wraparound housing uh under fortune's uh support of I um again that's something that we funded out of our budget $3 million out of our forfeite funds, I should say. Uh, and we think it's something that should be, um, you know, scaled up and continued and indeed, uh, is vital for the continued public safety of Manhattan. So, um, I'll leave it there and refer you to my written testament. Thank you so much for your time and for all of your support and look forward to continue support. Thank you so much. >> Good afternoon. Thank you all very much. It's so nice to see you again, Chair Feliz, and it's uh really encouraging to see so many of the city council members here today. Uh I'm Bridget Brennan, and I'm the New York City special narcotics prosecutor. Uh I I do and have for many years respected the work of this council. I know when I meet with you how much you care about your constituents and how wellversed you are in the problems of your uh areas and I will tell you that our door is always open to you. If you have special concerns that you would like to discuss, please reach out. We're always happy to talk and try to figure out a solution. Now, what I'd like to do today is discuss uh general issues about our office and then end with some specific asks. The office has been a leader in citywide efforts to confront the deadly opioid epidemic for more than 50 years and we are recognized nationwide for our expertise. We were also one of the first offices uh in the city to embrace alternative to incarceration programs. And you'll see that's one area where I'm looking for expansion back about in the late 1980s and 90s. Brooklyn was leading the way in that area and we were right alongside them. Here's some quick information about my office for those of you uh those of you who may not be very familiar with it. We prosecute felony narcotics crimes and related crimes throughout all five bureaus. We were established more than 50 years ago and we focus on fentinyl, cocaine, heroin, and similar lethal drugs as well as the crimes committed in conjunction with the possession and distribution of those drugs. We work with the NYPD, the DEA, we work with uh other state agencies. New York City is a central area for the distribution of uh high levels of narcotic substance throughout the East Coast as well as throughout the state. I'm appointed by the five elected DAs. All my bosses are sitting here today and they oversee our office. Our assistant district attorneys are members of one of the five offices. And our office has been a leader in citywide efforts to confront the deadly opioid epidemic and is recognized nationwide for our expertise in conducting sophisticated narcotics uh investigations. Now, I'd like to start out with some good news. After years of record high fatal overdoses in New York City, they have dropped sharply over the past two years. In 2024, overdose deaths in New York City decreased by about onethird totaling a little over 2,000 following consecutive years of more than 3,000 deaths. By working together with the five DAs, other law enforcement, the New York City Health Department, treatment providers, educators, and civic leaders like yourselves, we've achieved a sustained decrease in drugrelated fatalities. As someone who has worked in this area for decades, I can attest that the fentinel epidemic is the worst we've ever seen. And that collaboration among all those involved in addressing every aspect of the epidemic was the best I have ever seen. We know that drug use and addiction issues are complex with a tremendous impact on families, neighborhoods, and communities. Over the past three decades, we've also learned that it takes commitment, education, treatment, and a broad range of expertise and resources to re in an epidemic. We all agree that law enforcement is but one tool in our efforts to address this problem and that it can be used as leverage to help those with substance use issues access other resources. In our submitted written testimony, you will see examples of the cases we bring, including against major narcotics traffickers and those engaged in violence or he who endanger communities across the city. The number of guns now being seized in our narcotics investigations is very large and it it's different than we've previously seen. We are seeing uh drug sellers offering suicanti to sell guns to their customers. We are seizing guns in places that we historically have not seized guns like uh shops that are set up to package uh fentinyl or package cocaine. Historically, we've not seized guns there and now we are. We're seizing lots of them, too. And if you look through our submitted testimony, you'll see that reflected in the summaries of our cases. We prioritize drug cases with guns for obvious reasons, and I look forward to collaborating with you to promote the health and safety in our communities and fairness in our criminal justice system. Again, I'm always happy to talk about specific concerns. And while overdose deaths are no longer at record high levels, we're not out of the woods. New York City's drug market is more unpredictable than ever before. We continually identify new synthetic substances mixed in with fentinyl, heroin, and cocaine when we recover drugs during investigations. And some of these mixtures originate in Mexico, while others are combined here in the city in drug packaging mills or in pill press factories. Although our outlook has improved, we continue to expand our education and outreach. Warning, there is no truth in advertising when it comes to drug dealers. Sadly, many drug users have perished when the drug they ingested was far more deadly than the one they thought they were purchasing. Extremely potent opioid drugs like carfentanyl and other fentanyl variations increase the risk of overdoses and we continue to find them either in the packaging operations or in the drugs that are seized. An array of nonopioid sedatives like the legal animal uh tranquilizer xylazine and metatomoddine may be lethal or cause significant harm when mixed with illegal drugs. And we are finding them mixed with illegal drugs. Whether addressing local crime or high level international narcotics operation, our office takes a holistic approach uh bringing prosecutions. We not only focus on crime control, we try to restore a sense of security to communities. After strategic enforcement has cleared rampant drug dealing and open drug use from neighborhoods in the neighborhoods where we're concentrating our efforts, we've used asset forfeite funds or money designated by the city council for this purpose to support safe recreational spaces in neighborhood where the enforcement has been concentrated. We also dedicate substantial resources to educating the public about the lethal drug market. Our educational outreach efforts touch thousands of young people, parents, teachers, and seniors. For many years before we started our own outreach, I had continually urged the board of ed and the health department to try to reach out particularly to young people and talk about our dangerous drug supply. and they have many other tasks and they didn't get to it. And so with the um oversight of the board of ed and input from the health department, we put together our own program which has been approved by them. Uh and in 2025, SNP staff offered fentanel awareness presentation to 96 classes in New York City schools reaching over 6,500 middle school, high school, and college students. And if all works out as we hope, each one of those 6,500 people will be sharing some information with others. Staff also presented more than uh to more than a dozen group sessions for faculty, parents, and seniors, reaching hundreds of additional community members. And in case you are unaware, there is a very high overdose rate among seniors. It may be due to weakened condition and long-term addiction issues or it may be due to purchasing uh dangerous drugs that they think are prescription drugs online and we educate