New York, NY – NYPD Community Affairs Officers Hard to Reach

New York, NY – The cops assigned as the community affairs officers of their precincts are generally “loved” by their neighborhoods – but good luck trying to reach them.

So says Manhattan City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who had some of her eagerbeaver staffers telephone each of the 76 police precincts around the city during regular business hours and ask to speak to the community affairs officer.

The results of her survey aren’t very encouraging, Brewer said as she released a report of her findings. Basically, she found that community officers can’t hear us now.

Phones were answered by desk officers at 67 of the precincts called – 88.2%. The other calls were picked up by answering machines.
But only 39% of the community officers were available to accept calls made by Brewer’s surveyors. The rest were picked up by community officers’ answering machines.
Brewer, who is chairwoman of the Council’s committee on technology in government, said messages left on answering machines often aren’t answered in a timely fashion.

That’s not too surprising, given that community affairs officers are supposed to spend many of their working hours out in their communities, interacting with merchants, civic groups, and schools, and generally serving as the eyes and ears of their precinct commanders.

Her survey also found that cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the community affairs officers are almost nonexistent. A cell number was available for only 3% of the community affairs officers, and e-mail addresses were available for only 12%, Brewer reported.
Brewer said the NYPD’s Community Affairs Office provides on-duty cell phones to community affairs officers if they request them. “Few, apparently, have done so,” the report states.

The Police Department did not respond to a call for comment.