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NYPD: New social distancing enforcement sparks LE safety concerns, ‘controversy’

Over the past week, officers have been tasked with handing out face masks and enforcing new social distancing guidelines, raising questions about community and officer safety

Joseph Ostapiuk
Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — As enforcement of social distancing and mask-wearing measures for the public amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak ramps up in Staten Island and across New York City, questions have arose regarding safety protocols for first responders.

A directive from the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), dated April 14 and signed by DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camilo, said: “... every City employee shall wear a face covering provided by the City that covers the employee’s mouth and nose at all times while performing service that requires interacting with members of the public and when it is not possible for the employee to maintain a distance of 6 feet or more from other City employees.”

Disobeying the protocol, according to Camilo, “shall constitute insubordination and may subject the employee to disciplinary penalties up to and including termination.”

On April 23, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that NYPD officers should be wearing a mask, both in public and in patrol vehicles, reaffirming city directives in place at that point.

“We’re in good shape with the equipment, we’re in good shape with the masks,” Shea said at the time, before adding a message to officers: “You should be wearing a mask if you’re out there if you can’t social distance with people.”

“It’s about all New Yorkers coming together. One vision here, one unit and keeping each other safe and doing everything we possibly can,” he said.

The NYPD did not respond to multiple inquires regarding the department’s adherence to the directive, if the NYPD has adopted internal measures regarding mask wearing protocol or if a lack of a use of masks was related to available PPE.

A DCAS spokesman said the policy “applies to all city employees and every agency.”

Multiple photos that depict NYPD officers not wearing masks while around other officers in recent days have been sent to the Advance/SILive.com.

On Thursday, Shea reiterated his previous commitment to having officers obeying social distancing and mask-wearing measures.

“This is not the time to take less precautions” he said shortly after holding a moment of silence for an additional three department members who succumbed to the virus. “It’s the time to really double down.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry concerning the NYPD’s adherence to the DCAS directive and who would be responsible for enforcing it onto individual agencies.

The NYPD’s sick rate has fallen drastically in recent days, down from a high of 19.8% of its uniformed workforce on April 9, indicating the coronavirus has weakened its grip on the department.

Over the past week, officers have been tasked — alongside other city workers — with handing out face masks and enforcing social distancing guidelines in public settings.

In a series of tweets, officers wearing masks were seen handing out PPE to some individuals out in city parks over last weekend.

https://twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/1256748259210596355

However, Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch called on the city Monday to end NYPD officers’ role in enforcing the state’s coronavirus social distancing mandates.

Lynch’s statement comes after bystanders on Saturday videoed an officer approach a man in Manhattan’s East Village with his taser drawn, holster the taser, take the individual to the ground, repeatedly strike him, and proceed to detain him by kneeling on his neck.

In the video, the individual can be seen not following the officer’s order to back up from an ongoing arrest at East Ninth Street and Avenue D, which Shea said began as a social distancing enforcement. The officer has since been placed on moderated duty.

“This situation is untenable: The NYPD needs to get cops out of the social distancing enforcement business altogether,” Lynch said. “The cowards who run this city have given us nothing but vague guidelines and mixed messages, leaving the cops on the street corners to fend for ourselves.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed back against assertions that the NYPD’s current tactics resemble that of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Stop and Frisk” policy.

“What happened with stop and frisk was a systematic, oppressive, unconstitutional strategy that created a new problem much bigger than anything it purported to solve,” de Blasio said. “This is the farthest thing from that. This is addressing a pandemic.”

Still, de Blasio said some of the specific videos depicting officers aggressively apprehending individuals “bears no resemblance to what policing is supposed to be in this city.”

“It has nothing to do with the coronavirus, it’s just inappropriate activity by an officer,” he said, adding: “Remember, the vast majority of officers their job, do it well, do it respectfully. The vast majority of interactions between our police and our community go well and you never hear about them.”

From March 16 to May 1, the NYPD made 60 arrests and handed out 343 summonses related to social distancing enforcement, the department said last week.

Shea, whose tenure as police commissioner began on the premise of expanding neighborhood policing — which focuses on building community trust in familiar officers — said he doesn’t want “all the work we’ve done, building bridges” to be nullified by unequal social distancing enforcement during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Anyone that knows me knows that I don’t hide from the controversy either, and there’s a controversy right now,” Shea said during a live Q&A on Thursday, “so I think we got to meet this head-on.”

“We have to make sure we are impartial in how we enforce the law,” he said.

Speaking to videos that some say indicate uneven enforcement of social distancing measures throughout the city, Shea said he is “going to take a look at every incident and call it as I see it.”

“If the cops in a particular incident were wrong, they’re going to hear from me on that,” he said, adding he will utilize surveillance, body camera footage and situational factors to determine if the officer utilized proper protocol.

“All across New York City, people are stressed out, people are tired of being cooped up,” Shea said. “(In) difficult times, you’ve got to fall back on your training ... We need de-escalation more than ever.”

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