the seniors about that. In fact, we've done programs with the DA's offices who are covering uh thefts and embezzlements that target seniors and we talked to them about this danger. I encourage you to review our written testimony. It reflects the comp complexities and importance of our work and you can see with your own eyes the volume and variety of lethal drug seas, the number of guns, the widespread locations, the pill press equipment used to make deadly drugs look like medicine. These are some of the challenges that we face and that you are facing and your constituents are facing. Now, I will describe our funding needs that were not addressed in the mayor's proposed budget. I appreciate uh that the mayor's budget did not cut our funding at all, but there are things that we need that I'd like to call your to your attention. Uh we asked for not receive additional funding for our alternative to incarceration expansion, a cryptocurrency laundering prosecution unit, and discovery compliance and litigation. Uh with regard to the alternative to inca in incarceration unit, we're looking to support and expand it now. uh with in that sense we've had ATI programming for a long time but there's a particular program called ATI which has been very successful and we've offered the defendants access to this um for for a while and it's very popular and the number of people who are interested in it uh is is backing up our ability to screen them and offer them treatment. As you might well imagine, what often happens when someone is in that queue waiting for assessment uh and they've been charged with a lower level narcotic crime, they commit another lower level narcotic crime. And what we're trying to do is speed up that process so we can get people into treatment more quickly. Uh, we have more information about that ask in our testimony, but I really hope you'll give serious consideration to approving additional funding for that for our own staffing issues because we've had to expand our staff in order to accommodate this. In addition, uh we collaborate with the Centers for Justice Innovation who actually conduct these assessments and coordinate the placement and oversee this. And again, if we're going to get additional funding, they're going to need additional funding. And this is we use this as a conduit to them to help them with their funding needs. Uh another one of our needs is an increase in funding for uh discovery. We have requested funds and it it's listed in our testimony the exact amount. Our office has not received the same level of financial assistant from the city and the state over the past few years as the district attorney's offices statewide and it's understandable the district attorney's offices have a wide array of cases many of them involving victims uh and have really struggled with it as we have. But we need more money uh because we really don't have the funds we need to keep up with our case load. Uh so you'll see that we're requesting slightly 2 million 2.2 million uh from the city which includes 552,000 to expand our uh discovery litigation unit with two additional ADAs and discovery litigation specialists and to cover associated overhead costs. Um, and uh, you've asked some questions about our use of pre-existing funding. Do you want me to address those or wait till the discussion period later? >> Uh, I think we have questions regarding that for everybody. So, maybe that part we >> Okay, I'll hold off on that then. So, thank you very much again. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you for your support of our office. And remember, we look forward to working with you if you have spec specific concerns you'd like to discuss with us. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you so much everyone for your testimony. Also, thank you for being here and for all the work you do on the issue of safety. Uh we have many questions about many topics including funding, discovery, re-entry programs, alternatives to incarceration programs. Uh so we'll get to that, but before that, I just want to recognize uh that we were joined by Council Member Banks. uh he needed to leave for another hearing. Uh but also joined by council member Kaban and Gutierrez who have joined after a few questions for the first question is for the DAS. Um and also we have a sixperson panel. Um if we could just keep the answers to more or less a minute just to make sure we could cover as many topics as possible and we have many members with a lot of questions. So the first question is for the DAs. Um you know many of you said it perfectly. We have to spend money on tools that will keep people out of the system. Spend money on people that will keep uh systems that will keep people out of the jail system. Um if we're pro prosecuting and then they're going back to the system, then we're not making any progress and that's not obviously not a good system. So my first question for um all the district attorneys and also the narcotics prosecutor if there are any programs uh that you think would also work. Can you list any alternatives to incarceration programs? I'll call them ATI re-entry programs or violence prevention programs that you've worked with and you've seen uh as most effective. If you could just list out um the top two programs that you've seen as most effective. Also, how costly are they? And also is there room for expansion currently? maybe and I guess for the questions we'll start from the Bronx DA or we could start whatever you all decide. >> Of course. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of ways that we uh handle trying to keep people out of the criminal justice system or once they enter the to do intervention. Um I have a community justice bureau just for that. It used to be called the inter- alternatives to incarceration bureau, but it's more than just incarceration. It's really trying to make people home and it's about trying to get people on the right track so that they although they come into the system that they hopefully will not reaffend. So, we do a number of things with that. Um, one of the programs that I developed or or started in my office had to do with guns and it was a gun divergent program that we call the Bronx Gun Diversion um initiative or Bcap. It's a Bronx um gun and accountability program that we do with um the Osborne uh association as well as with the Fortune Society. Um, I guess it's now five years ago that we started that program in order I saw that there were firsttime gun offenders that were coming into the system for various reasons. People are carrying guns and in the Bronx, you know, in particular, there's some tough neighborhoods. People suffer with trauma, things of that nature. And we developed a one-year program for these firsttime gun offenders that they go through this program. and and I spoke about it, you know, a a lot of the other similar ones, they go through treatment, trauma therapy, job readiness, all of those things. And we've seen the success of this program. Um, and it's in my written testimony, the fortune, I mean, um, through Osborne, I think we've had over we've had like 110 people, Fortune 117, and we've had 80% uh, compliance and success, and we haven't seen people come back. So that's one of the things that we have. A newer program that we have in house is something called Bronx assist. And that is for cases uh pre-arrangement diversion program. Meaning when people are arrested for low-level nonviolent cases where they're going to get a desk appearance ticket. Normally those cases they go into the precincts and they have to go to court some 20 30 days later. at that point is too late in order to deal with whatever crisis that person is going through. So under bronze assist now we started with a pilot project in the 44th precinct that connects individuals that are arrested to um immediate you know services that they may need. Whatever the services the housing um food insecurity job whatever substance use disorder we