NYC Gazette

Deputy Mayor Phillip Banks III, Public Safety: Good morning. I'm joined here today by Mayor Eric Adams, New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, Bronx District Attorney, Darcel Clark, Queens District Attorney, Melinda Katz. We have the Chief Assistant District Attorney from Brooklyn, Nancy Hoppock. And we would like to recognize the Staten Island District Attorney, though he is not present today. Him and his office was very, very instrumental in this plan.

The NYPD'S Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Mike LiPetri, New York City's Small Business Service Commissioner, Kevin Kim. Members of my office, the Office of Public Safety, specifically I'd like to shout out Steve Board, who was very helpful and instrumental in implementing this plan, and also Jordan Montoya from MOCJ.

We are also proud to be joined by our partners in the retail industry. Our host, and she is such a host. She's a very committed partner. Barbara Askins, who's the president and CEO of the 125th Street Business Improvement District. Kelsey Dorado, director of government relations for the Retail Council of New York. We have representatives of the Collective Action to Protect our Stores. Samuel Collado, president of the National Supermarket Association. Jason Ferreira, who is the owner of Ferreira Foodtown. And Frank Marte, president of the Bodega and Small Business Association. And as certainly seen, we were just joined by our council member, Julie Menin.

Back in December, the mayor tasked his administration with convening a summit to bring everyone together in one room who's had any role to play in preventing retail theft. At each and every table in the room we had a store owner, a business representative, law enforcement personnel, district attorney or a rep, and social service providers. For several hours that day each group had a chance to really talk it out, get to the bottom of exactly what was driving this increase in retail theft that we have seen in New York City over the past few years. And more importantly, start to come up with viable, actionable solutions.

This is how government should work. You bring different voices with different perspectives with different views to the table and you work together to come up with the plan. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.Since that retail theft summit, we have continued those conversations and started to implement the ideas that came out of it. We still have a very long way to go and the plan being released today is our roadmap for it and we are optimistic and confident that we can fix this. We have to fix this because it affects every single one of us.

Every instance of retail theft represents another inch that a business store is going to close for good. It means a lower paycheck. Or even worse, a job cut. It's an employee or a customer feeling unsafe. It tears at the fabric of what's good about New York City.

People should not look like they have to look over their shoulders when they're buying groceries or picking up their medicine from a pharmacy. Retail theft doesn't just strike at the heart of our economy, it strikes at the heart and livelihoods of New Yorkers. We should not, we cannot, and we will not tolerate it. 

And in this plan, we recognize... And this is what happens when you bring everyone together. There are people who steal out of necessity, the plan is how to give them their resources. And there are people who steal because they had organized crime and they should feel the wrath of New York City. Under the mayor's leadership, we will continue our collaboration with our partners and we will fix this issue.With that, I'd like to turn over to the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you, Phil. Great job. And all the DAs and the AG, we should all do an investigation on why Mike Gardner has on his suit and tie today for all things.I cannot thank Deputy Mayor Banks and our DAs and AG. They were at Gracie Mansion discussing this very real problem. Again, it's not a local problem, it's a national problem. Some of this retail theft took place in other parts of the country. It caught on on social media and it spread as fast as the pandemic across our entire country. And there was just a real uncertainty on how to address it.

Many of our retails establishments really don't want their employees playing a role of police and attempting to stop people, because that could be extremely dangerous, as we witnessed several of the incidents where people interceded in the actual thefts and they were assaulted.

And so, we had to come up with a holistic approach. And that is exactly what our partners in law enforcement actually carried out at Gracie Mansion for those number of hours. And the way we laid it out, having our partners in the retail industry, something that I've communicated throughout my years, those great leaders in NSA and others. As well as our law enforcement personnel partnering with the New York City Police Department, our prosecutors, to really break down actually what was happening in our city and in our country around retail thefts.

And I believe the deputy mayor really laid out the case. When someone witnesses the systemic thefts that you are watching in our establishment, it hurts the entire economic stability of the city. It hurts those who are employed there. When you get a chain store that closes down, you lose the employment. And those individuals who are employed, they're out of employment. It hurts the individuals who are assaulted because of this action and it just hurts and bottlenecks our entire criminal justice system.

And so, our goal at the retail theft summit was to sit down and break down into its pieces of what is the problem. And as I use the analogy all the time, what are the many rivers that fed the sea of retail thefts? We walked away with, as the deputy mayor alluded to, three categories.

Number one, you had those who were stealing because of substance dependency. They were going in, they were stealing items, some of them were selling them on the streets, some of them were selling them for reasons to feed their dependency. So we had to address that issue. The second was there were those who were stealing because of needs and they did not know how to access the various city services, the food pantries and the other areas where you can actually, instead of having to steal that loaf of bread, you can go and actually find the various places where we are supplying people with the food they need. And the third is an extremely significant one. There are those who were organized crime, who picked up on the fact that these thefts were taking place, and they zeroed in on paying boosters and paying individuals to go in and steal these items. The attorney general last year did a major takedown operation, partnered with the New York City Police Department. She identified that this was a problem and we started to unravel those structures that were having well established and organized systems of theft and then resell.

And looking at all of those three categories, we made it clear that we were going to come together and solve the problem together. So 70 stakeholders from public and private sat in a room together at Gracie Mansion and we put together the retail theft, and that's the report that we're going to look at today.

And what's interesting is that we had a shocking 44 percent increase from 2021 to 2022. And if you would look again, you will see that this was the trend on social media. I keep talking about how social media is continually feeding some of the dysfunctions that we're seeing in our society. But you saw this over and over again, playing out over and over again on the various social media channels.

