(NewsNation) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams served 20 years in NYPD uniform. But officers do not like his latest plan to help fix the crime problem.
According to reports, Adams is asking New York citizens to send in pictures of police on patrol if they are using their phones in a subway station.
This comes on the heels of the New York subway shooting, where a gunman dropped smoke grenades in a crowded subway train in Brooklyn before spraying bullets from a handgun. The incident is just part of a spiraling crime surge that has placed residents on edge.
NewsNation host Leland Vittert says the request for pictures adds to officer frustration with a mayor who fired police officers for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine at a time when New York clearly needed every cop it could keep.
Overall, NYPD says, crime in the Big Apple is up 30 percent since 2017. When taking a closer look at violent crime in the city, over the same period, murders are up 67 percent.
National Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police Joe Gamaldi says the mayor’s request for photos of officers on their phones is a “horrible decision.”
“Morale is in the tank. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it for 17 years. Then you go out into the public, ‘Hey, make sure you’re taking pictures of police officers if they happen to look at their phones while they’re out on patrol.’ All that does is exacerbate the trust or the problems with trust in our community,” Gamaldi said.
The Police Benevolent Association, a union representing around 25,000 New York officers, says police did not ask for their department-issued phones but were ordered to carry them.
The work phones were reportedly given to officers to expand search capabilities, access NYPD databases, receive real-time 911 data and alerts and update information from the field.
