Attacks Trouble Spots
Find NYPD 'Impact' Has One on Crime

By REUVEN BLAU

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang JUICING CRIME FIGHTING: Dennis C. Smith, right, a Professor at New York University, released a report June 27 that found the NYPD's Operation Impact program is a major factor in the department's successful effort to continue reducing crime. 'It's CompStat on steroids,' he told reporters. Robert M. Purtell, left, a SUNY-Albany Finance Professor, also worked on the report.

A New York University report released June 27 found that the NYPD's Operation Impact has played a key role in helping the department continue to reduce crime despite the dwindling number of patrol cops.

"It's CompStat on steroids by using information that they always had in a very strategic way," said Dennis C. Smith, a professor at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, an author of the study.

Hitting Right Targets

The 57-page report, which was financed by the New York City Police Foundation, concluded that the NYPD's program of "hot spot" policing with new recruits led to a broad decrease in crime in specific areas.

The study concluded that precincts that were assigned Impact Zones beginning in 2003 experienced a decrease in the murder rate of 24 percent more than the citywide average, an additional 23-percent drop in assaults, and an extra 21-percent reduction in robberies. The report, which was also written by SUNY-Albany Finance Professor Robert M. Purtell, covered Jan. 1, 2003 to Dec. 31, 2006.

"It is an extraordinarily cost-effective crime-fighting tool," Mr. Smith told reporters at a press conference in the East Village.

But one police expert cautioned that Operation Impact is not a panacea. "I think you have to reserve decision on all these programs, because often when they are touted, you wait a little while and find out it's not so," said Eugene O'Donnell, a Professor of Law and Police Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Didn't Last in Rochester

He noted that upstate law-enforcement officials used a similar initiative to combat crime in Rochester in 2004. According to Mr. O'Donnell, authorities hailed the program when murders dropped to 36 in 2004 from 58 in 2003. "Unfortunately, nobody was jumping around in 2005 when the murder rate went back up to 53, leaving Rochester with the continued title of Murder Capital of New York," he declared.

The NYPD has been very successful in reducing crime during Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly's tenure, he added. "Their strategies have been very effective, but all of this stuff is more complicated than simply pointing to a program and saying this is the solution to crime," Mr. O'Donnell said.

The NYU report examined the seven major crimes - murder, rape, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, felony assault, and auto theft - reviewed by the FBI's Uniform Crime Report.

Professor Smith, who has close ties to former Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, said the study sought to explain how the NYPD was able to continue to reduce crime as the department ranks have dropped by approximately 5,000 officers since 2000.

"Clearly, in a time of shrinking resources, Operation Impact has earned its place as an empirically-validated crime-reduction tool worthy of continued adaptation in New York," the report stated.

'Should Set Off Alarms'

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has long maintained that the program is a standard managerial response to insufficient resources. "The fact that it's being threatened really has to ring the alarm bells," said a PBA official. "[PBA President] Pat Lynch has been raising the alarm about the staffing issue since 2000 and it's fallen on deaf ears. They've chosen to ignore it to the point that it's allowed to become a crisis."

Commissioner Kelly recently warned that the current recruitment woes could force the department to scale back Operation Impact. The department will maintain the program for at least six months, he told reporters last week.

Anthony Garvey, president of the Lieutenants' Benevolent Association, said the department can always staff the program by assigning officers more overtime.

"I'm sure the preference would be to have additional bodies, but I don't think the program would collapse in and of itself, because the department has the ability to utilize overtime," he remarked. "And we'd hope that some of the Lieutenants are included in that overtime."

Working 2,800 Short

The department is presently 2,800 officers below its projected headcount and struggling mightily to attract new recruits under the reduced starting pay of $25,100 for officers during their first six months of training.

"Nobody becomes a police officer to become rich, but you have to live," Mr. Kelly told reporters following a June 27 graduation ceremony of 1,097 officers at Madison Square Garden.

The following day, he highlighted the importance of Operation Impact.

"It has worked," he said following a promotion ceremony. "We've used our resources wisely at a time that we have had a reduced headcount from what it was in 2000."

No Cause and Effect?

The study noted that crime began to decrease during Mr. Kelly's first tenure as Police Commissioner in the final two years of the Dinkins administration.

But some scholars and critics of the police believe that crime reduction has little or no connection to law-enforcement management policies, the report repeatedly noted.

"Criminologists and others have been resourceful in generating alternative hypotheses to explain the drop in crime, and have gone to great, some would say heroic, lengths to find evidence that supports their rival hypotheses," the report said. The NYPD, however, has taken a proactive approach to fighting crime by deploying new officers to Impact Zones starting in 2003. In analyzing the strategy, the study's authors first estimated the overall crime rate, and then examined if and how those figures differed in the selected problematic precincts.

"Overall, it appears that the impact-policing strategy was effective against visible crimes-against-people," the report concluded.

But the initiative did not carry over to burglary and auto theft rates, the study pointed out. Those crimes rarely occur in broad view and may have been outside the scope of the program, the report stated.

'Targeted Violence'

"It was directed at violent crimes and that's where it made the most difference," Professor Smith said.

He noted that the program has been staffed with new recruits, which has made them more appealing candidates for other nearby departments looking to fill vacancies. "They are going to make these people even more attractive because they are more seasoned," Mr. Smith said.

Joseph Pollini, an Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the younger officers are less cynical and tend to be more aggressive crime-fighters. "Those are the people who you want to suppress crime," he said during a June 29 phone interview. "The Police Department and the public benefit from having someone who's aggressive and wants to do the job."

He called Operation Impact a "good tactic" based on his 33 years of prior experience with the department. "The Police Department really has no other recourse other than to shuffle around their resources. I think it's an effective tool," he said.