In 2022, we made over 22,000 retail theft arrests. And here's the number that jumps off at all of us. 327 repeat offenders were responsible for 30 percent of those arrests. 327 people were responsible for the 22,000 arrests. And remember, those are arrests, not actions. Many of them did the theft and got away with it. But there's a clear pattern that we talk about all the time of the extreme recidivists that's driving much of what we see in the problems in this city. Those 327 individuals were arrested more than 6,600 times for an average of 20 times each.

And we can't just continue to allow recidivist behavior to harm our city. It doesn't matter if it's retail theft or if it's violent crimes, we just continuing to see the pattern of repeated offenders that we want to go after and to tackle.

And so, the partnership, what we are creating in the city is two new diversion programs to allow non-violent offenders to avoid prosecution or incarceration by helping them address underlying factors like substance abuse or severe mental illness. Some of these cases, in many of our retail shops and owners would tell you, you have people that come in the stores, clearly can't take care of themselves, going into the stores repeatedly, stealing items, and they're dealing with real mental health issues. We're going to also train our workers in de-escalation tactics and security best practices, so that they can know how to address this issue.

We're going to increase enforcement against repeated offenders and organized crime. That's the partnership we want to develop with our state and local prosecutors. We're also going to advocate on the state and federal level with additional authentication procedures to prevent the resale of stolen goods. This resale on the social media channels of items that were stolen from stores and now you're openly selling them on social media, it's just unacceptable. And we must get help on all levels of government.And we will build on the NYPD's Operation Safe Shopper by establishing neighborhood retail watches that would allow businesses to share real time intelligence. This is one area we are very excited about. If our businesses are sharing real time intelligence, we can prevent much of these thefts. And there has been an operation that was put in place that has shown promising results and we are excited about continuing that.

And our administration is going to continue to go upstream. We are going to continue to look after those who are dealing with substance abuse, those who are dealing with mental health issues, to give them a better pathway than walking into a Duane Reade or a Target or a supermarket and carrying out the thefts that we have witnessed in this city.And so, we're pleased at the results and now it's time to take that documentation and move it into implementation so that we could ensure that we stop what is happening across this nation in retail thefts.

We believe we have a model that we are going to share with our law enforcement partners across the country, but we also are going to share with our retail theft establishments here in the city. The more that they share information… Because the person who's stealing in Duane Reade is also stealing in Walgreens, Target, and many of our other stores. It's the same individuals. They move from one location to another and carry out these actions. And if we are organized together, we could bring a conclusion to it.

And so, I want to bring on our AG, who has been a real partner. She has been on the forefront of this issue. As I stated, last year, she took down a major operation, where a warehouse was filled with goods. With her partnership and the New York City Police Department, we're going to continue to pursue this. And I want to thank our prosecutors for joining in this. And I just want to also join Phil in just really thanking Barbara who has been a real hero here in the Harlem community. This beautiful shop here, using the open retail space to become a community hub, so that we can have a community driven approach to dealing with quality of life in public safety.

In February, we walked in the rain up and down 125th Street with Congressman Espaillat, and she pointed out some of the concerns that we were having on this major economic strength of this community in Harlem, 125th Street. And so, I'm going to turn it over to our AG and have a few words. Thank you, attorney general.

Attorney General Letitia James: Thank you so much. Let me begin by thanking the Deputy Mayor Banks, as well as Mayor Adams for their commitment to help improve the quality of life in our city and address public safety in general.The scourge of retail theft is something that impacts our businesses and everyday New Yorkers each and every day. I know that prices are high. Inflation has been cutting into our paychecks and hard conversations have been had around kitchen tables on a daily basis, but stealing is not the answer. It is a crime that hurts businesses, hurts New Yorkers, and frankly, hurts our entire communities. Our small businesses are already struggling with high cost and low profit margins. Piling on lost revenue because of retail theft hurts these small business operators. Many of whom are simply, they want to just realize the American dream.

It is important that we know that retail theft across New York City has increased dramatically, and that has harmed businesses, harmed New Yorkers, and created a sense that we are not safe in the City of New York. There's been a 77 percent increase in retail theft over the past five years, and we've seen a 45 percent increase from 2021 and 2022. This is a problem that is getting worse and that is why we are all here today, to step up and to take action. When businesses have to try and recoup lost revenue from retail theft, it basically ends up being law-abiding New Yorkers who ultimately pay the price.

Last May, as was mentioned, my office teamed up with Mayor Adams and his administration to take down a massive retail theft operation that stole and resold millions of dollars worth of goods, operating out of two major warehouses in Queens. The dozens of criminals involved in this criminal enterprise stole everything from coffee to gift cards, from cosmetics to electronics. And by removing these individuals from our streets and our stores, we helped address this problem. But clearly, more work is needed. And for us to have thriving communities, where residents and visitors feel safe and can go about their lives, we need to address retail theft right away.

And so, I want to thank Mayor Adams for organizing this event and for his work to confront this issue, because we need to take action and stop retail theft because it represents a societal scourge. Before it does more damage to our businesses, our communities, and to our city and our state as a whole, because it impacts individuals on a daily basis. I thank the mayor. I thank the deputy mayor. I thank the district attorneys. I thank all who have assembled here this morning to address this issue.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, attorney general. Next, we're going to hear from the NYPD's chief of Crime Control Strategies, Mike LiPetri.

