Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner O'Neill Host Press Conference to Discuss Crime Statistics

June 5, 2017

Police Commissioner James O’Neill: Thanks everyone for being here. I just want to talk about Officer Dalsh Veve for a couple of minutes. What a remarkable man, a remarkable cop. We were at the hospital the other day to check in on his family and coworkers. I have to tell you, I really was awestruck by the strength of his wife and all the men and women who are at the 67th Precinct. It's amazing to see. I talk about it all the time, the bond of the NYPD when, in times, in tough times. Officer Veve was an extremely active cop, and a very, very good one. And you should know that his fellow officers, as well as his CO of the 67th Precinct, and those who live and work in the neighborhood, had tremendous respect- have tremendous respect for him.

I really want to thank the people in New York City for their well wishes over the past 36 hours or so. It means a lot to our cops and it means a lot to me. We're not sure what's going to happen yet. Officer Veve is still in critical condition, still very much fighting for his life. And I ask just as you go about your day today and tomorrow, and so on through the week, that you keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. This is an extremely trying time for everyone, for his family and his friends and for all the men and women of the New York City Police Department.

They go out onto the streets of New York City every day and every night, and they do their jobs. These men and women bravely go out and make a significant difference in the lives of New Yorkers by fighting crime and keeping people safe. And they don't ever stop. NYPD cops do it better than anyone else in the world. The proof is in the crime numbers that you'll hear about in a couple of moments. And about how the people who live in, work in, and visit this great, great city not only know they're safer, but they feel safer too. And to that end, when there are attacks anywhere in the world, whether they're terrorism-related or acts of so-called "traditional crime and violence," we're constantly evaluating and readjusting our own stance here in New York City.

As based on real-time firsthand intelligence we get from our own NYPD detectives, situated in more than a dozen of cities around the world. And from our law enforcement partners at all levels of governments, in other countries and here at home. We've been in contact with authorities in Britain, of course, as it relates to the series of recent incidents they're dealing with. We've offered our support and assistance in any way that's useful to them. These were attacks on London, Manchester, and the United Kingdom as a whole. But they were also attacks on the free world. And like all New Yorkers, we're thinking of the innocent civilians and the police officers that have been killed or harmed in these abhorrent acts.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you very much, Commissioner. Let me, before talking about the information we're going to provide you today, let me speak to these two very painful situations. First of all, with Officer Veve, he is fighting for his life. He's a strong man, I want to tell you, having heard from his Precinct Commander and from his wife, this is an exemplary police officer who, for the last nine years, has devoted himself to protecting the men and women of New York City, and took his job very, very seriously, rose up quickly within his precinct, was doing some of the most important work that the precinct does. He is a strong man physically and mentally, and we're all praying that that strength is going to see him through in this very difficult moment.

I mentioned the other day that Officer Veve represents the American Dream. An immigrant child, able to join the greatest police force in the world and destined for future leadership. He's fighting for his life, but he also has a very strong wife by his side, who Commissioner O'Neill and I spent time with and it was absolutely clear, she was a rock. She was going through tremendous pain but she was focused on doing everything she could to support her husband.

So, it's a tough, tough moment for this city, for the men and women of the NYPD who are feeling this very, very personally. I'm sure many members of our Haitian community are feeling this as well, because here's an exemplary member of the community, and, again, clinging to life. Because he did everything right with his life, now he's in this situation because of one dastardly act. So it's a tough moment. We're all going to keep our thoughts and our prayers focused on Officer Veve and his family.

As to the situation in London. When something happens in London, we feel it here, too. It's one of our true sister cities, one of the cities that New Yorkers can most relate to in the world. And obviously the capital of one of our most close partner ally nations. And London's been through a lot and I admire the strength and resiliency of Londoners. It reminds me a lot about the way New Yorkers handle crises and the toughness of New Yorkers and the focus of New Yorkers at keeping our way of life together, no matter who tries to upset it or confront it. And I emphasize again, I want to offer my solidarity and my appreciation to Mayor Sadiq Khan who has been a voice of strength as his people have been going through this crisis. He has spoken to all Londoners with a strong and reassuring voice and let them know that that enhanced police presence is in everyone's interest and is there to help people not to alarm people, and I think he's done that exactly the right way. And I've come to know him personally and I really admire him as a leader. So, we stand in solidarity with the people of London and as we've said before, we learn each time we see something happen, the world, NYPD, does an extraordinary job of learning from it, and responding to it, and making adjustments. We'll continue to do that.

