Transcript: Mayor de Blasio, Police Commissioner O'Neill Deliver Press Conference Regarding Crime Statistics

November 3, 2017

Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill: Sore throat here. Good afternoon, everyone. In a moment you'll hear from Mayor de Blasio, then Dermot Shea. I'll give you a rundown on our October crime figures and then Carlos Gomez – Chief Gomez will talk about our preparations for the upcoming marathon on Sunday.

First I'd like – and I mentioned this last month when we met – I'd like you to pay not just attention to the overall crime numbers, but just take a real good look at the murder numbers and the overall shooting numbers. It's remarkable. I've been in this business a long time, almost 35 years. I've been going the CompStats since 1996, and to have a year like we're having this year and what we had last year, it's truly, truly an amazing accomplishment, and it’s due to the hard work of men and women of the NYPD and, of course, all of our law enforcement partners, the FBI – we've been working very closely with them this week, the AFT, the Marshal Service, the DEA. It's truly amazing to see what's happening in New York City. The cops in New York City are truly making a big difference.

I always talk about if we're really gonna continue to push these numbers down, and I believe we can, it's got to be a shared responsibility. It's got to be all eight-and-a-half million people in New York City that are involved in this, and we're seeing that each and every day. It's getting better and better. Neighborhood policing is really helping us move ahead.

We're seeing that when New Yorkers feel uncomfortable, when they see something that doesn't look right, they're letting us know, they're giving us a chance to investigate and we need that opportunity to investigate. I don't think it's that you should call, I think everybody in this city has an obligation to make that phone call if they see something that makes them uncomfortable.

Last month at the press conference we discussed a tragedy in Las Vegas and I spoke about the stories that were coming out about acts of bravery and heroism and purse selflessness performed by regular people.

Three days ago, and just a few blocks from here, where we are right now, we witnessed another tragedy, another deliberate act of hate that took more innocent lives and again, we saw the acts of bravery and heroism. It was people in uniform, NYPD officers from the 1st Precinct, the firefighters, EMS workers, and again, it was neighbors helping neighbors, ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things.

I was just up with Ryan Nash and his partner John Hasiotis and the other two cops, Mike Welsome and Kevin McGinn. They were just at the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation, a luncheon, they were given an award and if there's anything fun about it, it was the fact that these four cops, these four young cops were so humble about receiving these awards. You could see they were kinda dragging their feet coming up to the stage and there were 1,500 people there.

They don't like the limelight. I know from my heart why they took these jobs. They took it to make a difference. They took it to do good and what they did the other day shouldn't go unnoticed by New Yorkers. I'm really proud of what they did. I'm really proud of the work that everybody did that day.

Our relationship with the FBI is going to help us – ATF, Marshal Services, as I said. What happened on Tuesday is something that everybody that sits up here at this table, this is something that we think about all the time. This is not an eight-hour-a-day job. This is something that 24 hours, seven days a week – so I was really – I knew at some point it would happen and the way that the NYPD and all New Yorkers reacted to that event on Tuesday is something that was quite, quite remarkable.

New Yorkers don't make decisions based on fear. We're resilient and we'll never be deterred and I really wouldn't have it any other way. I'm so proud to have this job and I'm so proud to lead the men and women of this great police department. Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you Commissioner. Well, Commissioner, I want to say we're proud of you, and all the men and women under your command, but Commissioner, this was a tough week in our city and once again you provided outstanding leadership. I want to thank you for that.

People all over this city are feeling a lot. I've talked to New Yorkers of all walks of life. We feel together pain this week. We're mourning eight good people, eight innocent people whose lives were taken. We're mourning for their families too, but at the same time, New Yorkers are proud of the NYPD and feeling very strong, very resilient, and there's a sense in this city right now that it's our job to stand up and to be unafraid and I've seen that everywhere. I've talked to a lot of people and that's been uniformly the point of view of New Yorkers and I really admire that. I want to thank my fellow New Yorkers for that.

Commissioner and I went to the 1st Precinct yesterday and our message to the officers was simple. It was a thank you to all of them, not just the wonderful, brave officers who stopped this horrible incident, but to all of them for the work they do every day and for the fact that at any given moment, any one of our officers might be that difference maker, might be that hero and as the Commissioner said, we have amazing specialized forces, but we also count on everyday officers on the beat to be able to step in at any given moment and we saw that from these brave officers from the 1st Precinct.

The fact is the NYPD has to fight terror every single day, while also attending to their responsibility for the safety of this city, the making sure that crime is driven down and the quality of life is good for people in all five boroughs. That's a lot to ask of this department, but once again at the end of another month, we see how extraordinary the work of the NYPD is and I'm pleased to report that more progress is being made at bringing down crime.

Major crime now down 5.4 percent year-to-date from last year and shootings – this is a particularly powerful point – shootings are down a remarkable 22 perce t over that same period. That's a credit to all the men and women of the NYPD and also is the great work that's being done with community partners of all kinds, including the Cure Violence movement.