connect them right there in the precinct with people who have lived experience in order to give them that connection or that engagement. And um that is new. You know, we started it with a small um um grant that we received from the federal government. It's early on in it, but we've seen 100% participation that people are actually engaging and listening to the services. It remains to be seen whether or not they come back. But this is something where previously with a a a desk appearance ticket, people would just get it, no offering of programs at all. Some 20 days later, they don't even come back to court. So we never know if they got anything. So this is a way of connecting with them right you know as it happens. Then of course we have project reset that this um this council has done. It's a restorative justice program as well for misdemeanor's community volunteers that that help with that to help those people who are impacted and for them to make amends. So those are um you know those are just some of the programs that we have now. the gun diversion and then the ones that we talked about now we we receive money from the state for Bronx Restore which is similar to the one that they had in Brooklyn that we've really seen results and we're happy um to receive uh money for that as well. >> Thank you uh for that question uh Councilman because it really is sort of at the essence of so much of the work that we're trying to do to reduce once a crime is committed. We don't we want to prevent the crime from, you know, from the get-go, but once it once it's committed, as much as we can divert or through alternatives to incarceration, we do. Um, one sort of Staten Island story that we're very proud of is what we call our hope program, which we began almost 10 years ago when we were in the throws of one of the worst opioid epidemics driven by fentinel of anywhere in the country. The death rates were uh per 100,000 as high as anywhere in the city, anywhere in the country. And the idea behind the whole program is and and speak piggybacking on what uh DA Clark said is that someone would be met at the precinct by a peer navigator at the moment of arrest even before booking and given an offer of a diversion uh program that would be tailored just for them if they agreed to meaningfully engage for 30 days. The uh case would be dismissed and that that program has expanded. Now the offers are made not only at arrest but also at arraignment or return on the DAT and and the types of programs are all grow from that. We've seen thousands of Staten Islanders who have uh accepted those offers who have uh followed what was uh uh prescribed for them individually tailored uh by programs and by peer navigators who would work with them uh and they've been successful. So I I would say to you that when you're thinking about these things, the the the elements that have to be there is when is the offer given? When is the intervention? Can it be as soon as possible? Because what what had been happening was under the old drug treatment court models, the offers would be made at the time of plea or conviction. So way down the road was legal process and in the meantime, the individuals if they were out there would continue to use and possibly died. So when is the intervention made and offer made? uh how specific is the program for the individual? Uh how much is the followup to make sure that the individual is following through and are there programs available to connect the person to? And what we're seeing is in many instances especially in Staten Island is we don't have the programs to connect people to. So you hear programs like Fortune Society and Osborne, they're not even present in Staten Island. So we don't have those programs. But my colleagues would say the same thing. Whether it's drug addict, uh whether it's addiction illness, um whether it's u mental health, whether it's poverty, whether it's family trauma, whatever the issue is that's driving the behavior, uh we don't have the resources. So I recently had a young man who we were able to uh put together a plea on three cases, uh two misdemeanor and one felony assault. and we were prepared to put him uh give him a a plea that would allow him to resolve the legal cases and go into a mental health uh residential facility and we couldn't find one and he is now literally been lost to the system. He was supposed to appear at a location to be uh admitted into a program. When he showed up, they said they had no there was no room at the end for him. He was rejected. We've lost him now and now there's a bench warrant for his arrest. So the system is failing because we don't have the the programs. Uh so where do where do we put them? So when do we intervene and where can we have people go? Uh the issues that have to be addressed. >> Uh thank you for that question. You in Brooklyn uh our approach to uh public safety has always been rooted in diversion and uh alternatives to incarceration. you know, Brooklyn, uh, you know, in fact, had the, uh, you know, the widest number of alternatives to incarceration. We, we had the first drug treatment court that was established, the first mental health court, a veteran court. You know, we were the first uh, district attorney's office to offer gun diversion programs. Uh we had the first pre-arrainment diversion program in the city and we were the first uh county to offer restorative justice uh including uh an organization that we worked with common justice uh circles for safe streets that dealt with vehicular violence. Um, so we've been innovative in that work and we work with a lot of partners and I don't want to forget people, but we work with a lot of outside organizations, Exalt and Fortune and CJI and EAC, uh, of course, Safe Horizons and a lot of our domestic violence work. We work with a lot of our violence interrupterss and Brooklyn was the first uh, district attorney's office to really lean into, uh, credible messages and violence inter intervention work. And we work with Bivo and and many other organizations, Project Echo, ManUp, there's so many of our uh violence interrupter organizations that we work with. I think they do a tremendous job in helping to reduce uh violence in the county. I know that Council Member Hanks had the ability to visit our mental health court. I still think it's the the best in the state. Uh and I spoke to Chair Pheliz about visiting that court as well. Uh and I think the you know what we're seeing in the county in terms of violence reduction is because these programs help uh deal with root cause issues um and and and do that. And I am proud that to say that uh our population on Riker's Island from Brooklyn has come down about 200 less people on the island than there were at this point last year. And you know having these resources to refer cases to and work with is a big part of that. I mean, we we also tried cases in the county for sure, but you have to have this programming. And I know that my colleague Alvin Bragg also encouraged uh the council to support many of the organizations who do this tremendous work in uh you know, with our offices, you know, the district attorney's offices. Although we do have our own programs, we have programs intern in our own office. Uh without funding for these organizations who handle these uh you know their clients and our defendants, uh this work would not this alternative to incarceration incarceration work could not continue. So I just say that you know we've been really uh on the forefront of trying to figure out different ways of handling cases. Um, and again, I want to thank the city council because again, Project Restore was something that happened because of the city council and the mayor's office believing in us three years ago that there was a better way to deal with young men who were likely to be involved in gun violence than simply building cases to incarcerate them. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I'm I'm going to look at your question on two levels, right? So one is the youth programming and keeping people out of the criminal justice system to begin with but the next one is the ATI alternative to incarcer incarceration and the work we're doing in that space. So we have a very active in-house youth program uh legal explorers program student advisory council uh leadership programs for junior high school and high school summer youth employment. We also have a hope and leadership academy that goes out to all to the schools. Um, and they've spoken to over 10,000 kids uh on different issues when requested. We also have a very active Oh, and by the way, uh on our website, queensda.org, queensda.org, there is an interactive community partnership program um um illustrated and it's interactive. So you can go to any community and you can see in Queens County how many times our office has gone out to that community and um and different issues dealing with community partnership diversion though and ATI are a very strong part of what we do. We also utilize uh project reset um very actively since its inception. We've had 1,800 I'm trying to talk fast for the benefit of everybody. Um we've had 1,857 cases referred to diversion programs from project reset. That is before arraignment. Uh and uh 1,62 people have successfully completed the program. In 2025 alone, it was 556 cases referred and 333 cases that were uh completed. We also have very active treatment courts. So about depending on the day of the week, it's almost about 600 cases that are in our treatment courts. Those are uh Queen's treatment court, veterans court, mental health court, drug diversion, um and human trafficking, mental health. Um all of those diversion courts are heavily utilized. We work mostly with uh a lot of the different groups throughout the city of New York. One of the most uh prevalent groups we work with is clearly the project, the uh fortune society. We do our gun diversion program. many other programs through the the Fortune Society. But, you know, we take an approach that it's two ways. Keeping people out and then once they're involved in the system, how we can help make sure that they don't return because that's really the end goal is that people don't return to the system. So, um just so you know, we vet also every firsttime arrest for DATs. We vet them for mental health, drug addiction, and ways that we can also help make sure they don't come back again into the criminal justice system. So, thank you for the question. I'm happy to answer anything else. Uh, thank you, chair. So, we have four problem solving courts in Manhattan. Veterans, mental health, statutory drug court, and an omnibus uh federal uh felony alternative to incarceration court. In my testimony, I mentioned that we are vetting within the first 48 hours, eligibility being sort of, you know, can we do it safely uh for for our problem solving courts and we now have, you know, more than 25% of our indicted felony cases in one of those courts, doubling our referrals. Uh I'll focus on the on the felony alternative incarcerating court because I think it's unlike any other. It's an omnibus court. um there's no sort of restriction on the type of case in come in under the oversight of our chief judge uh Biden uh and the results uh have been very very encouraging. Our provider in that court uh is CGI the center for justice innovation and I guess I will just tie this back to my my ask. We are at capacity and I think I think I can speak not just for for for my office but um for CJI and I would also I don't want to be presumptuous but I think the courts courts would also say it as well. OCA. Um, the annual report that just came out for the Office of Court Administration, Chief Judge Biden, Chief Judge of of our court, uh, uh, is on the cover. It talks about, uh, problem solving courts as a priority. Uh, we are at capacity in Manhattan. We would like to do more, but without resources, we can't. >> I'll just echo what DA Braggs said. uh we are having the same issue with um the same court we participate in. So CJI is at capacity which means we're at capacity. Uh and if you're asking for specific recommendations on specific programs is that your ask >> at programs or actual providers? >> I guess both and also um I guess learn about the programs that you've worked with that have had a lot of successes. >> Okay. uh because if you're asking for specific recommendations, we we work with it probably total of 50, you know, through o over the last few years depending on what the individual needs are of the person. Um and and anyway, so I won't go through that list. Uh but we also beyond uh the ATI court, we have drug court, we still have a DTAP program. uh we since the beginning days when uh defendants who were charged with felony offenses would have to go into a residential treatment program, we've come a long distance and so we have a wide variety of uh programs offered mostly through ATI although we still have a drug court and a DTAP program. >> All right, thank you so much for the information. So, I have many more questions, but I know my colleagues have questions as well. So, I'll pause for now. Um, I'll pass it on to council member Hanks for her questions. Also, I just going to respectfully ask uh if we could keep the answers to no more than a minute just to make sure we could cover cover as much uh substance. Um, yeah, because we have a six person panel. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much, chair. Um, my remarks are more of a statement and a few questions for my own DA, but definitely a good afternoon and I really thank all the DAs throughout the city for coming in and testifying and advocating for your respective burrows. And uh, while I really appreciate the tremendous need as a Staten Islander, I just believe it's staggering that in FY2027, our prosecutor's budget of uh, 654 million, St. Island only represents 4% of that budget number. Um, and that's 4%. And so I just wanted to utilize this moment to thank our our DA and the staff at the Richmond County District Attorney's Office for really doing a great job despite um the obvious and deep financial disparity disparities in comparison. Um, like I said, we're only 6% of the population, but you know, the budget really doesn't really reflect that. So my questions are for the DA. Given the fact that Sten Island receives the smallest allocation, how do you feel that um that that affect our capacity to address our budget's most basic, you know, safety needs? >> Uh thank you for that question, uh council member, and and thanks to your advocacy. We had been lower. We've been less than 3%. And so we we we have fought our way a little bit uh back but it is still dramatic. I would if I also could point out I I think in your uh documents there's might be a typographical error. It seems to indicate that our budget I'm looking at the financial uh analyst there. It seems to indicate that our budget is $52 million but it's uh actually le 20 million less than that. It's about $31 million. So it's much it's less. Yep. Uh so and then to answer your question uh there are just some things that we cannot do in Staten Island uh that uh our colleagues can uh although as you hear from them they are um uh strapped for resources as well especially on that alternative to incarceration and uh diversion uh aspect. Uh if we had more programs we could be more effective in that space uh especially in the mental health area. And I urge this council as you as you consider that issue on a citywide uh it's city-wide impact to to think in in the in the criminal justice space that there are many individuals who if we could connect them to uh mental health uh treatment it would be go a long way uh to make the city safer and to uh get those individuals to a better place. Um, one big space that we fall short in is that we don't have a physical location uh for that programming for people to go to what we call it now is called a community justice court or community justice