Speaking of the reason we're all gathered now. And while we're dealing with these other challenges, we have to continue to note and be impressed by the work of the men and women of the NYPD, in terms of fighting crime in all of our communities. These achievements are growing and growing. They set a record and then they set another record on top of it, that's become the norm lately.

So, we had the safest first quarter of the year we've ever had in a year in New York City. We had the safest April we ever had. May continues this good news. Index crime is down in the month of May, 7.6 percent compared to May a year ago. And we see a decline in every major category of crime compared to one year ago. The shootings are the lowest of any May on record. It's extraordinary. 67 shootings in this month of May 2017 compared to 86 in May of last year, 22 point decline. And murders are down sharply as well, a 25 point reduction, 25 percent reduction in murders from this May to last.

It's very clear what's happening and I want to commend Commissioner O'Neill and his whole team. The neighborhood policing model is working more and more, and is taking root more and more. It's making a huge difference. We mentioned at one of our previous gatherings that now our police officers are holding meetings with people in small parts of the neighborhood, in a sector, and are getting extraordinary response from New Yorkers who want to meet with their police officers and figure out how to work in common cause. This is what we've all dreamed of for a long time and it's starting to happen now in neighborhoods around the city.

The extraordinary reality is that people want to be involved, helping the police. And they want to be part of the solution and they want to provide the police with the information they need to succeed. And neighborhood policing is allowing that to happen. Now we're here in Central Park, and we wanted to be here to send a message to all New Yorkers about the focus on our parks that is part of the everyday work of the NYPD and how much effort is expended to keep our parks safe. And we know summer is coming and we know people sometimes get concerned when they see headlines. But, we want to cut through those headlines and tell people the full truth and the facts of the situation when it comes to our parks.

So, here are some things to put it in perspective. When it comes to all the land that makes up this city, about 14% of New York City is parkland. But, last year only one percent of major crimes happened in parks. And when it comes to how much our parks are used, numbers tell a very powerful story. We're here in Central Park, it's one of the most visited parks, not only in New York City, not only in the United States of America, but in the entire world. About 40 million people visited Central Park last year. When we look at crime here in this month of May just concluded, there were five criminal incidents in any of the major categories. Five incidents for the whole month. Against a reality of 40 million visitors in the course of a year.

So, we always say that we're the safest big city in America. That is true in our parks as well. The great work of the NYPD doesn't end where the pavement ends. NYPD leads the way in our parks as well and keeps them safe, and will continue making sure that wherever we need to focus additional resources, we will do so as all of our efforts in terms of pinpointing need and getting officers to the most important locations, have proven NYPD more than ever is focusing its strategies on where the crime is, and that is making all the difference in the world.

A few words in Spanish –

[Mayor speaking in Spanish]

And with that, back to you Commissioner.

Commissioner O’Neill: We're going to turn it over to Dermot Shea now. Dermot?

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea: Good afternoon, everyone. I'll summarize May's crime statistics, the preliminary crime statistics, and then I'll tell you where we are year to date in New York City. As the mayor alluded to, we had a strong May. 7.6% down overall. Every category of index crime was down and every borough of New York City is down, which is positive news. Murder, 24 recorded murders in the month of May 2017. That's down from 32, a 25 percent reduction.

Rape was down 16.6 percent. Robbery's down 9.4 percent. Felonious assaults down nearly 3 percent. Property crimes: burglary down 12 percent, grand larceny down nearly 6 percent, and stolen vehicles were down 20 percent. As I said, 7.6 percent preliminarily. That brings, as we sit here today, 5.7 percent down overall in New York City. Month after month we've heard this same drumbeat, and that's the positive news. It's three straight months of impressive index crime reductions in New York City, and as we sit here today for the year to date in New York City, we're down 17 percent in shooting incidents. We're also down 17 percent in murders.

When you look at transit crime, for the month of May they were up two crimes city-wide. As of today, there are 2.7% city-wide in transit-reported crime. Driving that crime is grand larcenies, as Chief Joe Fox has mentioned earlier, passengers falling asleep and waking up and their property is removed, generally is the big driver. Bronx and Brooklyn are the boroughs that we're seeing that reported in the most, and that's coincidentally also where the end of the lines are, so that's why those crimes are reported there.