This trend continued in the month of October, the lowest index crime level of any October on record and here’s the fact – we remain America's safest big city and what happened on Tuesday didn't change that and what happened on Tuesday didn't change us. We are still New Yorkers.

Our pride, our strength will be on full display this Sunday at the marathon. It's one of the great events in the city each year. It's one of the things that makes us particularly proud. The whole world watches. We have people here from all over the globe. My message is we will keep them safe. We're working very, very closely and very well with our federal and state partners, and there is an extensive amount of effort being made and additional resources being used to keep everyone safe. I want to once again assure all New Yorkers there are no credible and specific threats against the marathon or against New York City.

You will see a lot of police presence. I think more and more people are not alarmed by that, they understand it means they're safe. They're there to protect you and you're going to see them out in force, but I want to amplify the point that everyone needs to participate. I agree with the Commissioner 100 percent, this is not a voluntary reality in the world we're living in today.

Everyone is in this together. If you see something, say something. It is a literal instruction. It's an obligation and it can make all the difference. Remember back in Chelsea, one good New Yorker placed a phone call, made a world of difference. So we ask people to be vigilant. It'll be very easy to find a police officer on Sunday. If anything at all seems out of the ordinary, let the officer know, let the professionals make sense of it, don't hold back. If you have an instinct something may be wrong, share that information.

So Sunday will be an important day for this city. It's a chance for us to show the whole world once again who we are and to show that New York City will always be New York City, we won't change.

A few words in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, my honor to turn to our Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Dermot Shea.

Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Dermot Shea: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon everyone. I'll briefly go over October's crime statistics. For the month of October, index crime in New York City was down a little over two percent, 2.2 percent. If you look at the seven categories of index crime in New York City, three of them showed an increase, I'll go through them briefly.

Murder. We recorded 26 murder incidents in October. That's verse 22, an 18 percent increase, and tragically that includes that eight people on Halloween on the West Side.

Rape. 147 incidents verse 126. That's an increase of 21 incidents and that's a 16.7 percent increase. I'll just briefly elaborate on some of the rape statistics and I will point out that year-to-date we remain down 3.4 percent.

What we saw in rape in the month of October is statistically what we see throughout the year when you see the types and occurrences of the rapes that were recorded. About 13 percent of the rapes recorded in October took place more than a year ago and that is something that we point to as a positive and the reason for that is very simple. We're trying to encourage recording of rape complaints because an unrecorded rape complaint is a rape complaint that we can't intersect and we can't prevent future victims. So 13 percent, and that's consistent, 11, 12, 13 percent when you go back a couple years, occurring outside of the month.

When you look at the rapes that occur this year, nine percent are stranger rapes and that's consistent with October, 33 percent are domestic rapes, which I don't believe many people realize. When you look at the rapes that occurred this month, we have a number of the rapes husband on wife. We have a number of relatives, step-uncles, uncles, tragically raping individuals less than 10 years of age. One-third of our rapes are family members and that's something that we're definitely trying to interrupt with some of the resources that we put into our domestic violence units, as well as Bob Boyce's special victims.

Then about 55 percent involved known. This is where you find the category of boyfriend/girlfriend, which is the vast majority of those. So overall in October, 21 additional rapes and year-to-date we remain down 3.4 percent.

The robberies were down nearly 10 percent in October. Burglaries were down .6 percent, grand larcenies were down about two percent and grand larceny autos, stolen vehicles, up one percent, and increase of, at this point and time, eight stolen vehicles more.

When you look at these shootings in New York City, we finished October at 73 shooting incidents. That's down from 84 and that continues the trend that we've seen all year, down 13 percent. We are down now, when you look at year-to-date, approximately 4,700 index crimes down in every major category of crime in New York City and we're down in every borough of New York City year-to-date in crime. So when you look at the traditional crime side, we continue the trend of what we've seen all year.

When you look at the murders year-to-date, we are now, as of midnight, down 53 murders, that's an 18 percent reduction, and when you look at the shooting incidents year-to-date, as of midnight last night, we're down 195 shooting incidents, it's a 22 percent reduction.

On the traditional crime side, we still have our sights set on three pretty impressive goals when you look at potentially falling under 300 homicides at the end of the year. Last year we shattered the shooting incident record in New York City and came in under 1,000 at 997. We're gonna finish roughly around 800 at this pace, if trending continues for the remainder of the last seven weeks and when you look at the over index crime right now, we're on pace to finish under 100,000 crimes, and that'll be the first time that's happened in New York City, CompStat history if you will. That's it for the crime update.

Commissioner O’Neill: All right, thanks Dermot. Carlos Gomez is gonna talk about our preparations for the marathon on Sunday. Carlos.

NYPD Chief of Department, Carlos Gomez: Sure. Good afternoon. As we reported earlier this week, Sunday's marathon will be a very well policed event with many layers of security and many of those layers have been enhanced and increased for the public's safety.