center. Not having that means that uh Staten Islanders are not served by a lot of the organizations that you hear talked about here who get money from this council directly like the Fortune Society or Osborne and the list goes on and on don't even have a presence on Sten Island. So the council member mentioned re-entry program. Most of the re-entry money that comes from the city of New York goes to those organizations, they have no presence in Staten Island. So that means the Staten Islanders do not have that um resource available to them when they are involved in the criminal justice system. But then on the prosecution side, just in in the areas of domestic violence and uh cyber security and uh scamming uh and all those other things we talked about uh if we had equal resources, we could have the personnel to to better prosecute uh those crimes, hold people accountable and prevention. So it does affect us across the board and we thank you very much uh uh Madame Majority Whip for your continued advocacy. Well, thank you very much and and I just want to take this opportunity to thank Speaker Menon for putting uh two Staten Islanders on in leadership. So, we are going to be part of those conversations to be able to do that. We don't say that for the record. So, it doesn't think that we spent four years not funding our own burrow. But, do you have a baseline number in Staten where Staten Island would have parody with other four burrows given the what you've testified? Yeah, I I do think a reflection of our uh population numbers. So, of that total, if you talked about five and a half to 6% uh and you know, the additional money that we asked for uh in the uh programmatic budget, I think it's about $3 million. Uh and then of course on the capital side, uh the money for that uh community justice center would go a long way. >> Thank you. Um so does that budget also the fact that we have such pay par you know parity in in the budgets does that affect discovery reform compliance? It certainly does because I didn't we didn't go into but my colleagues have mentioned it. Uh dis as you know the the continued obligation that we have uh to gather uh and coate curate and and quickly turn over to defense uh all the materials involved in cases around it not only relevant but related and beyond uh is an incredible burden both for staff both for infrastructure. My colleagues have mentioned the the storage capacity and things that are needed there. So, that is a continued obligation that if we don't meet it, cases are dismissed. Uh we we made some rational uh uh adjustments to that well-intentioned law last year in Albany and so that uh it is the whole process is a little bit better, but the obligation and burden on us is still great and it really does lead to burnout of staff and it's where pay parody really becomes a problem. So we continue to face that uh the issues of uh retention uh pay par and meeting our obligation and so the funding that we all have asked for in that space uh would is obviously needed. >> Thank you so much chair. May I have one more question? Thank you so much. Uh so having um so how has having less technological infrastructure affected case timelines and conviction rates? Uh yeah, I mean that that affects us all. I look at my colleagues, it's a it's a very good question because I think in terms of the the technical ability, the ability to uh store the materials uh to uh and as one of my colleagues said, we have to maintain these materials for 25 years. I mean, that's a state obligation. And since everything is digital now and electronic, uh we are facing a near crisis in our office because we don't have the storage and the cost for it keeps going up. Uh so it's going to come to a head where we're not going to be you know we either not meet the obligation or to store but also uh to process cases. Uh it would mean that in certain cases if we don't meet our obligation to gather all the material and turn it over in a uh mandated period of time then the cases are dismissed. And so you could have instances where victims cases victims of violent crime their cases are dismissed because of some technological shortcoming or failure. >> Thank you so much. You'll be sure that I'll be advocating for our small but mighty burrow in the budget negotiations. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you all for coming here today. >> Thank you so much. Next, we'll hear from council member Nurse and then in Carnosion. >> Thank you, chair. I have just targeted questions. Um >> for uh the Queen's District Attorney, you said you've um successfully um recovered 21 properties related to deed fraud. How many overall cases do you get or did you get last year and is it going up in Queens or are we staying the same? >> So, we had uh many more cases of deed fraud when we first started investigating deed frauds a few years ago. Um we have about 180 cases right now going on at the same time with investigations. We've gotten uh if I my memory serves me correctly about 23 homes back for people over the last year um and maybe two years but it is becoming less because we are very diligent about investigating and I think people understand that we have a whole you know group of folks uh Bureau of Housing and Work Protection that is are investigating these crimes. Um, and not only that, I I think it's important to note, council member, that we are getting houses not only getting houses back for people. Um, but they they understand that there's some accountability for it, but we're also teaching. We go out into the community. We talk about Acuras. We talk about nyc.gov where you can register your property so that you know when someone has taken a mortgage out. >> No, I I appreciate that and just because of time. So, did you say how many cases overall? about 180 cases right now that we're either investigating >> uh have had over the last several years. Okay. Or disposed of. >> Okay. >> I only know that because someone just asked us. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate that. It's a big concern for us in Brooklyn and similar to um our our our Brooklyn District Attorney, also my community member. Um I know you all have done a lot of work on this. I know um myself, Council Member Oay, and others have been really focused on it. Do you um still I know there was conversation about a specialized deed theft unit um for for Brooklyn, sorry. Um >> do do you think this this is needed um to specialize in in these cases >> for district attorneys where I mean specifically for Brooklyn, but if we have high cases in other places as well? Yeah, I with uh Brooklyn with the increasing uh value of uh homes, especially in central Brooklyn, um there's been, you know, so much uh attention of people trying to figure out how to uh take advantage of uh homeowners and rip them off, especially a lot of those homeowners are are generational families who've lived there. And so the, you know, the true deed owner is an older adult. Um, and we've seen a number of scams increasing. Uh, I testified, you know, just a little while ago that we'd like to have that uh funded in our office. Um, we have folks who work in the real estate uh area, but we don't have a dedicated deed for our housing uh unit. Uh we have two postings right now >> asking uh for uh lawyers to come to our office and hopefully the city council can help fund that. Um because this is really specialized work. We we just did a big case uh this uh past year got a verdict uh in December uh where a man was convicted of stealing multiple homes. Uh, a number of those homes were returned, but there's so much more work to be done and I >> So, just Yes, you would love that. You would love that unit. >> I I would love it and it's really needed. >> I'm trying. I'm trying, but you know, it's my it's my district attorney, so I got to be a little respectful. So, the answer is yes. Um, and then for um for the Bronx, we just had a really interesting interaction before you all came