Who is Eric Adams, NYC Mayoral frontrunner and NYC Cop? `

As a New York City Police Officer for 22-years, Eric Adams, born in Jamaica, honorably served the city and often risked his life for those he made an oath to protect. He is a retired NYPD Captain.

Adams received the most first-place votes for Mayor in Tuesday’s Primary Election Day and early vote tally!

He joined the NYPD and became one of its most outspoken officers, calling out racism and bias in the department and pushing for major reforms.

As a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, Eric would often police the streets in a bulletproof vest one day during the high-crime 1980’s and 1990’s and protest bad behavior by cops the next, marching side-by-side with his fellow civil rights advocates. He rose to the rank of captain, helping to build the first computerized system for tracking crime in the city, which led to historic gains in public safety.

Eric’s efforts to change policing began his lifelong work to improve and protect New York. From the NYPD, he moved on to the State Senate, where he represented sections of central and Brownstone Brooklyn. In Albany, Eric built winning coalitions to advance New York City’s values and goals, helping to push through measures to protect tenants and workers, combat gun violence, end the NYPD’s abuses of stop and frisk, and advance human rights — including marriage equality. He also became the first person of color to chair the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee.

Eric was then elected Brooklyn Borough President in 2013 by putting together a diverse coalition of Brooklynites to become the borough’s first Black leader. As the representative of one of the nation’s largest counties, Eric fought tirelessly to grow the local economy, invest in schools, reduce inequality, improve public safety, and advocate for smart policies and better government that delivers for all New Yorkers. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the city, Eric moved a mattress into his office and worked around the clock to deliver donated meals and PPE to essential workers and vulnerable New Yorkers, demanding government produce more equitable relief.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, 

HIS AGENDA ON CRIME: REDUCE CRIME BY HAVING COPS FOCUS ON POLICE WORK

Most people don’t realize that a large number of our cops don’t actually spend their workdays fighting crime. Many, for instance, do clerical work, move barricades, and drive trucks. And even police officers tasked with fighting crime spend huge amounts of their time on court appearances and paperwork, not out in the street or conducting investigations or preventing crime. We can save $500 million annually through strategic civilianization of NYPD units where the existing ratio of police officers to civilian workers is simply not necessary, and by lowering overtime costs using technology to limit time wasted on paperwork and court appearances. That money can then go right into pro- grams proven to reduce crime, such as our Crisis Management System.

TARGET GUN VIOLENCE

The number one driver of crime spikes in the city right now—and the perception that we are moving backward on crime—is gun violence. We must reverse this troubling trend, fast. To do that, we will:

• Reinvent the anti-crime unit as an anti-gun unit, hiring officers with the skills and temperament for this kind of intense, on the ground police work, targeting known shooters with precision policing tactics.
• Fully fund the City’s Crisis Management System and allow for more centralized coordination between violence interrupters and different organizations throughout the city, including our hospitals.
• Convene citywide clergy leaders and law enforcement officials to partner on public safety initiatives in hotspots.
• Form a Tri-State commission to formulate policy proposals that would stop the flow of illegal handguns into our communities.
• Prevent guns from coming in through our bus and train stations with spot checks like the ones we use in subway stations.

TARGET GUN VIOLENCE

The number one driver of crime spikes in the city right now—and the perception that we are moving backward on crime—is gun violence. We must reverse this troubling trend, fast. To do that, we will:

• Reinvent the anti-crime unit as an anti-gun unit, hiring officers with the skills and temperament for this kind of intense, on the ground police work, targeting known shooters with precision policing tactics.
• Fully fund the City’s Crisis Management System and allow for more centralized coordination between violence interrupters and different organizations throughout the city, including our hospitals.
• Convene citywide clergy leaders and law enforcement officials to partner on public safety initiatives in hotspots.
• Form a Tri-State commission to formulate policy proposals that would stop the flow of illegal handguns into our communities.
• Prevent guns from coming in through our bus and train stations with spot checks like the ones we use in subway stations.

DEAL WITH CRIME SPIKES BEFORE THEY GET OUT OF CONTROL

By using real-time governing tools and tracking crime trends to become predictive, we can quickly shift NYPD resources from one community to another to reverse bad trends. For instance, we will regularly shift detectives and other officers from low-crime areas to crime hot-spots.

TACKLE THE TRAUMA THAT FESTERS IN COMMUNITIES EXPERIENCING GUN VIOLENCE

Living in a high-crime community and experiencing gun violence creates trauma that impacts
a youth’s ability to perform in school and achieve in life. Without adequate services that address trauma and allow for healing, youth are placed at higher risk of incarceration, teenage pregnan- cy and homelessness. Prevention and follow up measures that serve to heal and support these youth are best delivered by trauma-trained credible messengers paired with mental health professionals, social services and violence interrupters. We will recruit, hire, and train community residents who have real-life experience to provide an immediate post-crisis healing space for, and to develop a working relationship with, affected youth. This helps reduce feelings of isolation and mistrust, cultivate shared investment of community-centered healing, and reduce the fear often associated with living in a high-crime, high-poverty neighborhood.

BIG STEP

ADD LOCAL BLACK AND BROWN OFFICERS WHO WILL RESPECT AND PROTECT NEW YORKERS

One reason the NYPD continues to be plagued by incidents of bias and brutality is that the department still needs to become much more diverse. We will address this by recruiting from the very same neighborhoods that are suffering from crime, which are mostly Black and Brown, and by allowing peace officers at City agencies—who are not police officers and who are also more likely to be Black and Brown—to be promoted to the NYPD.

TRAIN NEW NYPD LEADERS AT TOP INSTITUTIONS

The biggest companies in the world regularly send their executives to executive training programs at elite institutions. Our next generation of police leadership should have access to the same training to improve department performance—both on crime and civil rights. The department will work with private companies who are willing to sponsor spots for NYPD supervisors at the leader- ship academies they send their own management staff to, helping train a new generation of brass to think critically, behave honorably and lead effectively.

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PUBLICIZE THE LIST OF COPS THE NYPD IS MONITORING FOR BAD BEHAVIOR

The NYPD keeps its own “monitoring list” of cops with records of complaints and violent incidents. We will make it public to be transparent and build trust.

MAKE IT EASIER FOR GOOD COPS TO IDENTIFY BAD COPS

Most police officers could tell you about a few bad cops they work with or have run in to—and most cops resent their behavior because it brings down their profession and makes it harder for them to do their job. At the same time, it is dangerous for cops to report those bad apples. So we will make it easier for cops to anonymously report bad behavior by their colleagues that results in swift action through an outside system overseen by the Department of Investigation, protecting whistleblowers and exposing problem police.

CREATE A CITYWIDE LAW ENFORCEMENT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE

To improve NYPD transparency and oversight over sensitive policing operations while still maintaining needed information security, we will create a citywide law enforcement intelligence committee. The NYPD will regularly report to and share information with the committee, which will include the mayor, council speaker, council public safety chair, public advocate and borough presidents. Each of these individuals will receive top secret clearance. The committee can also then vote to determine when and how information on operations is disclosed to the public, rather than relying on the NYPD to make proactive disclosures.