On early Sunday morning we will activate our Joint Operation Center here in police headquarters. It will be staffed by representatives from over 20 local, state, and federal agencies that will monitor and coordinate the event as it progresses throughout the day. Again, as I stated earlier on Wednesday, we've added more sand trucks and more blocker vehicles, the most that we have ever used in any detail in this city.

We don't just place them anywhere. We go out, we conduct – actually the Counter-terrorism Division goes out, they conduct surveys and assessment and they determine which locations are best to place these heavy sand trucks and police department vehicles.

We've also increased the number of observation teams and counter-sniper teams and it's not just in Manhattan. They'll be placed strategically at locations throughout the five boroughs. Heavy weapons teams. There will be a substantial number of heavy weapons teams made up from the Emergency Services Unit from our Critical Response Command and from our Strategic Response Group.

There will be, along the route, they'll be stationary and fixed posts to serve as a deterrent, but they will also have mobile capability if they need to respond elsewhere. This is in addition, again, as I said earlier in the week, to the thousands of uniformed officers that you will see on the route. Other officers you won't see, they'll be in plain cloths. We will have hundreds of counter-terrorism trained officers on the route. They'll have radiation detection devices on their person. There will be a substantial number of explosive detecting canines on the route. We will utilize our aviation unit to monitor the crowds, the event, the race, the rooftops from above.

Harbor – our harbor vessels will also be involved. They will be anchored at the river crossings and certainly they'll be patrolling our waterways. There will be some closures. DCPI will put out some information with greater detail. Bridges, the Verrazano, the 59th Street Bridge, and a couple of river crossings, uptown to Madison and the Willis Avenue Bridge will be affected.

Hundreds of traffic agents will be deployed on Sunday to assist in the movement of traffic throughout our city and the busy season is among us here, quickly approached, and you will see increased presence of heavy weapons teams, blocker vehicles, and uniformed officers throughout the holiday season, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the tree lighting, and certainly New Year's Eve.

We've held many planning meetings for this event and I'd like to thank the Roadrunners for their assistance and their partnership on that. Thank you.

Commissioner O’Neill: All right. We'll take some crime questions first, if there are any. Rocco?

Question: [Inaudible] when was the last time the [inaudible] –

Chief Shea: Yes, you would have to – I don't want to give you bad information, Rocco, I may have to get back to you on an exact date. So in the modern era, the number is 333 and the last three years we've been 335 or 333 and now back up to 335. When we're talking about potentially being under 300, that's a significant drop and one life is important to us and when you’re taking that type of a quantum leap and reducing homicides in New York City, we're very proud of it. Now to go historically further back, I believe we're getting back into the '50s, but we can follow up with you and get you an exact.

Question: [Inaudible] after 9/11 those [inaudible] that's considered an [inaudible]. Is that because [inaudible]?

Chief Shea: We did look at that and I think that consistency is something we pride ourselves on. When you look at incidents across the country, this is not a New York City rule, this is police departments all over the country reporting crime statistics to the FBI, so I'll give you a couple examples.

We had the tragic incident earlier this year in Times Square when somebody intentionally ran somebody over with a vehicle. When you look at the Pulse shooting in the uniform crime reporting, statistically we have had, unfortunately, across the country, some incidents that you could parallel to this. One life is tragic, eight is certainly something we never want to see in New York City and when you talk about accurately recording, we feel we're pretty consistent.

Question: [Inaudible]

Chief Shea: We can get back to you on that, in terms of individual incidents, but in terms of counting and being recorded in this manner, I think we took the appropriate approach.

Commissioner O’Neill: Tony.

Question: For the Mayor or perhaps the police commissioner, is there something going on in New York society that is apart from the obvious increase in police tactics and neighborhood policing that societally is pushing crime down? Is there an attitudinal shift somewhere that you thought about, positive, about the citizenry?

Mayor: It's a great question, it's a big question. The experts will have more to say. I can say from my perspective, I think there's a lot more information flowing to the NYPD. I think that is the result of neighborhood policing and also just changing the atmosphere in police community relations overall. I think it's opening up the flow of information and more information helps our officers stop crime.

I think we also see some very promising signs with the growth of grass roots efforts to help stop crime. The Cure Violence movement has had extraordinary impact in the last year as an additional, helpful element. So I don't know if there's a macro, sort of macro-societal change that I can identify, but when I look at what neighborhood policing means, when I look at what it means to have 2,000 more officers on the streets, I think it is natural that that's going to have an impact, that's going to change behavior, it's going to change attitudes. I leave it to the experts to see if there's something more.

Commissioner O’Neill: I would say it's a combination of things. I think neighborhood policing is really helping us out. I think having more police officers on patrol, getting ready, from that specialist cop, to the precinct, to the generalist cop have more cars, more people on foot, I think it's important.