with the police commissioner where two members of the Bronx said are looking at crime stat and saying like crime appears to be up in the Bronx and it was like a zero to 100 response that that's not true and and so where where are we like what you know what we give is what we pull from public data. So, is crime up in the Bronx or or can you set the record straight for us? >> No, crime is up in the Bronx. Look, things have been better, but at the end of the day, even though there have been some decreases, we still lead the city and everything. So you could tell me that crime is going down, but you can't tell that to Miss Jackson in Concourse Village because she don't see that when she walks to the four train to to go to work and afraid that she might get shot, you know, as an innocent bystander or whatever the case is. So the numbers are up because of the disinvestment that has happened in the Bronx. We still have the same neighborhoods that are not getting the services that they need. a lot of these organization, the community based organizations that do this work. I appreciate them. I ask the city council and the mayor to continue to fund them, but make sure that they're able to have a presence in the Bronx. Some of them don't, some of them do. When these new initiatives come about and I say, "I need resources," the city will start an initiative in Brooklyn or Manhattan and they say, "Well, they have the infrastructure." Well, we need to build the infra. >> And we and we we hear you loud and clear. And I think all of us in the council want to support that. That's why that question, the response to that question was so disrespectful because it's two Bronx members who live there every day versus some really nice neighborhood in Manhattan. >> So, um, you know, I just I really thank you for clearing that up and we do agree what's going on in the Bronx. >> You know, the people in the Bronx are still resilient. We're still trying, but we need the help. >> Yeah. I have I'll come back. You sure? Okay. I just had some questions about discovery and uh not sorry not discovery um case processing and discovery. Um and I don't know who can answer this. I don't think everybody needs to answer it. Maybe maybe they we can just designate one person. Um but a major driver of the size of the jail population at at Reich at Riker is the length of time it takes to resolve many criminal cases. Um and you know essential part of that is is meeting discovery obligations is the technology to support those efforts. Um s significant funding has been budgeted for your offices recently related to discovery technology and implementation. The state gave 50 million to your offices for that technology in fiscal year 2024. In FY26, each of your offices was budgeted millions of dollars for discovery implementation. In the Bronx, 15 million um for staff, supplies, and materials, capital spending in Brooklyn, 13.4, Manhattan, 11.8, Queens, almost 9 million, Staten Island, 2.7. Um it looks like all of the money has been zeroed out in the preliminary budget. Can each of your well I guess you all need to respond but can each of your office please share the status of installing a data management system to store and transfer discovery and really just like to the to the point what you know what's what's left to do >> well I know we appreciate the discovery money and the history of it is is that when those uh laws were changed there was no money right so now we're playing catch catch up event. Finally, people heard us, right? That we need money and or it was unfunded mandates. So, we have that now, but it's still going to take some time for that to take effect. That's that's the problem with it. Technology costs a lot of money and it takes a lot of time to build what is really needed in our offices in order to get that material out. My office has worked diligently, my IT um department as well as working with the vendors that we have hired to get the work done. We're well on our way now, but it's going to take a little bit of time in order to see what the results >> your vendors are done. Your systems are set in place and now you're just kind of >> building building still in the build stage. >> That's what I mean. Like the whole >> Yeah. Still in the build stage because at least we have the money to build. But the thing is that the thing is that that money was a fiveyear lookout. We're in year three. So it's going to run out and it's expensive. So we'll be coming back to you again into the state in order to make sure we do our mandate. But we're all doing the best that we can in order to make sure that we comply with that because you know this these are people's lives at stake, defenders as well as our victims and the community at large. It's done. >> No, it's not done. >> Can I just uh council member um nurse, I'm sorry. Just to just to be clear, uh there was supposed to be like an organically uh created vendor that was going to build out for us in the the public defenders. That has not been done yet. So, it's in the process and the some of the money has been spent, but you know, none of as as far as I know, no DEA's office has that completely built out yet. There is all in the process. So, it's still ongoing. Um, and Discovery still continues to delay the process. >> You all have to each pick a different like procure your own vendor. >> I think four of us have the same vendor and I think Queens has a different vendor. >> That seems absurd. >> Nice. >> Nice. Yeah. >> Like I don't understand one for >> Yeah. No, there's uh so there's an Yeah, there's an initiative underway. The four officers in the police department are working with uh what's called NICE to build out the case management which will also build out the discovery retrieval collection and uh turn over to the defense. Uh that continues to work. It's it's it's very complicated because they started from different systems and they have to integrate with the police department system. So it's underway. uh in Son, we use a different system, one that that is more from the statewide perspective and so ours already operates. So we don't exactly have that same problem. >> So you're up and operational with your system. >> No, we we we're not going to use NICE. We use the system. >> No, but I'm saying I'm just confirming. >> Yeah, ours is ours is for the most part operational. We still have problems with when we have to download large amounts of information, say people's cell phones, a lot of body worn cameras. So that that physical infrastructure problem we have but in terms of sort of that operating system platform we have ours in place >> but again we are much smaller comparatively speaking a smaller office and but we've had one uh in place >> I think that ours is the closest because the Bronx started first because it was all it was four offices the Bronx started first I actually had a meeting with them recently to find out what's the status the build is happening we're very close to being operational And I know that the defenders have taken our clients of the nice system as well. So the legal aid society and I believe Bronx Defenders also, but you know, there's always issues and things that we still have to iron out as you build it out. So we're the closest. We've used the money. We spent about 60% of it in order to do the build, but you know, again, like I said, it takes time. >> It it absolutely takes time. So we we also do not use nice. Uh so two years ago we purchased um a new case management system which we're still we said we purchased but we are building it out as well. Um the next year we had a lot of IT related uh expenses including firewall servers storage related to the planned data center. Um but we are still building it out as well. I have to tell you I don't know what we would have done without that funding because the new discovery obligations were such that it was so omn you know large that um without that funding it would have been very difficult but we're all