Michael LiPetri, Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Police Department: Thank you, deputy mayor. Thank you, Mayor Adams. Good morning. So I thought it was fitting that as I entered here today on 125th Street, that there was, I think I saw six police officers on foot. They are not there because of this press conference. They're there for a reason. We realized the issues of retail theft and we moved hundreds of officers into areas where we saw the highest amounts of retail theft.So what are some of those areas? 125th Street being one of them, White Plains Road in the Bronx, Eighth Avenue Corridor in Manhattan, Canal Street in Manhattan, Queens, Queens Boulevard. So we realized that the police needed to be out there on foot in and around these business districts. And I just want to acknowledge the district attorney's offices that are present today. There has never been better coordination, collaboration, or prioritization when it comes to retail theft. We're sharing data and we're targeting the individuals that continue to prey on not just the businesses, but everyday New Yorkers.

So the mayor talked about the 327 people last year that were arrested almost over 6,000 times. So let's talk about the 250 people this year that have been arrested almost 2,500 times. Yes, 250 people in 2023 have been arrested almost 2,500 times. Again, that's 30 percent. Who are these people? 52 percent are convicted felons. That's up from the 327 of 45 percent. 25 percent are incarcerated today. Those 250 people, those are the individuals that we feel should have swift and certain consequences when it comes to prosecutions. And we are collaborating with our prosecutors and we are seeing the incarceration increase when it comes to these individuals. Again, the mayor touched on it, the deputy mayor touched on it, the attorney general touched on it. When we collaborate with the DA's offices, those are the individuals that we collaborate with.

Of the arrests this year of retail theft, 70 percent of arrestees this year have been arrested for prior shoplifting complaints. We have individuals that have been arrested over 30 times just this year, targeting the same business. The Targets, the Carters. The top 25 businesses in New York City that are being targeted by these recidivists, five are pharmacies and 20 are chain stores. Yes, the same pharmacies that people used to walk two blocks to go to now have to get on a bus because that pharmacy was closed down. And working with the DA's offices, working with our private sector law enforcement professionals, it's continuing to see a small improvement. So I'll talk to you about the small improvement.

So this year, complaints are down about 1,000, about 5 percent less complaints this year. What I like is arrests are up 20 percent, almost 1,500 more arrests than last year. Also, when we're not making a summary arrest, our detectives are clearing more cases via shoplifting. And again, this is prioritizing. This is asking our Detective Bureau to target the locations and target the individuals that continue to prey on those locations. Shoplifting calls via 911 have gone up. Again, collaboration, asking the businesses to call us when they're victims of shoplifting. Those are the things that I like to highlight, and those are the small positives that I see. I like to thank everybody.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, chief. Next we're going to hear from the Manhattan District Attorney Al Bragg.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Banks, and thank you to the mayor for convening us last year and for just being extraordinary partners day in and day out. And she's been thanked before, but I have to thank her again as we're here in the village of Harlem, in Manhattan, Barbara Askins. We sat around a table right where you're sitting today, yesterday with stakeholders, community leaders, small businesses, NYPD, Captain Sheppard from the 28. It's that integration, that effort, which the mayor has led citywide, Barbara Askins is leading right here on 125th Street.

We know Manhattan is the retail capital of the country and 125th Street, in many ways, is the heartbeat. We cannot accept a system where individuals are cycling in and out, coming out again to shoplift. It's bad for the stores, it's bad for the businesses, it's bad for our customers. It's bad for the individuals themselves. We got together under the mayor's leadership and deputy mayor's leadership late last year and have been coordinating. Before that, under Barbara's leadership in Manhattan, we had a small business alliance and we've been working together.

The good news is that these efforts are already starting to yield fruit. In Manhattan, year to date, petit larcenies are down eight percent, robberies are down five percent, and shoplifting complaints are down 11 percent. I want to thank the chief for the resources, the work, the coordination, and the data-driven. We're pairing our data and working together. And again, want to thank the mayor and the deputy mayor, all the colleagues in government. It's all the stakeholders coming together. We know we have a lot more work to do, but did want to note those encouraging trends. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, DA Bragg. Next we're going to hear from the Bronx. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. Morning.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark: Thank you and good morning. Thank you to you, Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Banks for convening that summit last year to talk about retail theft and to really… It's great to be here among all of you to talk about the fruits of that meeting. It was really a great opportunity for everyone to sit down at the same table to try to stop retail theft from destroying our communities through lost revenue, jobs and just being able to conveniently shop in your neighborhood as well as demoralizing the morale of our residents, the shoppers, the business owners, as well as their employees.

I believe that the suggestions that have been made and the proposals offered in the mayor's report will provide concrete measures to get this scourge under control. Holding accountable organized, violent thieves and addressing the needs of those people who shoplift because of poverty and mental health and addiction issues has always been the policy in my office. And I'm just happy that I have been able to partner with the business community in this effort to get this done. I've worked with a number of the retail council’s CAPS, communities against saving our partnership, several Bronx banks, the National Supermarket Association, the bodega owners, the loss prevention officers from some of the big box stores, as well as the drugstore chains. All of us working together with NYPD has helped to deal with the recidivists that we've seen in the Bronx.

And my General Crimes Bureau, along with my Crimes Strategies Bureau also works with these same partners to make sure that we identify the high priority larceny recidivists because that is the heart of what is happening here, to deal with those who are causing the most harm because of their recidivism. And we've been able to secure dispositions for under this program and this partnership, whether it's ranging from getting mental health treatment for somebody, drug treatment, all the way to people serving time in jail for their crimes.

It's also wonderful that just yesterday, the Bronx Community Foundation, the not-for-profit, announced a program in the Bronx that's going to start in South Bronx and other parts of the city where they're going to be providing grants to bodega owners so that they can get cameras and panic buttons in their store, their stores. That's going to be phenomenal. And those are some of the things that we heard at the summit, sitting down at the table. Those are some of the things that those bodega owners said to me. It's not just the big box stores. What about the mom-and-pop supermarket? Everybody is different, but they all play a great role in our community. So I'm happy that is coming about.

