By Al Baker, The New York Times
After a series of escapes by prisoners from police custody, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday that he would begin a pilot program in 30 days to outfit prisoners with plastic wristbands bearing photographs and other identifying information.
Shortly after Mr. Kelly made his announcement, police officials said a suspect in an assault had broken free from officers and escaped in the Eastchester section of the Bronx.
It was the 17th escape from police custody this year, not counting a May escape by a convicted killer from investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. There are usually about 34 escapes or escape attempts each year, officials said, and there are an average 382,706 arrests annually.
The series of escapes in recent weeks has embarrassed the Police Department and city officials. “I think one is too many, and we’ve certainly had a rash lately,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said. “It is too many, and the police commissioner knows that, and he’s about as red-faced about it as I am.”
Mr. Kelly had previously responded to the rash of escapes by ordering additional metal bars to which handcuffs can be attached in interrogation rooms, and enhanced training in the transportation of prisoners. Yesterday, he added the plan to make suspects in custody wear plastic identification bracelets. The 30-day pilot program will be in a precinct to be determined in Lower Manhattan.
Mr. Kelly said the bracelets would include a picture of the suspect, a date of birth, the precinct where the suspect was arrested, a Police Department number that designates each arrest and, possibly, a New York State identification system number. The information would be contained in a bar code.
In the Bronx, the police were searching for Tyrone Singleton, 20, of Watson Avenue, who, after being arrested on an assault charge yesterday, struggled with officers outside a building on 229th Street and disappeared into another building.
Yesterday, the police also recaptured a drug suspect who escaped from their custody on Tuesday — the second such incident in four days — hours after Mr. Kelly suspended a police officer who had been responsible for safeguarding the man.
The suspect, Jimmy J. Fogle, 42, pretended to be a man charged with a panhandling violation, a less serious crime, and was mistakenly released from Manhattan Criminal Court on his own recognizance, the authorities said, even though his photograph had been included in the court documents.
Mr. Fogle bought a bus ticket to Syracuse, but was tracked down and rearrested at the Port Authority Bus Terminal shortly before 8 a.m., the police said. Officer Brian Chin, who was responsible for Mr. Fogle, was suspended for 30 days without pay, the police said.
On Monday, Mr. Kelly suspended two other police officers who let a drug suspect escape during daylight hours on Saturday outside a Brooklyn police station house.