building out our systems and it's getting much better. >> I don't have anything to add. >> Yeah. No, I guess it it would be good to keep track on that and and you know I'll I'll yield the floor, but um it just seems like from a systems perspective, if you all are trying to do the same task, I don't I'm I'm unclear why we don't have a unified system um you know, a singular vendor. I I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for it that we can follow up with, but it just seems like there might be some cost savings and efficiency to have a standard system. >> Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, so next we'll hear from Council Member Connor Seio and then Kaband and Gutierrez and Sanchez and then Wong. We're a little bit behind schedule. We have CCB waiting, so we're going to be a little bit tighter with the four-minute rule. Thank you. >> Well, I have two DAs uh and my district. So, no, but I I'll be quick because I really I really just want to I've been here way too long. Um so, the justice centers and I and I hear you Staten Island. I know that the justice center is something that you've been waiting for. The Bronx does have a justice center. It is not a physical location though. It is not a a like we're trying to and I want to make sure to uh you know address that narrative because I don't want it to be looked at as a checkbox, right? It isn't a checkbox and I so from from UDA Clark is 2 million what what you are asking for for the in capital for the Bronx Justice Center? >> Well, for for capital there needs to be an assessment there. There's a lot of there's a lot of issues connected to the capital. So, we have a space that's dedicated. It's a HR building. There's supposed to be a transfer to Dcast. So, you know, that's an intergovernmental thing that you all have to figure out, right? >> And then once whoever the landlord is going to be needs to have the assessment done as to what that capital cost is really going to look like. I could guess and tell you, I think it's going to be about $20 million. I walk through it, right? But what do I know? And by the time it gets done, it's always more money. Yeah. So the problem is we need to transfer from one agency to another and then there needs to be the assessment of what the capital can be and then move from there. The $2 million is operational. So right now um um CJI is no um yeah CJI is in there, right? They're working doing some of the work, but we need that baseline. So that $2 million, they continue to operate, but the facilities need to be brought up, the outside, the inside. I was at the wall. >> So that's that's what we're waiting for, and that's what we're asking that the city do that. That doesn't necessarily come to me, but I want to advocate for whether it's Dcast, H, or whoever else from the city is going to maintain the building because it is a city building to do that assessment so that we could start getting those renovations and upgrades um done. >> Perfect. >> And and right. So Staten Island. So Mike and I go through this like we both say neither one of us have one and we like really don't because it's not really work. He got capital money. I got operational money, right? He needs operation and the building. I need capital to get it done. So neither one of us really have it until we get the dedicated funds. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. And the same as kind of the question for Manhattan. I know the Harlem Justice Center exists and but there's there's some capital needs for that building as well. Are you aware of any? I I think there are I think that the chief judge I think there's a number of discussions going on. It was not an ask that we had you know this year. Certainly we would we would love to have a physical structure. I think we would you know prioritize the the the ask that I made in terms of expanded resources for CGI but uh yes there's a need >> and the 3 million in state funding that was for the restore program. Um is that stable funding? Is it >> Yes, that came that came from the state. >> Okay. Beautiful. So, we're looking forward to putting that to use to get that done. We're in the process now of interviewing providers to see who is going to be the providers of that. And and you know, there's also academic um uh parts of it as well. So, we're we're getting close that final interviews that happen now. We've brought down I think we had 10 vendors that applied. We've narrowed it down. We're doing the final interviews and then hopefully we'll be able to get it working. >> Okay. Perfect. And the asset uh forfeite money, the 9 million that you spoke of, is that the full ass? You're looking for the restoration of the 9 million for the asset for forfeite money. >> So we we've started um and I I would say uh in the written testimony I broke it out for the the neighborhood navigators, which is the brid program. It's about 2,500,000 per year uh to keep it up and running as it is. Um you know, and uh the court-based navigators would be about $2 million for that was the fortune program. So, four total. >> Yeah, four. >> Four total. Okay. Um Okay, that was it. Oh, look. I made it. All right. >> Should I just say >> thank you? >> I got you. Oh, okay. >> By the way, >> uh yeah, you're cross, too. Uh anyway, um I'm I'm standing for no other reason than I have a health condition. So, um I I want to start well I guess first I want to start with a little bit of a statement. I I think it's obviously really important that we're strengthening the treatment courts. There's a lot of room to to grow and also make some some changes that would strengthen the program. I there was some testimony about the peer navigator program. I just want to put out there on the record that I think it's I think that is a bit troublesome because it's assuming guilt before a person even speaks to an attorney. And that's the kind of help that I think people should be um be getting before an arrest and not necessarily funded through a DA's office. I think if someone is arrested, then we've already failed them in in servicing them. But that's just a statement I want to make for record. It's not a question. Uh I do want to ask um and follow up on the questions that council member Nurse asked about some of the discovery. Uh obviously you had that state appropriation, the other money that was was coming in. I I want to acknowledge, by the way, nice, terrible. Like, it like I understand that that's causing you guys a lot of problems and things that are not your fault and it's causing the defenders problems. I also think it's obviously a really big problem when PDFs get sent to defenders that like aren't labeled. There's different information that isn't sorted in any particular way. And of course, that's causing case study. So, I just I want to acknowledge that. Uh but to to follow up on the questions that were asked the the money that was allocated it can you confirm just very quickly is it all has it all been what has been spent so far and that's you know the I think the the 50 million that was appropriated in FY24 and then FY26 respectively the Bronx 15 Brooklyn 13.4 Manhattan 11.8 a Queens 9, Staten Island 2.7. How much of that has been spent? And then um I know DA Clark, you said that you're you're the closest to having the system fully up and running. When will each of you when do you think you'll have your system up and running? So, what have you spent? When do you think you'll be up and running? >> I'll jump in on the funding. So the there's one a lotment there's one trunch of money $50 million for capital funding uh that came originally and that has by everyone's office has been designated for spending if not actually gone through as you know councilman sometimes it takes a while to to to do but that's been implemented. The other was a a five-year aotment of 50 million uh as spread out as you said uh and that is uh programmatic money so that's money that's spent every year in the budget. So those that's