And then also, I was happy to see, Mr. Mayor, that my officer's BronxCAMS program, was mentioned in your report, and that's a community camera program that we have where we are asking business owners and residential owners as well as NYCHA and other people that have cameras to register them with our office so that when something happens, we are able to secure evidence of that crime happening. It works for larcenies, the thefts, it works for all kinds of things. Now we are not watching the cameras.

Don't think the Bronx DA is watching everybody's camera. No. We don't have that, but all it is a partnership with those owners, camera owners, so that when something happens, we know who to go to when a program occurs. So that is really phenomenal and we are happy that made part of the report.

In essence, it is going to take all of us to get this done. This is a great partnership. This is a great start. My partners in government, all of the retail owners, every single one of us here are being able to make a difference if we work together and we are talking about. Whether it's treatment to jail, all of it are the tools that we're going to have to use. So thank you for this report, Mr. Mayor, and I look forward to continuing my partnership against retail theft. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you, DA Clark. Next we're going to hear from Melinda Katz, the Queens County district attorney. Good morning.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz: Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, Deputy Mayor Banks, to all my colleagues, to the attorney general, who by the way, a lot of folks can say, well, the State of New York is so big. How do we address certain events that are going on in the City of New York and throughout the state? This is an attorney general who focuses and makes sure to take care of issue by issue. And Mr. Mayor, I loved your conference at Gracie Mansion. I loved it because I got to sit with Barbara and everybody is talking about that, but we exchanged a lot of great ideas.

Look, New York City is a city of neighborhoods. That's what we are. You go across the street, you get different neighborhoods, different food, different cultures, different people. It is a great city. And Queens, 190 countries, 200 languages is no different. Everyone has a right to shop in peace. Everyone's got a right to go to the store with their kids and not worry about whether something's going to happen in that store. Everyone has a right to have their grandparents, their parents sit on benches in parks and being safe. I have a right to make sure that when my son leaves the house and goes to 7-Eleven, that he's going to come home safe and sound and that he's going to feel a fairness that's out there. We all know what this is like, right? We're talking about numbers and Chief LiPetri, who we speak to very often, thank you for that. And he is doing his job every day in making sure that we know who the recidivists are and that the recidivists are being focused on in the city of New York.

But you go into a store, you're standing online carrying your toothpaste and your goods and whatever you had to get from the local Walgreens. And you know what it's like. Your fifth in line, you're standing there, and three people are walking in with a knapsack, fills it up and walks out. And you're standing there thinking to yourself, "Well, crime is at a 100 percent."

Those aren't good things for tourists to see. They're terrible things for our children to see and to have an administration and law enforcement on both sides, law enforcement and police and DAs that are working together with the mayor of the City of New York on training the individuals that work on the store on mental health illness, on making sure people aren't hungry, on finding out why people are doing this every single day.

The district attorney of the Bronx talked about mental health illness. It is a real thing, but what's also a real thing is what the Mayor said, which are hundreds of people are doing these thousands of crimes. Which is why in Queens County, we developed a trespass affidavit. It means you get one warning in a store. We have Jamaica, Flushing, and Astoria have already signed up. We have almost 100 businesses signed up. First time someone's hanging around either being a threat, or hanging around and shoplifting and anything that comes with that, they get a trespass notice because we don't want too many people ending up in the system if they don't have to. They get a warning. And the second time, they get arrested. And the truth of the matter is we've handed out dozens and dozens of these. We've only had three arrests from it because people don't come back when they know that you're serious about the fact that there has to be safety for the employees, safety for the customers, and people should be able to shop at their pleasure. I shouldn't have to worry about my kids going out to a local 7-Eleven.

And so I want to thank everyone that is involved in this. I think that you can only handle it if it is citywide. And I think the real point here is that this is a huge issue in the City of New York and the elected officials and law enforcement are gathering together to make sure that we come out with a result that is right for this great City of New York. So people should feel comfortable all over the country, come here, go to our retail stores, spend their money and know that everyone is doing the same. It's an important thing for the city, and I thank the mayor for his persistence and bringing us all together at Gracie Mansion.

Deputy Mayor Banks: Thank you DA Katz. And last certainly, but not least, we're going to have a few words from Barbara Askins.

Barbara Askins, President and CEO, 125th Street Business Improvement District: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Banks, and thank you, Mayor Adams. This is a great day for us here on 125th Street. I know all of our property owners and our businesses are going to be very happy to hear that we now have a plan, and I'll just go back to how we came to do this. We were all talking about how we're going to come out of the Covid. And our property owners, because they stand behind me, said, "Barbara, we need to meet the mayor halfway. We need to get beyond us calling the city and saying that you need to take care of this. So what can we do?" And through those conversations, I had an idea. "Well, you guys have all these vacant storefronts. Give me one of them. Give me one of the storefronts where we can bring the problems to the street and get all the agencies together in one place on a regular basis to talk about it."

Because I'm a firm believer that if the people who have the power and the resources are together enough, then a solution that has not been developed is going to pop up somewhere, and that's what we did. We just met every week. Then we moved to every two weeks and now every month. And the good part is Mayor Adams saw the vision immediately. It didn't take a long time. I just grabbed him, "Hey, I got a solution and I can work." He said, "Listen to what she has to say," and here we are today. We are so excited about these recommendations. And just one caution. The people on the street, they watch us. So once you come out with your plan, then they're going to readjust. So this work is ongoing until we can root the problem out. Thank you so much.