I think Bob Boyce's work, the way he is focusing in on gangs and crews and we quickened the time period with the take downs and working with the prosecutors, including the US attorneys, I think is really paying off and the cooperation and the relationships that we're building all across New York City, and this is probably the third time I'm saying it this morning, but the level of cooperation that we have with our federal law enforcement partners, that really can't be understated. Grace?

Question: Just a follow up on an earlier question. The casualties from Tuesday's attack are not included in the October crime numbers?

Commissioner O’Neill: No.

Question: [Inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah.

Chief Shea: They are. Thursday afternoon leading into – excuse me, not Thursday, but Halloween, we were, I believe, four homicides down coming into that day and we wounded up –

Commissioner O’Neill: I'll get you in the back row?

Question: To what do you attribute the increase in the reporting of rapes that took place [inaudible]. Any insight into why that's happening?

Chief Shea: This is something that I've spoken about before and myself, Susan Herman, our Deputy Commissioner of Collaborative Policing has certainly been at the forefront of trying to lead this charge since 2014 here. I can point to a couple particular – when you look at our subway system and a lot of effort has gone into, when you ride the subway, you look up, you see the signs to report. It's an acknowledgment of knowing that certain activity exists and we can't proactive and stop it if we don't have crime reports.

The system is put in place in the last four years in transit to report and then they get fed directly to the MTA, right to Bob Boyce's detectives in Special Victims to investigate these.

When you look at the schools we're aware of crime happening. If you asked me today, "Do I believe there is more happening?" I don't have evidence that there's more happening, but in my heart I believe that it has always gone on, it's very similar to domestic violence, it's the unspoken crime that is the dirty little secret of many families, and the tragic point of it is if we cannot get involved, that's giving that predator potentially three months, three years sometimes, to inflict pain on other victims.

So when you look at the schools, we've done outreach to increase reporting. When you look at the MTA, we've done outreach to reporting. We have Bob Boyce's detectives now in our Special Victims Unit reporting directly on every rape case to the hospital to interview the victim firsthand. That's a collaborative effort between hospital employees and the NYPD.

We get a number of reports through law enforcement referrals that are mailed in, telling us about things that happened months or years ago. So all of this tidal wave of reporting is what I refer to and the numbers, when you look at some of the reports is – unfortunately I read them all and it's tough to read sometimes with the stories, but I alluded to it earlier, the stranger is the exception.

This is the known criminal living sometimes in the household, uncles, family members, husbands, bosses. It generally tends to be known and then building the case that can lead to a successful, number one, prosecution and number two, getting safety for that victim.

Question: Is that a much more detailed breakdown of rape [inaudible]. The Republican candidate for mayor, Nicole Malliotakis, has made a big point frequently to talk about data on sex crimes and concern about the appearance that this news conference today is being politicized and that you're responding to what's going on in the political arena. Please tell us why you decided today to give us that breakdown and emphasis the nature of these crimes and whether there's some discussion of needed to respond to [inaudible].

Chief Shea: I've been in the fortunate position of this year of having a lot of good news to deliver. When you look back at really the last three-and-a-half years, that's been the case. We frequently open up and talk about record crime levels never seen before.

I think if you look back month-to-month, I try to be as consistent as possible and when we do have spike in a particular offense, a shooting – we haven't been down every month in shootings, but the cumulative effort is pretty impressive of what we've accomplished, but when we do have a crime type that is up in a particular month, I'll give you a little history just to provide context of what we're seeing, as well as the overall year-to-date effort.

Crime, I'll talk about all day. Politics, I'll leave to the Mayor. I don't get involved in politics. What I tell you is what the City of New York is facing right now. It's very important to all of us up here. It's very important to the men and women of New York City Police Department just to give you context and to make the people of New York City aware of what's going on, where it's going on at any particular time and it's the crime of New York City, where it's occurring, what we're doing about it. Overall, a very good picture, but politics from my seat, plays no part.

Question: Was there any discussion in preparing for today's new conference about a need to respond to the city –

Commissioner O’Neill: When we looked at the numbers, we looked at all the index crime numbers and the rape number was up and we knew we had to address it. Next. Lenny.

Question: The decision to include those Tuesday homicides. How did you come to that and I ask that because I remember with Happy Land in the Bronx about 20 years ago, their were like 40 people killed and that wasn't included in the year.

Commissioner O’Neill: We took at look across the country at similar events and consistent with UCR, we decided to include them in the murder numbers. Yeah.

Question: Somewhat related to Willy's question. Assemblymember Malliotakis said a few times this week that felony sex crimes went up 25 percent in 2013 and 2016 [inaudible] that the Mayor is twice questioned where she got [inaudible]. I'm just wondering if for the public record somebody at the [inaudible] can confirm that those are in fact correct and if you might have year-to-date numbers for that [inaudible].

Chief Shea: I'll address that. The devil is always in the details. I believe if you go on one of the NYPD's screens on the website, you'll see one of the things we've tried to do in the last couple years is become much more transparent, so we have CompStat 2.0 where we plot crime out. We also have – I'll use the term raw data, but we put much deeper statistical reports and going back several years on that website.