Housing crimes down 17.9 percent, a very strong month in crime reduction and housing under Jimmy Secreto's leadership. Nearly 18 percent down for the month of May. Housing is now down 4.6 percent year to date in their reported crime. And housing shootings continue to plummet. Last year we finished with the lowest number we've seen, and they are down additionally this year. When you look at what we've done, it's been three and a half years now, and the battle that we're facing still continues of attacking recidivism with our precision policing. And our intelligence-driven coming from the neighborhood policing side.

23 percent of this year's shooting incidents. 23 percent of this year's, nearly one-in-four involves somebody that has been involved in a shooting incident before. So, as we go forward we know a lot of good work but we are not done.

Unknown: Okay, so-

Mayor: Let me just, I'm sorry, Steve. Just one quick second. I want to thank our colleagues of course, Chief Gomez and Chief Boyce, but I also want to acknowledge and thank the Manhattan Parks Commissioner, Bill Castro is here with us, thank you so much for the good work you do. And Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who represents this wonderful park, is here with us, and we appreciate you joining us.

Unknown: Okay. So we'll start with any questions about crime and then we'll move over to general police topics, all right?

Question: Sure. To the Commissioner, and then Chief Boyce. Commissioner, the work that Officer Veve was doing is the work that has driven down crime, getting these guns off the streets, so can you talk about that? How inherently, you know, you walk into that situation knowing that it's, as an anti-crime officer, that it's dangerous?

Commissioner O’Neill: Just look at the radio run, the job that he responded to, was a shot's fired job, so on a shot's fired job you don't really know what you're walking into. Some of his colleagues went over and were talking to some people that were at a house party and he took the initiative, he saw something that didn't look right, and ended up being a stolen car and this is why Officer Veve took this job. What a courageous - courageous man. And its officers like Dalsh Veve that keep this city safe.

Question: Chief Boyce, I understand your detectives haven't been able to speak him yet?

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce: No. [Inaudible] is intubated right now, but we expect to charge him sometime this afternoon with the assault 1 and attempted murder on our officer. That's where we are right now.

Question: Can you give us a whole updated regarding all the people involved in that case?

Chief Boyce: Yeah. There were four people in the car, two males and two females. And they – again, drove about three blocks at a high-rated speed, at which time Officer Veve fell from the vehicle. We have video of that, and then those individuals ran north on 53rd Street to Church turning westbound. We have video collected at each point along the way, so that will be part of our case going forward. We've spoken to everyone, we charged two people in regards to that, for hindering prosecution. We have another male we're still continuing to speak to. We're hoping grand jury presentation is this afternoon, and that's where we are with the case right now.

Question: Was Officer Veve holding onto the door, or how was he dragged?

Chief Boyce: It's unclear right now. We believe he was holding onto the door and then at some point he was inside, and then [inaudible] and he was dragged quite a distance, Hazel, up several blocks up 53rd Street, a wide block. So that's what we have right now. Again, we're not finished with our investigation.

Question: Chief, the suspect who was the driver, the suspect who was shot, he appears to have been on probation. He also has an arrest from last month. Is it clear what probation did at that point?

Chief Boyce: I have to be- not speak too much about that. He's 15 years old, he has the – under that aegis I really can't speak too much about him. He does, it's been well-reported and that's accurate information, and that's as far as I'll say about this individual.

Question: I just want to clarify that the individual was 15 who was in the hospital right now. He's expected to be charged later today. Is he going to be charged as an adult or a minor, and then I know that you arrested the two other women that were in the car. You said you've spoken to a fourth individual? Do you have an age on that individual?

Chief Boyce: I believe he's 17 years old.

Question: Okay, but he hasn't been charged either.

Chief Boyce: He's not being charged. He's cooperating with the investigation and gives us most of the narrative of what we have right now.

Question: And the fifteen year old, is he going to be charged as an adult or a minor?

Chief Boyce: That'll be up to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Question: I have a question about the misdemeanor sex crimes. According to CompStat they have risen the past month, and I'm wondering what is driving that? Is it there's a specific crime that it's up [inaudible]?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Year to date, about 13% in the misdemeanor sex crimes. It is not a specific crime; it's really a broad cross-category. Letters that are written, mandatory reporting, that our Special Victims handles, family members that are committing sex acts, so it's not – when you first hear that, the widely reported one is the groping incidents, particularly in transit. I will tell you that that makes up a small fraction of the overall misdemeanor sex crimes that occur in New York City.