And Letitia, we go back so long. I'm always happy to see her in Harlem and everything. So it's good to be here. And Mayor Adams and Deputy Banks, thank you. And lastly, DA Bragg. He lives around the corner. We run into each other at Cafe [inaudible], but we all know that this cannot happen without the DA's office as well. Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Banks: And final, I just wanted to add just one quick note. One, we convened a criminal justice summit also. So we did a retail summit, a criminal justice summit. We also convened, we call it a cross-sector security council. We have all the security people who run the businesses. Barclays, Chase, Citi Field, Morgan Stanley, all have come together. When you go to the mayor, he says, "Get everybody in the room because you only know from your perspective. Let's listen and let's see everybody's views and work out the plan together." So for me, the takeaway here is New York City, we can do it if we do it together. And if we take some of that energy that we have that we're always going at each other and transfer that energy into something positive, New York City can continue to become the best place to live, reside, and work.

So I just want to thank all of the partners here. We stand up and have these press conferences, but the attorney general's office, we were doing a report. She was writing back. "No, change this. What do you think about that?" All the district attorneys were very much engaged. This wasn't a rubber stamp. And I just have to say it was a lot of work. But I tell you, they really, really… So I have to salute all of the partners here. This is truly a team effort. Of course, I got to say, I'm going to take my hats off to the mayor because he's the mayor of New York City, but he pushes all of the time, get everybody in the room because the whole is greater than the individual parts and sums, et cetera, et cetera. So thank you very much. And Fabien, I'll kick it to you.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Good. So let me ask you this. So I've talked to store owners and even supermarket managers. There's a theft in action. They're loading up their backpacks or duffle bags or whatever. And they call the police or they call 911, and it takes a while for anybody to come to respond and then these guys are in the wind. So how can that improve?

Mayor Adams: A couple of things and something that I think we did incorrectly, that we are moving away from. Someone commits a crime, they flee the scene. They feel as though I got away, it’s done. No, we are going to knock on your door. If we have an identification, if we have a way to identify you, that's what Chief LiPetri was talking about, the detectives are going to close those cases because that's how we send the message. The mere fact you were able to leave the store does not mean you left the prosecution. And we're going to continue to go and pursue those who are committing the crime because it is revealing to us, it's a small number of people who believe I got away with the theft, now I'm going to go do it tomorrow. We're changing that mindset.

Question: Mayor, those repeat offender stats are mind-blowing from last year and this year. Really, really eye grabbing. Not to put you on the spot too much, but are you seeing what you need from your district attorneys you're standing with right now? Because you don't get to be a repeat offender unless you go out again and again and again, we heard 30 times on average last year. Are you seeing what you need from the DA's offices?

Mayor Adams: Yes, we have established a real partnership on some of the things we push for on all levels of government. We sit in a room, they understand the challenges that they have, but when we come up with creative solutions like we're doing, we're able to go within the limitations of our offices. There's only certain things we can do. And also we don't want to just be a feeder to the system. It just makes no sense if a person has a substance abuse problem to arrest him on Monday, have him back out on Tuesday doing it again. Now, we need to ask how do we deal with this issue?

The underlying reasons stop the problems that we're facing in the city and I'm just focused on that. I'm just not a person that believes you only deal with the underlying reasons and ignore the fact that a person committed a crime. I don't subscribe to that. You committed a crime, here are your options, and we want to prevent you from continually doing so. And we found that many of the extreme recidivists were dealing with mental health, substance abuse, poverty issues, a lot of those social issues that was driving some of the crime.

Question: Hi. Good morning, Mayor Adams. Two questions.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: In the data that you collected, have you all been able to attribute a dollar amount to the sum total of all of this merchandise stolen citywide? And then secondly, what does that partnership look like with those non-profit agencies, those non-municipal agencies to provide those social services that might be underlying issues that are leading to the theft? So is there a pyramid structure for that as well?

Mayor Adams: Do we have a dollar amount at all?

Deputy Mayor Banks: No, not a total dollar.

Mayor Adams: Right. I think the biggest amount is, it's a lot. That’s what my son used to say. You want to go into the partnerships? You heard the question?

Deputy Mayor Banks: I did hear the questions, and it is a lot. It's a lot depending on what timeframe you look at. You're talking into the hundreds of millions of dollars and that's just off the goods that's being stolen. But the partnership that we're having with the retail theft, we have some of our members up here, and the members up here now, we haven't not spoken to them in too much and now they're here now. We speak to them consistently.

So what happens is the ideal part of the plan is that when we identify, even at the point of inception of someone who has actually committed that particular crime here. What the mayor's objective is, and I think the district attorneys concur, make the assessment as quick as we possibly can. Is this a person who is selling just in fact because they need to eat? And then in lieu of this particular arrest or prosecution, let's get him or her the services that they need. And that's almost like directly at the scene.

So you have a situation where the store employees are going to have the information to provide, but certainly if the police are coming there, we are not looking to quantify this by arrest. Success is not necessarily by arrest.

Now, as the chief says, do we want to arrest a person who's going out there and he's selling it online because he's doing it as far as a business? Absolutely. But the ones who have substance abuse, we want to be able to say either at the store or back at the precinct in consultation with the district attorneys because they're responsible, can we get the person these particular services in lieu of putting them in the criminal justice system? The success is not going into the criminal justice system.

Question: The follow is, but I'm asking, sir, with respect, what's the infrastructure of that? Do you have a list of partners? Is that a second part of the program? What is the infrastructure for that network of social services?

Mayor Adams: Yep. DA, you wanted to?

