Top NYPD officers were apparently chewed out in a meeting last week over recent shootings and stabbings across the city. Chief of Patrol James Hall came down on cops in charge of precincts in dangerous areas and rookies who he thought weren't taking the job seriously. According to the Post, he told one commander, "If you can't do the job, we'll find people who can!"
Cops from risky neighborhoods like Brownsville, East New York and Crown Heights were all called into the meeting. Hall berated them for the spikes in crime and alleged "mismanaging of money," like in one precinct which recorded 300 hours of overtime with only four arrests. And that wasn't even at the Port Authority. First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Pineiro allegedly threatened to fire officials if the spike didn't go down, saying, "Whenever there's a problem, everyone always says, 'We'll take care of it, we'll take care of it.' The problem has to be taken care of before the meeting."
Hall was allegedly angriest at NYPD newbies who weren't taking Operation Impact seriously. The operation floods troubled neighborhoods with cops, but apparently the rookies haven't been present; Hall visited an NYPD watchtower in Brooklyn and waited over half an hour before a cop showed up for duty. Many of the newer cops seemed to have no idea why they were assigned to those particular neighborhoods. According to their weekly crime statistics [PDF], murder was up 40.7% this week compared to last year, but overall crime was down 0.6%