There is a category, it's not felony sex crimes. I believe it's felony sex crimes other than index crimes. That's where probably the confusion lies. For example, rape and I believe criminal sexual act rape, is not included in that. So when you look at, for example, rape is down this year, that is not included in those figures.

So when you look at the – I believe it's about six crimes, some of them are things thankfully, that we do not see, female genital mutilation for example is one. The big one that is in that category is sexual abuse and that's somewhat of a catchall. That's unwanted sexual contact essentially and it rises or falls depending on the age of both the perpetrator and the victim.

So, I think there was a little confusion on that. If you say felony sex crimes and list those six but it does not include the index crimes, then you would see from 2013 to the end of 2016 that roughly 25 percent increase. If you backed it up a year, let's compare 2012 to 2016, it would actually be a decrease. So when you look at the numbers, obviously there's fluctuations year to year and then it's very important to know, not the general term, but really what's included in that particular statement.

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah, second row.

Question: Speaking of a life breaks, actress Paz de la Huerta recently came forward and said that she was raped by Harvey Weinstein in October of 2010. You guys submitted information evidence to the district attorney's office. Do you think that this could be the first time that we're seeing a case where you might enough to charge Harvey Weinstein with something criminal?

Commissioner O’Neill: Chief Boyce will talk about that.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce: So we became aware of the victim on October 25th. We got a phone call, we responded, we spoke to her. She put forth a credible and detailed narrative to us. We then sought to garner corroboration. This happened seven years ago and we found it, corroboration, along the way. We immediately contacted the district attorney of New York and we started working the case together, both of us. We have an actual case here.

We're happy with where the investigation is right now. Mr. Weinstein is out of state. We would need an arrest warrant to arrest him. So right now we're gathering our evidence. We continue to do so every day, so that's where we are in the case right now. As to others, I'm not gonna close the door and say, "Oh, this won't come forward," but this is what we have right now, this is what we're moving forward with.

Question: What makes her story so credible?

Chief Boyce: The ability to articulate each and every movement of the crime, where she was, where they met, where this happened and what he did.

Question: [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: Sure, in order to go arrest Mr. Weinstein, we would need an arrest warrant, so that requires a court order, so we want to get our evidence first before we go out and do something like that.

Question: Are you working on arrest warrant?

Chief Boyce: I'm not going to comment on [inaudible] here. This is a collaborative effort between us and the District Attorney of New York, so we'll work together to get this done. Right now he poses no threat to anybody in New York City, he's out of state. So it's a continuing investigation, it's fairly new, nine days old, and we'll go forward from there.

Commissioner O’Neill: Yep.

Question: [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: No, we're collecting office, we put out subpoenas to them and we're still acquiring evidence as we go forward.

Question: Chief [inaudible]

Chief Boyce: That's not what he said, he said probable cause, all right? Probably cause is a standard that we use and that's up to each person as they perceive it. I'm not going to deny that we don't, but I will say we have an actual case going forward. If this person was still in New York, and it was recent, we would go right away and make the arrest, no doubt, but we're talking about a seven-year-old case and we have to move forward, gathering evidence first.

Commissioner O’Neill: [inaudible]

Question: Chief, I wondered if we could go back to the sex crimes. Is there a particular type of sex crime that is indeed up? If there's a cleaner way of clarifying what appears to be a lot of confusion about whether or not rape is up or sex crimes in general are up?

Chief Shea: Probably a long discussion. Rape is actually down as I've said. Rape is down about 20 percent this year.

Question: How is that defined? [inaudible] How is rape defined in New York?

Chief Shea: I want this to remain a G-rated press conference here.

Commissioner O’Neill: That's fine. There's a definition in the [inaudible]

Chief Shea: Yep, we can follow up.

Commissioner O’Neill: [inaudible] that's provided by.

Question: Rape is down?

Chief Shea: Rape is down three percent this year. Rape is up for the month of October is not out of the ordinary to have over the course of a year fluctuations with, not only month-to-month, sometimes within the city, in different areas, but overall it's important for the people of New York City to know that the index crime is down in New York City. Every major category including rape is down in New York City. Index crime in every borough of New York City is down.

One of the earlier questions asked about how. It is a true collaborative effort, it really is, to echo the Police Commissioner's statement. We could not do this alone and we don't. When you look at parole, probation, five district attorneys, two federal prosecutors, the special narcotics part, that's just on the law enforcement side, all our federal partners on ATF, FBI, the community, you look at neighborhood policing. It's a combination of a lot of good things going right on the traditional crime side.

Unknown: [inaudible] police questions, then we'll move on, all right?

Commissioner O’Neill: John?

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah.

Question: [inaudible]

Chief Gomez: Hey John, New York City it's a big place and we do look. Our Counter-terrorism Bureau along with DOT, we look at places where there are a tremendous amount of pedestrians and we also look at bicycle traffic too, so I'm not going to say what should have been there or what should not have been there. We're in the process – the state came in and put some jersey barriers in, counter-terrorism put some barriers in there today. We're trying to make that bike path as safe as possible for the people that use it.