District Attorney Katz: What normally will happen is if someone gets arrested for a DAT-able offense, which if it's the first offense, this should be a DAT. If it's the second one, it's DAT-able, but now we arrest on it. We actually assess on every case whether or not they need any type of public services, mental health illness, drug rehabilitation. And we make that assessment even before we charge. And we do that for almost every DAT that comes through.In our office last year, and I don't know about the other offices, but it's pretty much I assume the same type of structure that most minor offenses, and this is a minor one until you get arrested the second or third time, and we can put you through the entire system. We work with not-for-profits throughout the entire City of New York to deliver those services. So we'll work with different not-for-profits for drug rehabilitation, workforce development. I will tell you that in the borough of Queens, there are 359 applications because there was a second, third or fourth arrest for a DAT-able offense like a retail theft. About half of them are given some sort of securing order, a bail or some sort of programs.

Mayor Adams: So I misunderstood your question. Now I got it. And all of these DAs, DA Bragg allocated a substantial amount of money around the whole mental health crisis that's helping what we are doing. So all of these offices, the uniqueness of their offices is that is not only prosecution. They look at how do we prevent crimes. And so there's a pre-existing infrastructure that's already there and they built them out long before we did this retail theft.

Question: Another question. We saw what happened in San Francisco where a store hires a security officer or they hire staff loss prevention, and you see what happened in San Francisco where that man is killed and shot for stealing from a store. What are you telling store owners in terms of handling that kind of thing on their own? Are you telling them to reach out to NYPD? Will you tell us about that?

Mayor Adams: There's one comment dealing with any of these interactions, you use the minimum amount of force to stop the threat and prevent the action. And also, we're encouraging stores to look at the amazing paid detail initiative that the New York City Police Department currently has in place. And those security officers, we are going to continue to instruct them, it's about using the minimum amount of force to stop the threat, and also reach out to the Police Department to assist in those challenging times. And the more we train those who are on the ground, we can deal with that segment of the operation because there's many segments of the operation. Not everyone is as violent as we saw in San Francisco. You have some that’s just a mere deterrence of what we saw in one store of moving around with a habitual, a person that shoplifts, was able to deter. So we have a few items that we are going to be rolling out with this plan that we think is going to bring some true success.

Question: Do you have a plan in place to bring these numbers down? Where do you see the city next here in terms of the numbers? I know you don't have a crystal ball, but you have a lot of brain power here and providing solutions and you think this is the plan that will bring these numbers down. So can you give us a target?

Mayor Adams: 44 percent increase is something that's not acceptable and this is an administration that we are not afraid to continue to try. Standing still is not a response for us, and so it's our desire to see this trend in a different direction. Chief LiPetri has assisted us in this analysis where the problems are. They have been partnering with Chief Maddrey to deploy the right personnel. That is how we brought down shootings and homicides and some of the other majors is based on looking at where the patterns are and then implementing real responses. And if we don't get it right the first time, we try again. We have to reconvene next year after we do an analysis where the numbers are, we're going to try again. That's just how we operate in this administration. We keep trying until we get it right and then we share the information across the country.

Question: Just what do you say? This is something you must hear when you ride the trains. People are like you go to the pharmacy and you can't get anything. You go to 7-Eleven, they have to buzz you into the door. What do you say when New Yorkers stop you and say how do you fix that?

Mayor Adams: Those are symbols of surrender. And this is New York, we don't surrender. We don't surrender to crime, we don't surrender to dysfunctionality, we don't surrender to disorder. And so those are symbols of surrender. And a real indicator of our success is when you see the buzzers come off the doors and you see the products no more locked up and you can find what you're looking for when you walk in your store. And I don't know who said it, but I think it was DA Bragg, but just think about it. When people say that this is not an issue. When Ms. Jones need to get her prescription filled and she cannot walk down the block, but she must take the bus blocks away. That is impacting the quality of life of people. So this is impacting the quality of life of everyday New Yorkers and we're just not going to accept it. Okay, why don't we do a few off topics.

Question: Hi. Good morning Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Kevin Sheehan, New York Post. Just one quick question. Do you want to use Rikers to house migrants, specifically the OBCC, or Otis Bantum Corrections Center?

Mayor Adams: I said this over and over again as we deal with this crisis, probably one of the largest crises, humanitarian crisis the city has ever experienced. We are going to look at everything, and as we roll out what we are doing, we will announce. But right now, everything I tell the team every morning at eight 8 a.m. we are looking at everything, and as we roll them out, we're going to share with you.

Question: Do you have a plan to convert the space.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Mr. Mayor, can you say anything about the response to paparazzi chase involving Prince Harry and his wife last night? Pretty scary. Apparently two NYPD officers involved. We all know the history with that family here. What do you know about that? What can you tell New Yorkers about that?

Mayor Adams: It's clear that the press, paparazzis, they want to get the right shot. They want to get the right story. But public safety must always be at the forefront. From the briefing I received, two of our offices could have been injured. New York City is different from a small town somewhere. You shouldn't be speeding anywhere, but this is a densely populated city, and I think all of us, I don't think there's many of us who don't recall how his mom died and it would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this and something to have happened to them as well. So I think we have to be extremely responsible. I thought that was a bit reckless and irresponsible.

Question: Mayor Adams, just to follow up to that, can you share more details about the briefing that you received and if they confirmed that this was a two-hour chase because this is a densely populated town, as you mentioned there, lots of traffic. And just did they confirm that the duration was two hours in New York City traffic, and just any other details you might be able to share about the briefing please?

Mayor Adams: No, I'm going to be briefed in depth later on today and to give the exact timeframe of how long. I would find it hard to believe that there was a two hour high speed chase. That would be, I find it hard to believe, but we will find out the exact duration of it. But if it's 10 minutes, a 10-minute chase is extremely dangerous in New York City. We have a lot of traffic, a lot of movement, a lot of people are using our streets. Any type of high speed chase that involves something of that nature is inappropriate. Police do it under limited circumstances when they're going after violent people, but to do it because you want to get the right shot can turn out to be a place where people can be harmed in a real way.

