De Blasio on Cops Support: We’re Buying Them New Vests and Technology

‘We need to bring police and community together’

SCARBOROUGH: “Million different directions this morning, your cops. How is your relationship with the cops? We had Mayor Giuliani on a couple weeks ago.  [indecipherable] bad relationship with the cops, talked about, you know the past, the campaign, some of the things that had been said in the past. But even Mayor Giuliani said you’re trying to make positive overtures towards a police officers. How is that going?"
DE BLASIO: “I think, look, we need to bring the police and communities together. I think we see a lot of progress on that. Crime is down in New York City —“
SCARBOROUGH: “But, do you understand why police officers feel under siege over the past —“  
DE BLASIO: “We have 35,000 police officers.
SCARBOROUGH: “Right.”
DE BLASIO: “And they come from all different backgrounds all different point of view but the bottom line is, they serve the city very well. Crime is down, shootings down, gun arrests up 7 percent.”
SCARBOROUGH: “The question is do you, because they want to know that you understand that they feel like they are under siege, that they can’t go out and do their job without 20 people, you know with camera phones on and shouting at them?” 
DE BLASIO: “The way to show that is through action, not just words. So, we’ve support our cops. We’ve got new vest for our cops, we’re providing new technology, we have we have shot spotter and it helps to identify where shootings are.”
SCARBOROUGH: “But you do understand why they feel like they are under siege?”
DE BLASIO: “I understand what you’re saying, but I’m saying —“ [crosstalk] 
SCARBOROUGH: “No, no. I’m asking do you understand why they feel like they are under siege?” 
DE BLASIO: “Absolutely.” 
SCARBOROUGH: “OK.”
DE BLASIO: “And I’m saying the bottom line here is, not just to say we support our police, which we do. Not just to say we need to bring police and community together. But to back it up with actually investments in our cops.” 
SCARBOROUGH: “So, let’s break something else down. Crime, New York City, just the numbers tell — to give us the numbers straight. Is crime down in New York City?"
DE BLASIO: “Yes, down 3 percent overall major crimes. Shootings are down compared to last year. Gun arrest up 7 percent. It’s fundamental progress on their Commissioner Bratton.” 
SCARBOROUGH: “And homicides. How are we doing on homicides?” 
DE BLASIO: “Homicides are up for up about 20 homicides at this point, that doesn’t make me happy —“ [crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: “What’s the percentage? 
DE BLASIO: “It’s about 5 percent.”
SCARBOROUGH: “Five percent up?”
DE BLASIO: “Six percent, yeah. And that’s — look, every —“
SCARBOROUGH: “And that’s a nation wide?”
DE BLASIO: “And that’s a problem around the country. And last year, I’m very proud to say we had the lowest number of homicides in a half century in New York City. But I take every single one of these situations personally. I have to. As the Commissioner Bratton, we go over the numbers daily. And we’re making progress and he’s doing a great job and we have 13,000 more cops added to the force in the next year, which I am very proud of.”

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