4/24/2013
By Ivan Pereira
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a candidate for mayor, laid out her plans to improve safety in the Big Apple Wednesday.
Among the suggestions in her multifaceted proposal were increasing the NYPD’s force by moving up the next police academy class from January to July, installing more mobile cameras and expanding counterterrorism training to sanitation and transit workers.
“By making them a bigger part of our surveillance program, we can keep our communities even safer,” Quinn said.
The Speaker also called for the passage of an NYPD Inspector General, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly oppose.
“The Inspector General will not pose any kind of threat to the authority of the mayor or the police Commissioner. The buck will and should stop with the mayor,” she said
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly reiterated that the Inspector General wasn’t needed.
“Her statement also stands in sharp relief to some who continue to unfairly criticize lawful and effective crime fighting by the men and women of the New York City Police Department, who keep the public safe often at risk to their own lives,” he said in a statement.
She said she didn’t support a bill that would create a cause of action against officers who use racially profiling, and that sentiment didn’t sit well with the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“While racial profiling is currently banned, it is a law with no teeth,” NYCLU Executive Director said in a statement.