Question: The Citizens Budget Commission analysis found that for the fiscal year 2024, that the NYPD's budget is likely $1.6 billion less than it should given the ratified PBA contract. Could you comment on that?

Mayor Adams: They said it's $1.6…

Question: Less than it should be given the recent ratified PBA contract according to Citizens Budget Commission.

Mayor Adams: I'm not sure what they're talking about. Jacques could look over that. I'll have Jacques from OMB look over that. I'm not exactly where they're looking at. I know that the NYPD and the other agencies met their PEG, the agencies that we determined that we were going to allow to not have the exact PEG, we listed them. But Police Commissioner Sewell did a great job in making sure, as challenging as it was, that they met their PEG. Thank you.

Question: Mayor, with the expiration of Title 42, I don't think the city has seen the expected huge influx of migrants. So I'm wondering why hotels are not still available, why are hotels still not an option to house migrants. And why is the city considering Rikers and school gyms as opposed to what you guys have traditionally done so far, which is to use hotels to house the Rikers?

Mayor Adams: Okay, first you said we are considering Rikers, as I stated, that when we decide where we're going to go and we're going to let you know. So we shouldn't speculate what we are considering other than everything is being considered. One of the biggest impediments to resolve in this issue is that people have not really accepted the fact that this is a crisis. And some of that is because of us. I'll be honest, some of that is because of this administration's ability to do what other municipalities were not able to do. As I stated over and over again, I've been to El Paso, they're sleeping in the airports, they're sleeping in the streets. I speak to my mayors in other places. So because we have managed it well, people have the belief, well, it can't be that bad.

No, it's bad. And I don't know what it's going to take where everyone is saying we are downplaying, "Oh, it's not bad." No, it is that bad.

And so we didn't get yet the heavy flow from Title 42, but we got 4,200 people last week came to our city for shelter. Just… I need everybody to wrap their heads around that for a moment. 4,200 people showed up in our city in one week with the already 65,000 that was here already and saying we need full care and shelter. Then we had 900 people a few days ago that came in one day. One day, 900 people. We've never seen numbers like this that come at one time, showing up at our intake centers and saying, "We need full care." And so when you look at the fact that, yes, we didn't have the huge numbers yet, we believe we're going to get anywhere from 13 to 15 buses in the next day or so. So each time folks come in, we have to immediately address the issue. 

And so in order to address an onslaught, you have to have places you can put people as you normalize and figure it out. So we reached out to our hotels. Many of them are saying we don't want to get into the shelter business. Many of them are going to price points that is just too hard for taxpayers to pay. Many of them are not suitable for housing migrants. So I just really need everybody, particularly our leaders… A City Council person said the other day that y'all just manufacturing this crisis. There just needs to be a real reality check that this is a real issue that could potentially harm this entire city.

So on May 16, 2023, almost 1,000 applications yesterday, the most ever, for services. This note that I just got, almost half of all hotel rooms now are taken up by asylum seekers. Think about that. So I'm not sure what is it going to take before people hear what I am saying that we are going to wait until we're too far gone… This is what we were trying to prevent. We were trying to prevent this. And now we're here and I'm happy to see that everyone appears to be saying, okay, there's a real issue here.

Question: Yeah, Mr. Mayor, how is the state or is the state helping you? For instance, facilities at the airports, there are buildings there or large areas that can be utilized. Also, have you approached the New York Dioceses or the Brooklyn Dioceses, where they have school buildings that are no longer being used, schools that are closed?

Mayor Adams: Well, I just want to go back for a moment, because I don't know if... I'm going to answer your question, but I don't know if people really understand what I just said. Think about this for a moment. New York City is the hotel capital. We're the hotel capital. Tourism, visitors, sporting events, graduations, people coming to town because their loved ones are graduating. We're the hotel capital and it's a major economic engine for us.

Almost 50 percent of those hotel rooms are taken up by migrant asylum seekers that we are paying for. So instead of monies coming from people who are visiting us and spending in our tourism, in our Broadway plays, instead of them using those hotels, we are using those hotels.

Question: What's the state doing? Have they checked out any JFK facilities because of the buildings or unused hangars. Also, the dioceses, where they're having unused school facilities?

Mayor Adams: We are leaving nothing untouched. Hangars, closed churches. Whatever we can do that is suitable to house the migrants and asylum seekers, we are examining. We have a full team from DSS, City Hall. I cannot say enough about this team. A full team that's looking everywhere.

Question: Is the state coming through for you?

Mayor Adams: Well, they have to. Governor Hochul has been a partner. I said this over and over again. We could use the money that's coming in the budget, but then we need to do more and everyone in the state needs to be a part of this. New York City is the economic engine of this state. And if we have been there for the state, the state needs to be there for us. And those who are in other parts of the state that are saying we are going to take you to court, we are going to do these emergency orders. We need to stop. We're in this together. New York City must succeed for the state to succeed.

Question: Just to put a finer point on it.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: You grew up in Herbert Daughtry's church. You know you're going to be talked to by faith leaders about this. Nobody wants to go to Rikers Island for any reason. So do you imagine the optics of that even being in the ether, for people to report that people from City Hall went to Rikers Island just to check it out, how do you respond to that? Nobody wants to go to Rikers Island for any reason, but to house migrants there, just the optics and the viewpoint of that.

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, again as I stated, once we decide, we are going to release. There's only one thing that I think all of you can say about me as mayor, I'm willing to make the tough decisions and not get bottled down and what the optics are. Whomever is telling us not to go somewhere, I have one question from them. You tell me where we should go then? That's what I need. So whomever is saying don't go to a hotel on this block, don't go to a hotel on that block. If you are telling me that, then I need for you to tell me where to go. Because the worst optic we could have is for a family to sleep on our streets. That's the optic we can't have.

