From the Daily News:The city plans to hire 81 new parks enforcement officers to beef up patrols in green spaces across all five boroughs.
City Parks Commissioner Veronica White made the announcement at a civic meeting in Astoria earlier on Tuesday night as residents pressed her about issues in nearby Astoria Park.
In recent years, the number of PEP officers has dwindled to less than 100. And many are tied up at events or parks facilities, leaving few to patrol.
Joseph Puleo of DC 37 Local 983, which represents the officers, called the hires “a step in the right direction” but would like to see the numbers continue to grow.
Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates, who has also been pushing for more PEP officers, said the new hires still leave the city far below the force of 450 officers it had in the 1990s.
11 comments:
Im sure none of them will be assigned to Queens.
Most will no doubt be assigned to Manhattan, Central park and Liberty island where all the tourists go.
and 79 of them will work in central park.
Um.....horray?
I heard that PEP and NYPD do not get along at all. The NYPD union see each new PEP employee as one fewer for the NYPD union and the NYPD brass do not want another jurisdictional turn battle.
they are in Rockaway, they either sit in the double wide trailer or walk around outside in uniforms doing nothing. during the summer they harass people for smoking on the boardwalk and they go further down towards Far Rockqway on the the shore front, stand and smoke. they are wasting the Tax payers dollar.
Remind us again why these people are needed? Didn't Police used to do this in city parks? If there was a problem, you called a cop, right? Problem solved. So instead of hiring more cops, who could deal with many more situations beyond just the park, we are putting these "half- (or quarter?) cops" on the city payroll feeding trough?
I recently went on an interview for this position and I was told all the new officers hired are paid for by private groups such as friends of the high-line or the central park conservancy, therefore new officers go to parks that don't need them, while high crime parks such as Flushing Meadow get crapped on. Talk about Queens Crap. That was for the temp position on the parks website. Its temp because its funded by the private park groups year to year. The Director told me they have no plans to hire full time to staff the rest of the city parks.
Despite all of the harassment you smokers rail about (get over it already and follow the law), PEP do make a difference in how people use the park. They are tasked with keeping an eye on the parks, making sure that people aren't littering, blasting music too loud, or barbecuing under trees. Just the presence of a PEP officer provides an environment wherein fewer would-be transgressors decide to act upon their baser instincts. Think of that the next time you see someone urinate on a tree or let their pitbull run around unleashed. The more the merrier.
What just happened to get us more PEP cops?
Did some high ranking pol get accosted or groped in one of our premiere parks?
PEP Officers should carry a firearm, and not a flashlight.
How can anyone work as a PEP Officer, and not carry a firearm? What happens if armed person is shooting in a park, what is the PEP Officer going to do, take out his fashlight?
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