In terms of trends on what we are seeing, difficult to pin down, but if I was going to say one thing and broad stroke it, it's the increased reporting, really, of what we're seeing, not necessarily increased acts. Very similar when you take a look at that versus the domestic violence. I'll tell you that I was at a conference part of last week, and this is not a unique New York City situation. This is across the country, what we're seeing in terms of sex offenses and domestic violence. And one, when we increased the reporting and it's something that we really are actively pursuing and I think we've done a good job in the recent years.

Chief Boyce: Just to add onto that. Earlier in 2016, we added a Transit Sex Crimes squad. One in 15 detectives. Currently right now, they've identified 17 patterns, forceful touching patterns within the subways. 11 of those are closed but six remain pen. We have a deep focus on this, we think there's a recidivist sync’d to the subway system, and we'll go forward with that.

Question: Mayor, de Blasio, Nick Bryant of the BBC. I've wondered whether I could get your response to Donald Trump's Twitter attacks on the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and I wondered what your message is to people in London.

Mayor: My message to the people of London is, we stand in solidarity with all Londoners. We've been through attacks, we know what it feels like, and Mayor Khan is doing exactly the right thing. He is telling people that they can be assured that the security forces will be reinforced, will be present, will be visible. That's exactly what a leader's supposed to do. I don't understand why Donald Trump is trying to undermine a man who's trying to protect the people of London. It makes no sense. Sadiq Khan is an exemplary mayor and the mayor of the capital city of one of our closest allies. He deserves support, not efforts to undermine him, so I don't follow it. I don't follow- we do this all the time, the NYPD reinforces key points in the city after an incident, and we tell people openly, "Expect to see more police presence. Don't be alarmed by it, be reassured by it." That's exactly what Mayor Khan said. It's something that I say regularly, Commissioner O'Neill says regularly, any good leader would say.

So, maybe Donald Trump doesn't have a lot of experience handling security situations, but it just makes no sense. It's not fair to Mayor Khan, it's not fair to the people of London.

Question: Commissioner, can you give us, I apologize I walked in late, could you just give us the prognosis of Officer Veve and how he's doing, how his family's doing? And could we also get a breakdown of who's been charged so far and with what?

Chief Boyce: The charges we'll give you afterwards, because we kind of went through that already, but Officer Veve is still in critical condition. I had the opportunity to meet with his wife this morning. She's a strong person. She just asked that all New York City keep their thoughts and prayers for Dalsh as he goes through this and hopefully with the help of God, he's going to recover.

Question: Commissioner, can you give us – I apologize I walked in late – could you just give us the prognosis of Officer Veve and how he's doing, how his family's doing? And could we also get a breakdown of who's been charged so far and with what?

Commissioner O’Neill: The charges we'll give you afterwards, cause we kind of went through that already, but Officer Veve is still in critical condition. I had the opportunity to meet with his wife this morning. She's a strong person. She just asked that all New York City keep their thoughts and prayers for Dalsh as he goes through this and hopefully with the help of God, he's going to recover.

Question: Commissioner O'Neill, I have a question about crime and safety around homeless shelters since the NYPD took over security in the homeless shelters. Have you seen progress, have the crime numbers gone down? And the second part of my question is in particular to Bellevue – the men's shelter, the main intake center – where residents say they've had a huge problem with the homeless inside and around the shelter, leaving weapons outside, stashing them in their flower beds. What can be done to help?

Commissioner O’Neill: Dermot, do you have the shelter numbers?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: No. I can get back to you individual shelter numbers and crimes in and around. I don't have it handy right now, but just, in the overall theme I would say there's many different segments of the crime whether we're talking housing, transit, shelters that we zero in on. We're very adept at, any time we see upticks – and I'm not saying there is an uptick at this shelter – but we deal with it very quickly and in an efficient manner. I would say in the overall theme though, index crime overall, down nearly 6 percent citywide and that goes across any borough, shelters or no shelters.

Commissioner O’Neill: So just working here - working in the shelters in themselves, we have Chief, Deputy Chief Ed Thompson. He's now working with DHS. They put through all their officers through training, and I think in the long-run that's going to have a huge benefit for the people that use the shelter system. As far as for the exterior of the shelters, I know down at Bellevue, they work very closely with Deputy Inspector Timoney, Brendan Timoney, he's the CO of the 13th Precinct, so it's an on-going issue, but it's something that we're constantly addressing.