So whoever has an idea of whatever hotel I'm using or whatever plan we are rolling out, if they're saying, Eric, we don't think you should do that, then I'm going to say, fine. Now you tell me. Because the number one question I'm asking everyone now, did you go to Washington to get us more money? What have you done for the migrants and where would you like for me to house them? If you can't answer question one, two, and three...

Question: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you, Marcia?

Question: How are you today?

Mayor Adams: Good.

Question: So I'm wondering why you decided at this point in time to start putting migrants in the standalone gyms at various schools. There were people who point out that you have other options. You could put them in Javits Center. There was a City Council member who pointed out an empty city building in Brooklyn on May 16, 2023.

So the question is, this is the kind of thing that's going to generate more publicity than almost anything in the whole world because parents are screaming and they're screaming loudly. Is this a strategy to try to put more pressure on elected officials everywhere, including Washington, to come to your aid, because so far they have been silent? So the question is twofold. One, why the gyms now, when you have other options and why is this part of a strategy that you hope will be a public relations boon for you, because it'll put pressure on elected officials to help you?

Mayor Adams: Okay, first let me answer the why we're using. We have a list of places. I think we have a 400 location list that we're looking at. At the… Right, that we're looking at. We're examining the idea. Not all of them are ideal, because remember, we are talking about showers, we're talking about places to sleep, food, so they are not all ideal. So sometimes people would say, well okay, let's say the Javits Center. Let's use the Javits Center.

How does that impact the conventions, the economic, the jobs, the working, feeding our economy, the taxes, all the things that Javits Center is doing. So when we take something offline, we need to understand what's the rippling effect of taking something offline. So a lot of people have great ideas, but are they well thought out? That's what managing a city is about. It's about saying if I were to take the Javits Center offline, how does that hurt our bottom line?

Like we did with the cruise terminal, we took the cruise terminal offline when it was not being used. We said, it's not being used right now. We're going to need this space. So as we wait for other hotels to open, let's take the cruise terminal offline, let's put people in there for a short period of time, and they move them into another location. That's how you manage a city.

There's a reason this current City Council person is deciding not to run again, because merely running around talking about things is different from having to govern and manage this city. I'm managing a city that's dealing with a complex crisis right now. Our goal is to look at all of those places and say, is it doable? Can we actually house people in a safe way and make sure that they're treated with the level of dignity that this city is known for? Other municipalities have not done that.

Question: If I could just ask a follow up question? So basically what you're saying is that every decision that you make has an economic impact on the city's bottom line?

Mayor Adams: And social impact. Because people thought that we were opening every gym in all of our schools for migrants. We had to say, wait a minute, that's not what we said. We've identified standalone gyms and they are at the bottom of our pecking order of actually being utilized. There's a whole lot of places before that. We had to have an emergency on one location in Staten Island because the influx came so rapidly that we had to put people there for a day or so so we could get the other locations open. So we're looking at the economics, the social impact of how does this make sure that we carry out our overall goal?

Question: My question is this.

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Question: So you have said that the total cost of having the migrants come here is $4.2 billion, but that's the cost of the migrants. Question I have for you, have you done any economic analysis of what it's costing the city's bottom line in terms of lost tourism? If you were to close the gyms, or whatever, the lost tax revenue, things like that. People that aren't going to go to Broadway shows or pay hotel taxes. Have you got any sense of what that is costing the city and what effect is that going to have on your budget?

Mayor Adams: That is a great question. That is something that one of the independent budget officers, some of the other folks that analyze how the impact, because there's clearly an impact. When I take a hotel offline and use it for migrants, then we are not getting those residual impacts. So there's the $4.3, which is going to be higher, I believe. The $4.3 that we are now looking at is only dealing with the cost of doing this. There's a whole other dollar amount, as you just indicated, that's going to impact us as well.

Question: Three parts. First, have you asked President Biden to declare a state of emergency? Should he declare one, and what would that do as far as the federal government allocating money and money being dispersed to the city from the federal government? Would it help things? Would it speed things, and could you kind of share your thoughts?

Mayor Adams: Yeah, from my understanding, state of emergencies could be both manmade and natural disasters. There have been cases where they were manmade and a declaration was made. I believe that we should declare a state of emergency here and other electeds have shared that belief as well. 

This is an emergency. It's baffling to me that there are those on the national level are not understanding what this is doing to New York City. Because not only is New York City the economic engine of the state, we're the economic engine of the country. As I stated, I think we are a victim of our success. There people say, okay, they can handle it. No matter how many come, they can handle it. It's New York. It's big. Everything gets lost into the crevices of New York City. They have school systems already. But it's just not true.

So we have reached out to the White House on a number of occasions and stated clearly the things we need. Allow people to work, which I believe that's one of the number one things we can do. Allow people to work. And do a decompression strategy at the border. We got 108,000 cities and towns and villages. Why aren't we spreading this out throughout the entire country? Stop allowing FEMA dollars… Think about this for a moment.

We got less than some of the other states on FEMA dollars. They're using the dollars they got from FEMA to bus people to New York. I mean, does that make sense? When I sat down with FEMA, I said, "How could you give them money to use to bus people to New York City?" So they're passing through these municipalities to come to New York City. There has to come a point where everybody has to say this is just unfair to New York City what we're watching. There's no way that everybody's not saying right now what are y'all doing to New York?

Question: When you talk to federal officials about the state of emergency, declaring one, what kind of feedback do you get from them as far as that happening?

Mayor Adams: People are analyzing and they're seeing the pros and cons. I think there are only pros.

Original source can be found here.