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The NYPD captains’ union has called for the end of CompStat — a policy pushing officers’ “productivity” that runs a “wedge between police and the communities.”
“I believe COMPSTAT to be the primary driving force that is undermining police/community relations in New York City,” the Captains Endowment Association president, Chris Monahan, wrote in a letter Tuesday night.
“When members of the NYPD are pressured from the top to show ‘productivity,’ they become involved in street encounters that they otherwise may not have occurred, thereby driving a wedge between police and the communities we serve,” Monahan wrote in the letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.
The NYPD’s CompStat, which is short for compare statistics, started in 1994 and is a key part of former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s legacy.
The numbers-driven approach to fighting crime puts supervisors on the spot before the department top brass, other executives and sometimes “VIP visitors” — such as the mayor’s wife and son.
“The fact is … COMPSTAT puts pressure on precinct and division commanders to go into minority neighborhoods for targeted enforcement (precision policing) by way of arrests and summonses. This inherently creates tension between black and brown communities and the police because their subordinate officers are expected to produce activity,” Monahan wrote.
When asked about the CEA’s letter, Shea brushed off the notion of getting rid of CompStat and dismissed the union gripes.
“It was never about summonses [or] arrests for the sake of numbers, it’s about improving the quality of life,” the city’s top cop said at a press conference at police HQ Wednesday.
The head of the union — which represents captains, deputy inspectors, inspectors, deputy chiefs and surgeons — says it’s unfair to continue the “culture of humiliating precinct commanders” as the NYPD moves away from “aggressive” policing tactics, such as the disbanding of the anti-crime unit.
“Now that this once effective tool has been taken away, our precinct commanders should not be ‘called on the carpet’ in COMPSTAT to address the inevitable spikes in crime, some of which are already taking place.”
Monahan’s letter asks for a meeting with Shea to discuss the ending of the program.
Neither the mayor’s office nor the NYPD immediately responded for comment.
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