Question: Any statistics regarding ShotSpotter? And secondly, regarding transit, there's been a lot of reports about train delays. Does that have any impact on the crimes that you're seeing or trends you're seeing in subways?

Commissioner O’Neill: Azi, was that – you were asking if train delays have an impact on crimes?

Question: Right.

Commissioner O’Neill: Joe Fox, you want to come up? This is Chief Fox.

NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Fox: Good afternoon. No, train delays is a people movement issue that we handle very well working with our MTA partners. But there's no correlation with train delays and crimes.

Question: And then regarding ShotSpotter, any of the latest statistics regarding that?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: Regarding the ShotSpotter, I would say that the continued expansion goes on. Most recently was the 1-2-0 Precinct and parts of the Bronx are planned to expand. We can get that further details, but what we see with Shotspotter is what we've seen from when we've first turned it on. Significant portion of shots-fired incidents that do not generate 911 calls, and I'll tell you that this is just a piece of what we've been doing with the precision policing the last three years. We take that data, we compile it alongside other sources of information we have – whether it's human intelligence – and these are all compiled together and it's a driving force behind when you see Bob Boyce's detectives take cases down like they did just last week in Brooklyn. The right individuals that are driving the gun violence in New York City – 998 is what we finished last year in shooting incidents. When you look at now, a 17% shooting reduction on top of that, ShotSpotter is just one piece of what goes into all that work.

Question: Sorry to belabor the point, but either Commissioner or Chief Monahan, if you can just talk generally about the work that anti-crime does? So just for New Yorkers who don't understand what that –

Commissioner O’Neill: Terry, you want to take that?

NYPD Chief of Patrol Terrence Monahan: Sure. Anti-crime is focused on major crime. Their focused on doing surveillance of serious criminals looking for guns, looking for robberies, burglaries, stolen cars. That's their main focus. They're out there, if they know there are bad people in the neighborhood, they'll surveil them for a while. If there's a robbery pattern somewhere, they'll sit there in plain clothes and see if they can catch it live and in-progress. Their arrests, we're looking to arrest exactly in precision policing, to make the arrest and lock up the bad people and build a case strong enough to keep them away.

Question: [Inaudible] I know, Mayor, you mentioned that with every attack you learned there's adjustments made. Commissioner, has there been any adjustments with this latest attack or anything that you can tell New Yorkers to make them feel a little safer?

Commissioner O’Neill: As you've seen over the last couple of years, we've really improved our ability to put uniforms on the street, specifically with the Critical Response Command. It's over 500 police officers and a consolidation of our borough task forces with the Strategic Response Group. You've seen, if you've taken a look around the city over the last week or so, probably since after Manchester, you see an increased number of long gun teams that are out throughout the city, so there is an increased presence, but as to specifics – we haven't, we've just increased uniform presence so let's just leave it at that.

Unknown: Tony?

Question: Commissioner – actually, Dermot Shea, it's two parts on homicide. What do you say is the motive, the main motive so far in the homicides, the robberies, the domestic violence or whatever? And you're almost towards the midpoint of the year and you've got a 17% reduction so far. I know it fluctuates. Are you looking at – I asked this question a month ago, are you looking at under 300 for the year? And when was the last time the city ever saw that?

Commissioner O’Neill: Dermot, tread lightly here.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: I've already been accused of jinxing something once this week.

Mayor: He’s not allowed to answer that question.

[Laughter]

No comment, Dermot.

Deputy Commissioner Shea: In terms of motives we are down significantly. As I said, 17 percent. Domestic homicides are currently at 18 percent. I believe the latest number of the overall homicides. Tony, when you look at the motives, it's a little bit of everything to be honest. We do have gang homicides, but gang shootings when you look at shootings versus homicides, more shooting incidents are driven by gangs than homicides are. So you have disputes over a variety of issues. Domestics, traditionally, make up a significant portion of the overall homicides, and that's in line this year with about 18 percent. When you look at how homicides are occurring in New York City this year I think the latest numbers are about 51 percent by gunfire, so as we've said the last couple years, as we sharpen our focus on gun violence, gangs in New York City, that's really been a leading edge of driving down the overall murder numbers. How low can it go? We'll see.

Commissioner O’Neill: Ashley?