being spent the first year and and second we're in the third now. That has been spent and will be spent as part of our yearly budgets. There's no holding of that money. So >> you're not spending under you're not under budget is what I I guess what I'm asking. You guys are spending at the rate to fill out the five years. >> Yeah. We're using it to to to uh uh pay our our operating costs, our our salaries, rent in some cases, things like that. So that's part of and primarily to uh um uh pay for the expenses of discovery to hire the extra people to do body warn camera to hire the extra adas uh and the list goes on from there. >> The um the I I want to move into something else because obviously there's an interest with all parties to speed up um discovery processing move cases along in the system. Have your offices had direct access? Like would it speed up discovery? I should say if your offices had direct access to NYPD databases, including for misconduct, would things go faster if you had direct access to those databases? >> I don't think so. Because we still we still, first of all, we're responsible for it whether we have direct access or not. We're we're getting it. Even when we get it, we still have to sort it out because not everything, you know, like anything else, not everything is relevant. >> You have to wait for them to give it to you though, right? Like you're I mean, you're waiting for you'll say, "Hey, I want these things." NYPD then has to turn it to you rather than you directly having access and being like, I'll just take that cuz I need it. I'll take that cuz I need it. >> Yes. But I the same thing for me. I wouldn't want anybody to have open to all my records either. You there has to be some safeguards there, which I appreciate. We're still responsible for it. We're trying to get it as best as we can. These discovery tools that we have will help make it better because we'll be able to disperse it better. As far as your question is, I'm like I said, I'm the closest one. We should be up and running by midspring. I already had the in the talked with them. They've talked to the defenders. We're just about ready. We're ironing out certain things. And I >> But everybody else just give a quick like when you think you'll be up and running. And then chair, I have two more questions and that's it. So I just in terms of direct access I wanted to say one of the big drivers of delay is not what's electronic, it's what's still on paper. I know that PD has said they're starting to convert things electronically. But that is still the biggest driver of delay is trying to track down an individual officer who has written something or has something on paper. But in terms of uh our ability to move forward, you know, we're we're possibly, you know, a year or more away from having a a system built out by nice. Uh >> and we're in the sort of remediation stage where, you know, we're >> I just want to be mindful of time. I just want a timeline and >> so we're far follow you're okay. Uh >> we believe it's early 2027. >> Okay. Um the first one I think look in a perfect world if we're all in the same system that would be great. Um yeah um I don't have a firm projection. I think we haven't said a lot is that the nice I mean you said it's >> but it's also but I think it's also worthwhile and interesting to discuss the fact that like there might be perspect different perspectives up here even amongst your colleagues. So that's >> no but but I say I think we've all been hampered certainly I lost people from my office the nice discussions and you seem to have some knowledge of that they have not been seamless and that's been that's delayed us. Um and I did want to say uh on the the comment about the peer navigators our program that we're advocate for the bridge is separate part has no DA we're not out they we give them the funding and they go do it. So I just wanted to say that. >> Great. Thank you. Um >> could I answer that one too? >> Sure. We're getting a a a vendor to handle it. We're more in line with Queens, I guess, and we're expecting about 18 months. >> Yeah. I think one of my concerns also about the discovery discovery processing and having direct access to the database, at least from a defender's perspective, misconduct. I can't tell you how many times I litigated a case and it was three, four, five, six, seven months later, whether it was for um you know, pre-trial hearings or the that we finally find out, oh, there's misconduct, and then we resolve the case the next day. And that's the kind of stuff that like really we could be making a a difference on. That's a huge deal. The last thing I want to ask is just directed to you, DA Gonzalez. Um there has been an increase of arrests for what are lower level offenses like sleeping on the train and it caused an arrest to arraignments crisis a few weeks ago in Brooklyn to the point where legal aid ended up filing a writ um about it. Did you did you push for DOS to DATs to be issued for those people who were in on on bail and eligible offense? Like what happened there? >> So it was a confluence of a lot of things. It was the snowstorm. It was the two holidays. Uh typically you have multiple arraignment parts open. You only had one part open. And then there was additionally on top of all of the storm related and holiday related closures uh the courthouse that was closest to the arraignment uh that does the arraignments was having some kind of renovation. And so they were using an alternative courthouse that could did not have a pen. So they would have to bring one person up at a time. And so it was a confluence of a lot of things. A number of people stepped in uh to try to remedy it, but it was uh >> and I I can appreciate, but I guess I guess my followup is just that were there people there that were processed that were DAT eligible? >> I I think the answer is yes. Um and there was definitely conversations around alternative ways to uh move people from the uh you know from the system including we did a uh hawk shift which is you know 11 11 o'clock to >> we call it the lobster shift >> lobster shift right >> yeah they didn't have them in my time but I heard they >> so we did there was a number of efforts there were a number of efforts to uh get people out but it should not have ever happened. Yeah, I didn't ever think I'd say lobster shift during a a a budget hearing, but um yeah, I mean the last thing I'll say on that is that like if if you're DAT eligible, especially in those circumstances, there should not have DATs. But I appreciate the response. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh next, we'll hear from Council Member Gutierrez, then Sanchez, and then Wong, and then we'll conclude conclude with this panel. We have CCRB, who has been patiently waiting outside. We're a little bit behind. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chair. And I have two DAs, but I think I can do it because they're pretty straightforward and your testimonies are very thorough. Um, DA Catz, and forgive me for uh not knowing this. I just wanted to ask about one of the initiatives in your testimony. I don't I don't think you named it, but it's um targeted for youth 11 to 18. You said you pilot piloted it in 2021. Can you just share um if there are any what's the name of the initiative and if there are any partners? >> Right. So, I don't know which ones you're referring to, but we have several. >> I don't know either. You didn't name it. Um, >> it says it was launched in 2021. Supports youth development on page three. >> Yes. >> And crime prevention program. >> So, we have several. So, I'll just go through. So, we have youth initiatives for schools. We have youth initiatives for 11 through 18. We go into the schools. We talk to the students. We have a whole unit. It's about I don't know three or four people, four or five people I think that go into the schools and they talk to the students. We've done about 14,000 students so far. Okay. As we do, as