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Mayor Adams to hold summit on public safety

2-day summit at Gracie Mansion to be held regarding public safety amid stark increases in violence across the city

October 21, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, right, is joined by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after signing two bills designating new boundaries of a Times Square sensitive location and prohibiting concealed carry permit holders from bringing their firearms into the Times Square sensitive location, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, in New York. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

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Mayor Eric Adams and his administration will host a high-level summit this weekend to seek consensus from different groups regarding public safety in the city. The meeting will be attended by a wide range of people with relevant expertise, the mayor’s office said in a statement Friday.

Members of the bar and judiciary, advocacy group leaders, district attorneys and law enforcement will head out to Gracie Mansion. The objective of the summit is to ensure that the system administers “safety and justice [New Yorkers] deserve out of the criminal justice system.” Each group in attendance will be approaching issues from their own policy perspectives and goals; the idea is to “advance areas of agreement,” according to the mayor’s office.

“We can all agree that in order for our city to succeed we need both public safety and justice because the two together are the prerequisites to prosperity,” said Mayor Adams. “We have more in common than that which divides us, and this summit is an effort to take what we agree will make New York safer and advance that agenda. Only by working with those who sometimes disagree will we see progress.”

“New Yorkers expect that their government will do all it can to keep them safe and treat them fairly,” said Chief Counsel to the Mayor and City Hall Brendan McGuire.

“The mayor is gathering this experienced and creative group so that we can learn from one another and seek common ground for the benefit of everyone who is affected by our criminal justice system. We thank every participant for making the time to join us.”

Mayor Adams appeared on Fox’s Good Day New York Friday morning to speak with Rosanna Scotto and Bianca Peters, focusing on the city’s recent spikes in crime. Rather than directly attribute statistics, which indicate a decrease in some types of crime but an increase in other types, Adams told Scotto that public safety is about the general mood and collective impression that New Yorkers experience that matters, “This is what I learned in my early days of policing,” said Adams.

“If I just throw the stats at the public, murders are down, shootings are down, 47 percent increase in arrests in our subway system. We’re actually down in index crime from compared to 2019, 2018, 2017. Those are the numbers. But how do we feel? New Yorkers must feel safe, and we must deal with the actual crimes at the same time. That’s what I’m saying, that until New Yorkers are feeling safe, we are not going to be successful.”

Adams continued to emphasize the upcoming meeting as a tool for reform.

“This weekend, we are bringing together those who criticize our policies, those who believe our policies. We’re having a two-day summit to look at our criminal justice system from those who are critics to those who support.”

“The bottle necking of our system, that system is allowing people who are violent to remain on our streets far too long after being found guilty, not sentencing, not making sure they’re off our streets. And we’re looking at the entire parts of our criminal justice system. This is going to be an important conference we’re having for two days over the weekend.”

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