Question: Two questions. First, on domestic incidents I'm wondering what data you have on whether they're up or down and what kinds of incidents you're seeing so far this year. But also I wanted to ask, last month there was the attack in Times Square and you were considering some traffic proposals and I'm wondering if there'll be any changes or have there been to security in and around Times Square?

Commissioner O’Neill: I think you see that immediately we took steps and we put the concrete barriers in. We're looking towards a more long-term solution probably with bollards in Times Square and a number of other places around the city where there's higher pedestrian traffic.

Dermot, first part of that?

Deputy Commissioner Shea: That's regarding the domestics? Okay, so, 15 this year. And that's down from 23 at the same point last year. Currently, on the domestic sides, after this weekend it's now sitting at 16 percent of the overall, so not 18. Last year at this point it was 19 percent of the murders, so it's usually, Tony, it's usually in that range, but domestic crime overall, down about 4 percent. Index crime is domestic in nature city-wide. A lot of positives, a lot of positives across the city, I mean we're always working on areas to further pinpoint to reduce crime, but when you look at transit crime, when you look at domestic crime, when you look at – as mentioned earlier, shelter crime – we look at it all and anything that flares up, we deal with very quickly.  But domestic crime, you're at levels now with domestic homicides that we've never seen these low numbers. So that's positive.

Question: The recent shooting on 14th Street, the bike-by shooting, is that gang-related and are you close to making an arrest in that?

Chief Boyce: We are. We have an identified perpetrator, and we're moving forward in the case. So we know what happened, it was a dispute. It was not gang-related, if anything it was a dispute that happened in another bar prior to that, and this was an ongoing dispute. So we have an identified perpetrator right now, we're seeking him now. We have one arrest on the case, and we'll go forward from there.

Question: Boyce, I have an opioids question. About a month ago, I think at the PERF conference that you hosted. You mentioned how more gangs are going through the dark web to acquire fentanyl from China being shipped over. That's a relatively new phenomenon. Are you seeing that grow, that method?

Chief Boyce: You're talking about Operation Hardball we took down in Brooklyn North?

Question: I am. I'm talking about the trend though, are you seeing that happen?

Chief Boyce: That's one thing we fear, that's all, to be honest with you. That it happens. Thus far, that's one of the few cases we've seen where it active gang members – those were Blood gang members in Brooklyn – who were importing fentanyl and mixing it with the heroin in that case alone. But we've had a very good month this month, as far as we've, as you know, we've embarked on this opioid plan. Thus far this month, we're able to get over 76 kilos of heroin off the street, 82 kilos of cocaine off the street, and two kilos of fentanyl. So that mix fentanyl and heroin seems to be what's driving the opioid crisis. And there's a lot of work to be done to it, we've taken – right now we have 384 overdoses this year, as opposed to 322 last year. That's a 62% increase. I'm sorry, 62 with a 19% increase. We have specialized units just looking at these things, so one of our big fears is gang members getting into this. Thus far, it's been isolated in Brooklyn North, we haven't seen it anywhere else, but it's something we have to keep an eye on.

Question: I don't know if maybe Commissioner Miller can maybe talk a little bit about what we're learning from London in this most recent attack, and how that's changing things even slightly from what we knew last week and what we had in place last week, how this recent attack, what you're learning from that and what changes do you make?

Deputy Commissioner Miller: As you know, we have a liaison on the ground in London. We work very closely with the Metropolitan Police on a daily basis. This is part of a continuum for us. As the Police Commissioner said, you've seen over the past year and a half, New York City going from a place that had a limited tactical deployment on the street to a place that now is able to field 2,000 officers with long guns. That is to reduce time on target in the event of an active shooter situation, whether that's terrorism-related or other. Thousands of regular police officers who are in patrol cars have been put through active shooter training.

Our Nexus program, which goes out an engages with private industry as partners, has visited 228 truck rental locations in and around the city to talk about awareness, suspicious activity, how to report and to whom to report suspicious activity to. We have reinforced that several times by going back to those locations, either in person or with the contacts we've developed to make sure that they stay aware of that. If you look at – between the Strategic Response Command, SRG, the CRC, the SHIELD program, the Nexus program, this is a total effort that never stops. And on – last week, on Thursday and on Friday, we were with the fire department in a Lower Manhattan skyscraper doing an extensive tabletop drill – Police Department, Fire Department, buildings industry, working through scenarios of active shooter in a high rise. Active shooter in a high rise with fire added in. Active shooter in a large venue with fire. And how to combine all of those efforts tactically. And no sooner had we finished two days of that, then we saw the reports coming out of Manila. So my message is – we react instantly to any terrorist attack or incident around the world in terms of looking at that New York overlay and any adjustment, but this is something that we are thinking of from a 360 degree view every minute of every day.

