Public Safety

Bill Thompson is a leading voice in our City's fight to reduce crime and improve public safety. Bill knows that low crime rates encourage business activity and economic development, and allow New Yorkers to feel safe in their City, which he believes is a critical component of a healthy, working City.

As Mayor, Bill will remain constantly vigilant in the fight against terrorism, and work closely with the NYPD to implement anti-terrorism tactics and strategies. He will maintain or increase police staffing levels to keep crime levels low. And he will keep our City safe by constantly improving the quality of life for all our communities. Bill's police force will place the same focus on Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island as it does on Manhattan.

As City Comptroller, Bill:

• Revealed that the NYPD's Manhattan Property Clerk Division exhibited disturbingly poor controls over weapons in its custody-with many of them initially missing.

• Pressured many American firms doing business in Iran and with other state sponsors of terror to cease their back-door dealings with those nations. Companies responding to the pressure include Halliburton, General Electric, ConocoPhillips, Aon, and Foster Wheeler.

• Exposed major flaws in the NYPD's Domestic Violence Tracking System. Said Bill, "New York's Finest need the best technology to combat domestic violence. The City's fight against domestic abuse and violence must remain one of our top priorities. The NYPD paid for a system that simply does not meet all of its needs."

• Strongly denounced President Bush's decision to slash counterterrorism funding to New York City and demanded a boost-not a reduction-in these funds.

As Mayor, Bill will:

• Maintain or increase NYPD staffing levels.

• Ensure that our boroughs outside of Manhattan receive their fair share of police resources.

• Support higher NYPD starting salaries in order to ensure that we're able to attract the best and brightest to police our City. Bill believes that the hardest working police force in the world-in perhaps the most target rich environment in the world-must be paid accordingly.

• Work to improve crime solving efforts-especially for violent crimes-through greater use of technologies.

• Focus on preventing "Wall Street" crimes as well as "street" crimes. Bill will work with federal and state regulators to more stringently police and prevent economic crimes, whose impact can reach far beyond the borders of our City, as we saw in the Bernard Madoff case.

• Reduce crime rates within our NYCHA housing developments.

• Undertake a careful analysis of the NYPD's "stop and frisk" procedures to ensure that this anti-crime technique is used when necessary-but not overused-and that the civil rights of all New Yorkers are respected and upheld.

• Work with community organizations to provide safe and productive alternatives to gang activities like the "Summer Night Lights" program in Los Angeles, which was recently praised by Attorney General Eric Holder at the White House Conference on Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control.

• Clamp down strongly on gang violence to ensure that our communities and law-abiding youth are safe.

• Invest the necessary funds to create a stronger-than-ever NYPD police training culture that constantly evolves and gets better.

• Build community partnerships, so New Yorkers feel and are safe.

• Work to reduce police emergency call response times and bolster police patrol strength.