Commissioner O’Neill: [Inaudible]

Question: A question following up on Tuesday's incidents for you and for of the deputy commissioner as well. There's been pattern [inaudible] when we talk about, there's been this pattern when we see these people that commit these terrorist acts having these goals and aspirations, failing to achieve them and falling into online content in radicalizing. I'm wondering if thus far in the investigation anything has ... you've come across anything that makes this stand out. Is this part of that pattern? Is it not? Has anything new come about?

Commissioner O’Neill: All right, John?

Unknown: Too early to tell.

Chief Gomez: It might be this a part of that pattern.

Question: Have you come across anything that has shown that there were other people involved, that he got help from anyone, this attack?

Mayor: I know I said this the other day but it remains true in the scope of this kind of investigation, which is, it's still in a very early stage. We have a lot of leads to go through, a lot of due diligence to do going backwards through friends, associates, phone records, internet contacts. So we're just not able to answer that yet.

Question: But you still believe as of right now that he was self-radicalized?

Mayor: I wouldn't even want to make that characterization. Don't have any evidence to the contrary yet but we have a process that we have to go through before we have enough confidence in that answer and I don't want to be put in a position of giving one answer and two weeks from now having to give another or a month from now. So we're looking at that right now and it's going to take a bit.

Question: Last thing. There were people on the ground that said that when he rented the truck on October 22nd, that they saw him with other men around that truck driving that. Have you come across anything that would prove that's valid?

Mayor: We've spoken to those people. We've done things to corroborate that. The things that you would expect, canvases for video and so on, but I can't go into the results.

Question: I just want to follow up on what he was talking about there. The people that you're saying you spoke with because people in that neighborhood, numerous people in the neighborhood had told reporters that they had seen this guy with the same two guys every day about the same time, walking around the neighborhood, talking, their heads down. Are those the two people that you're talking about that investigators have spoken to already?

Mayor: We have spoke to the same neighbors. This is through the Joint Terrorism Task Force with NYPD, FBI and other agencies together. So we've interviewed the same people. We've made record of the same observations and we've taken other investigative steps, but I don't want to get into whether we identified which individuals because then the next question is, "Well who are they?" and what related it is, so I just can't go down that road yet.

Question: But does it appear that any of those people that you've talked to that he was associated with, that people saw him walking around with, that they could possibly have some connection to this or have you ruled them out?

Mayor: We're going through every possibility.

Question: Just a follow up. Were the sympathizers known to be on the NYPD's radar and linked to the suspect's cell phone, linked to this Tuesday's attack and did they know that he was about to carry out this [inaudible].

Commissioner O’Neill: Come on. We're not going to answer that. This is the early stages of the investigation. That's a pretty detailed question.

Question: [inaudible] overlaps, but for you Mr. Mayor and maybe if an official wants to weigh in. At the debate the other night there were a few instances talking about anti-terrorism, bollards, school safety where you sort of deferred and you said, "The NYPD makes those decisions," and even at one point [inaudible] like I said, something, "It's under your direction." You said, "It's not under my direction. I expect them to make those decisions." Can you explain to what extent you direct NYPD policy or [inaudible]?

Mayor: Sure, there's a huge difference between the question for example, "Where should you physically put bollards?" versus, "What should be our approach to police community relations? What should be our overall strategic framework, like a neighborhood policing strategy? What should be our budget?" I made the decision then with Commissioner Bratton to add 2,000 officers on patrol that for the strategic purpose of embedding the neighborhood policing policy and everything we do and for creating the critical response command. That's my decision, but it's very fine grained decisions about which specific sites to add reinforcement to and what type of bollard to use, I'm not the security expert who determines that type of thing. That's what I was trying to say.

Question: But on something like metal detectors in school for ... we should be ... it's okay for [inaudible] some traffic or some bike path with bollards, those are things that you would –

Mayor: I think – you know, look, I wish I could give you an easy chart that said how do you differentiate a policy decision from a more tactical decision that you would defer to law enforcement professionals on. Something like the question of schools, the broad gauge question, "Are we going to have a school-by-school approach," to the question, "metal detectors?" That's a policy decision. The answer is yes, it'll be school by school, not no one has them or everyone has them.

Then the specific decision for each school devolves to the security professionals who work with that school, obviously working with the educators. So I think it depends on each situation.

Should there be, in light of this incident, additional reinforcement of that particular bike path? That is a broad policy decision on the one hand because yes, you're right, it does have ramifications for people's lives, so it's something I need to do and then the state also buy into because the state obviously has control over the specific site, but then determining how you set those bollards to work best and where you put them and how you make you sure, as the Commissioner said, that people can still go about their lives, that's what the professionals have to work through.

Commissioner O’Neill: Linda.

