Public Employee Press

Local 983 pushes for park safety bill


Local 983 President Joe Puleo is working closely with City Council members to include all Parks Dept. properties and playgrounds in new crime-tracking legislation.

"Most violent crimes occur in small parks - little neighborhood playgrounds. You'll hear about shootings and stabbings at basketball courts, pools, beaches or recreation centers," he said. "These statistics don't show up because the New York Police Dept. can exclude them from their reports."

The City Council's Public Safety Committee proposed a bill requiring the NYPD to report crimes in parks and playgrounds that are one acre or larger. That bill - which was stopped by former Mayor Bloomberg - did not go far enough, said Puleo, who wants all Parks Dept. properties included regardless of size.

Currently, the NYPD only discloses crime data from the city's 31 largest parks; last year's bill would have raised it to 870 parks. "Instead of shrinking this loophole, we should eliminate it," Puleo said. "Unreported crimes skew official reports and mislead park-goers about safety."

Puleo will continue to work with the City Council on this issue, he said, hoping Mayor de Blasio will support stronger legislation.

The DC 37 Parks Committee and affected locals are pressing to make parks safer through more hiring and better training of Local 983's Parks Enforcement Patrol Officers and Urban Park Rangers and the possibility of arming UPRs, which would require state legislation.

PEP Officers and UPRs are unarmed Peace Officers who patrol public parks, write summonses and enforce Parks Dept. rules. Their ranks have shrunk in the last two decades as crime in New York City parks has risen.

"We can't go along with policies that fall short of requiring full disclosure from the NYPD," Puleo said. "We can't continue to underreport crime and endanger the lives of the public and our Officers by failing to track all crimes, no matter the size of the park, playground or recreation center."