Question: Linzie Janis, ABC News. Commissioner, we're learning that some of the suspects in the London and Manchester attacks were known to authorities there. Should people here be concerned that there are similar people that may be on your radar that are free and waiting to strike?

Commissioner O’Neill: So when I talk about counterterrorism I talk about our ability to investigate, to prevent, and also to respond. I think New York City is in a great position, especially with our relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and that's specifically the JTTF. We've about 100 detectives from the New York City Police Department that work with the FBI, and they're constantly monitoring the threat stream. So any threats that we pick up are fully investigation. But we also talk about this all the time too – it's about a shared responsibility. If you as a New Yorker, if you see something that makes you uncomfortable, you think isn't right, you have a duty and a responsibility also to make sure that you move forward with that and you notify the police, and if you don't want to notify the police, maybe go through some other method to make sure we eventually find out about it and have an ability to investigate and keep the city safe.

Question: Can you tell us an idea of how many people might be under surveillance in the New York-

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah, I'm not going to give you that number, okay.

Question: Commissioner, given the fact that the age of criminal responsibility for certain youthful offenders was increased or is about to increase to the age of 18, do you feel that those crimes will then be handled by- under that, would be handled by family courts? Given what's happened in the last couple of days, the suspect – the potential suspects in the Officer Veve situation, do you believe the family court can handle that influx with the programs it has and give any meaningful treatment or deterrent?

Commissioner O’Neill: Tony, family court does a good job but they also got to keep in mind, if the crime is serious they can also still be designated as juvenile offenders, and that would be handled through the criminal court system. So any serious crimes would still be handled by criminal court.

Question: Commissioner?

Commissioner O’Neill: Yep.

Question: Now that Oscar Lopez Rivera is not being honored at the Puerto Rican Day parade, have you reconsidered your decision not to march?

Commissioner O’Neill: No, I maintain my original position. I'm not going to march in the parade.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: What's that?

Question: Why?

Commissioner O’Neill: Based on my original statement.

Question: There was a hit-and-run on the Upper West Side of a Columbia Student. Any updates on that?

Chief Monahan: I'll take that. He was hit around 00:25 hours this morning, he's still currently in surgery right now, and we're still looking for a car, a late – an older model burgundy sedan at this point.

Unknown: We'll take two more questions on the police, please.

Commissioner O’Neill: David?

Question: This is for the Commissioner and for the Mayor. Given that no one was charged in the bombing of Fraunces Tavern back in 1975, do you think – would you encourage the Manhattan DA or the US Attorney to reopen that case and look into it, and would you seek any information from Oscar Lopez River into what he knows in that bombing?

Mayor: That's a law enforcement question. I'm not a DA, so I can't speak to that.

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah, I think that's a question for Cy Vance.

Unknown: Mike? And then one more after that.

Question: Mr. Mayor, was it your private position all along that you wouldn't march if Oscar Lopez Rivera didn't distance himself from the parade?

Mayor: Again, I don't want to get into the private discussions with the parade committee. I made clear earlier today, I wanted to see the situation resolved so the focus could go back to the people of Puerto Rico and the crisis in Puerto Rico. That was what I wanted to see and that has been achieved.

Question: Did you ever change your mind on that, at any point?

Mayor: Again, that's all I'm going to say.

Unknown: One more.

Question: Any update on the crackdown on placard abuse and is that going to include the covering of license plates?

Mayor: That absolutely will include that, and the proposal that we put forward just a couple of weeks ago is being implemented. Commissioner's spoken before to the covering of license plates, I think you have strong views on this matter.

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah, we do. If it’s license plate covers – and I know John Miller shares my view – it's just an indication that you're just flaunting it in front of the police and in front of all New Yorkers. I think it's a blatant disregard for everybody's safety, so that is something we will continue to enforce, and then I can get you the enforcement numbers on that. We are going to be doing increased placard enforcement, and it's for placards that are illegal and is also for legal placards that are being used, not legitimately.

Mayor: Okay. Thanks, everyone.