Question: I think this is something that maybe both of you can address but with the barriers that you guys are putting up on the West Side Highway and I know it's between the city and the state doing this, but are you thinking about doing this in other areas, for example, like Central Park or ultimately closing Central Park off to vehicle traffic because when people are running right there, you're running right on the street and the cabs or whatever, they're driving right by you, so is that one of your thoughts at this point, is it something that you are considering?

Mayor: Let me start on the first point and then I'll turn to the Commissioner. Yes ... I'm talking about the West Side. In the case of the West Side, the state and city are working together, shared vision, of wanting to add additional protection. I think what was originally put in, just in the last day or so needs some revision to make sure people can still ride their bikes. Obviously we want safety and security, but we also want people to be able to go about their lives and enjoy their lives. That's another part of showing our enemies they cannot win. That plan needs some fine tuning obviously, but the idea of let's cover that area with additional measures we all agree on.

On the bigger point of where else we might go. This is where I've instructed NYPD and Department of Transportation to look at the whole city and look for additional locations that need reinforcement. I want to emphasize some places we immediately see a need to make changes.

Historically for example, Times Square. We had a lot of protection in place originally, after the other incident months ago we added additional protection, but we have to come up with a set of priorities as a city of what we feel needs additional reinforcement, in what order, you know, we have to find the resources for it. It's a huge city of eight-and-a-half million people. They're going to be some real choices here. That's where I'm listening for the NYPD's leadership and guidance on where we'll make those choices.

Question: Would you say Central Park is among those that you're looking at?

Commissioner O’Neill: It's something we're taking a look at, sure, yep.

Question: [inaudible]

Commissioner O’Neill: We're still seeking him now. I don't know, I'm not going to tell you where we're looking for him, but we're still seeking, he's still out there.

Question: Is he believed to be [inaudible].

Commissioner O’Neill: I don't want to comment on that. As you know we just got the two fellows from the homicide in '81, in the barbecue in the backyard. Great work by the Fugitive Enforcement Division and they also arrested Matthew Passaro in the same week. Great job by them.

Question: Question for the Mayor and then [inaudible] between community the city. For the Mayor, will you sign it or veto it and [inaudible]

Mayor: I believe the current approach is working. The actions taken by the NYPD administratively have worked. I've said that to the council repeatedly and we continue to make that point to them and we'll see where those conversations go, but that's been my position.

Commissioner O’Neill: I –

Question: On the subject –

Commissioner O’Neill: Hold on.

Question: Sorry.

Commissioner O’Neill: So my position is similar. I think the way we've implemented the changes over the last year or so, I think it's been effective, so we're still in conversation with the council.

Question: Very sorry about that.

Commissioner O’Neill: That's okay.

Question: But on that subject, I asked the Speaker of the City Council recently what's being done to measure the administrative implementation. She didn't have an answer. Is there something that's being done to evaluate how it's being-

Mayor: Like, I've said to members of the Council who are concerned on the issue, we've met with them. The Commissioner has met with them. We've said we're showing anything that we have available. I've also asked, honestly, for any reports of instances where the new policy has not been followed at the local level and I certainly don't know of any.

I think the concerns are honest. I want to be very clear. I'm respectful of the council members and the advocates who have the concern. I believe as I set of reforms that have been made, that some things are best done internally, other things are done other ways, but we've attempted to be very transparent with the council, but as we said, we'll continue talking but we'll always offer the information we have.

Question: What is that information, what do you show, what do you see?

Mayor: One, before [inaudible] commissioner. One, the absence of any example of noncompliance is rather important. Two, that instructions have been given, supervisors continue to reiterate, "This is the way to do things." Commissioner?

Commissioner O’Neill: Yeah, and just the broader picture is all these bills came about to increase trust between the police and the community and if you see where we are in early November 2017, I think that that's proven out. We're getting more cooperation from the community. I think if you look at the crime numbers that Dermot just spoke about and the CCRB numbers, I think the city is definitely moving in the right direction.

Mayor: Okay, anything else? Last call everyone. Going once?

Question: Any topic.

Mayor: Yeah, any topic. We made that transition. Some pulled it back towards policing but we've been on any topic. Go ahead Will.

Question: Can you ask Ross Offinger about taking a free hotel room from Jona Rechnitz and will he be suspended from your campaign?

Mayor: He will not be suspended. I have not spoken to him about it. He will not be suspended.

Question: Don't you want to know if he took a free, a gift from somebody [inaudible]?

Mayor: I've not asked him about it. He won't be suspended. Let's move on. Any other questions on anything. Going once, going twice.

Question: Final weekend of campaigning. What's your final message going be [inaudible] and how do you intend to spend it?

Mayor: I'll be at churches. I know we have some street events planned. I know we're going to also go into Monday with a lot of activity and on Election Day itself. So I'll be moving all over the city, campaign is in full gear. A lot of field activity, a lot of phone banking going on. Obviously our ads are up. We're at full tilt and my message is simple. One, vote. Right now, we saw – 80 percent of New Yorkers, I can say this safety, for 80 percent of New Yorkers a very troubling result of the last election on November 8th and we know a lot of people stayed home all over the country who now regret it.

