(NewsNation) — The New York Police Department has increased its presence at schools across Upper Manhattan after multiple shootings on Tuesday.
Two teens and one man were injured, NewsNation local affiliate PIX11 reported, leading to unusually high NYPD visibility for students heading to school in Harlem and on the Upper West Side.
Chief of Patrol John Chell said police would “flood this area,” as it is suspected that the shootings from this week are gang-related and connected.
“Why do I say that? The proximity, geography around schools, age of our victims,” Chell said.
Around 10 a.m. Tuesday, a 17-year-old boy was shot twice in the abdomen near West 68th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, police said. That’s three blocks from Martin Luther King High School, PIX11 said.
Then, just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, a 16-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man were shot near East 125th Street and Madison Avenue, according to PIX11.
This violence has caused some to ask whether bringing in more school resource officers, (civilian safety agents who don’t carry weapons, but are employed by the NYPD) is the answer. However, others question their effectiveness, and what impact their presence has on students.
According to a report released Tuesday by New York City’s Independent Budget Office, the number of school resource officers stationed in public schools has gone down by more than 20% since February 2020.
New York City is not alone in reducing its use of SROs. Education Weekly reported that at least 49 school districts have either cut budgets for school policing programs or ended them.
“Children are getting shot going to school, returning from school, they are getting stabbed, dying, and that’s why we need safe corridors,” Mona Davids, the founder of the NYC School Safety Coalition, a group of “parents, families, religious leaders, and community leaders” that supports SROs, said. The National School Resource Officers Association said its members help prevent student injuries and reduce the need for schools to call 911.
However, the National Education Association found that SROs “do little to reduce on-campus violence or mass shootings, and their presence can be damaging to students of color and those with disabilities.”
Laqueanda Reneau, a youth organizer at VOYCE, said she would definitely say no to more SROs in schools, adding that it’s “more meaningful to students to spend money elsewhere.”