People need to get involved and decide the future of this city and I've offered a vision that includes continuing our efforts to fight inequality, building a lot more affordable housing, creating more good paying jobs for New Yorkers, building on the progress of pre-K, adding 3-K, three-year-old early child education, city-wide, continuing to build on our record of reducing crime but also important additional measures for police community trust, like body cameras on all of our officers.

This is what I've laid out to people. I think a clear majority of New Yorkers believe in this approach. My request of all New Yorkers is come out and vote, decide the future of your city.

Question: Is there a turnout number or percentage wise in terms of turnout that you have set as goal. There are a lot of concerns going into election day that turnout is going to be very low, perhaps even record setting low?

Mayor: I think the turnout question is a national concern at this point. I think we, meaning for all this country, for all elections, we have something we have to fix in this country. I don't have a magic number because I like so many others recognize we can't project turnout anymore, something structurally has changed and obviously that's a lot of what we learned, especially in 2016.

To me, it is to get our message out and do our best to motivate people to vote, but it's also a reminder in a democracy, if people don't participate they're making a huge mistake, but the decision will be made by those who participate. That's the rules of the game.

What I hope we can do, Grace, going forward, which I think really would affect turnout, is change the election laws in New York State. I know if we have same-day registration, I know if we have early voting, turnout will go up, voting will go up. I know it. It's been proven all over the country. I am hoping that this will be the year coming up in Albany, 2018, where we finally get it done and I think there will be a lot of pressure to get it done. If they don't fundamentally change election laws in New York State, we will see potentially continued turnout declines.

Yeah.

Question: The two investigations about your fundraising were closed in March. Now in November, can you tell taxpayers how much they're going to have to pay for your legal bills in those cases?

Mayor: I'm sure our legal team, law department can give an answer. I don't know exactly.

Question: I just want to go back to the Right-to-Know Act. If the Council does manage to pass this bill in the coming months, will you be able to [inaudible]

Mayor: I don't do hypotheticals. There's ongoing conversation. Again, we're trying to show the council that the very things they're trying to achieve are being achieved, right now, through administrative action and that's the best way to go, but we're going to continue to have a conversation with the council in good faith.

Yeah.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Let me just – I got one, two, three.

Question: You used the word mandate several times [inaudible] 2013 victory [inaudible] Do you have the percentage number that says the people are really behind these, my agenda that dictates what you would call a mandate this time around?

Mayor: Let's start with the traditional 50 percent plus one because again, no one knows what the turnout levels will be. I want to start with we have to make clear there's a majority that wants this vote, but after that, no, I think it's to go out there and our game plan is just try and motivate the most participation knowing that the projection people have received is that it's not the closest election of all time,.

I'm trying to help people understand that it doesn't matter what you hear and again, if ever there was an object lesson, it's 2016. How many people stayed home, and it's not a disrespect to the media. You all were reporting exactly what everyone was seeing and saying, but how many people stayed home on November 8th because they thought the ballgame was over, I don't need to vote, doesn't matter, it's all done, only to wake up and find out that it was something very, very, different.

So that's our central message to people. Don't take it for granted. Just come out and we'll be pounding away with that message over the next four days.

Question: If Mr. [inaudible] was not lying about the [inaudible] what reason should we have to believe he's telling the truth [inaudible].

Mayor: Again, this has been covered so many times over, I'm kind of amazed this is what you guys want to talk about. There were full investigations. No further action was taken. Even his testimony this week is pointing out clearly how many times he has lied and why he is a convicted felon. It's just nothing else to discuss here. Last call.

Question: Do you have any thoughts on the abrupt shutdown of Gothamist and DNAinfo over their unionization vote?

Mayor: Look, this one -- nothing surprises me anymore, but this one actually surprises me. First of all, any company where the boss shuts it down because the workers want to have a union, shuts it down, not just says, "Oh, I'm going to fight the union. I don't want my workers to have better salaries or better benefits or more security," but literally shuts down the company because the workers had an interest in a union, that's the most undemocratic, disgusting thing I've seen in a long time.

I also called him a coward because, what, this guys is one of the richest guys around. If he wants to make a case to working people they shouldn't have a union, well go make the case and if you lose, respect your workers and let them have a union. For God sakes, it's not like the guy is going to miss if he has to pay a little bit more money. He's not going to miss it. But on top of that, that's any company that I just described.

Now let's take it a step further. Media outlets that people depend on for information, for perspective, to keep democracy thriving, to shut down media outlets because their workers want to unionize, it's an anti-democratic act. He's literally diminishing the public discourse and it begs the question why we even have media structured the way we do, that individual wealthy people can literally decide whether a media outlet lives or dies, there's something very, very wrong with that. That's what I got.

Thanks, everyone.