City Hall is moving to embed NYPD members into other city agencies, even as the police commissioner and other top officials in the administration of Mayor Eric Adams are under scrutiny by federal law enforcement.
As of Sept. 3, NYPD Deputy Inspector Timothy Wilson has been assigned as “Chief of Enforcement” at the city Department of Parks and Recreation,
managing 250 Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, according to an internal memo obtained by THE CITY — part of a larger initiative to place NYPD officials into local government agencies.
Wilson’s duties include “addressing illegal vending on parkland, permit enforcement, recruitment with the hopes of lowering attrition, building out the agency’s drone unit, and enhancing collaboration with NYPD to support PEP officers,” reads an Aug. 29 report from Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue to her supervisor, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi.
The memo describes the new NYPD chief enforcement officer at the Parks Department as “part of a mayoral initiative to embed an NYPD member in each agency with an enforcement unit to enhance interagency coordination and streamline enforcement efforts.”
More than a dozen city agencies have enforcement units, including the departments of Homeless Services, Environmental Protection, and Health and Mental Hygiene — all of which will be directed to train employees at the Police Academy facility in Queens, under another Adams initiative announced in May.
A spokesperson for Adams didn’t respond to questions about which agencies are being assigned NYPD enforcement chiefs, and referred questions about the initiative to the Police Department.
The NYPD did not respond to two emails seeking information about the initiative described in the Parks Department memo.
Running Government
The moves come to light as the NYPD finds itself embroiled in a federal corruption probe, which burst into the public eye last week with the FBI raid on the homes of Police Commissioner Edward Caban and his twin brother, James, a former NYPD officer.
More than a half dozen other NYPD officials in Manhattan and Queens had their phones confiscated, according to sources and media reports that have centered on potential misconduct around James Caban’s consulting work with nightlife establishments.
The unusual deployment of high-ranking NYPD officials into civilian city agencies is just one way that Adams — who in 2006 retired as captain after 22 years with the Police Department — has inserted police officers and retired members of the force into city management.
Among those with key roles in his administration are Louis Molina, who runs the city agency that manages purchasing, hiring and real estate, and Matthew Fraser, the former NYPD head of technology who now runs the city Office of Technology Innovation.
When the Office of Nightlife director role became vacant last year, Adams appointed a former NYPD cop, Jeff Garcia.
And two officials who were among those served search warrants by the FBI last week in a sweep of key Adams administration personnel were former NYPD officers with longstanding relationships to the mayor — Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks III and advisor Timothy Pearson.
Banks, who left a top NYPD post in the prior administration in 2014 shortly before being named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal bribery probe, manages the city’s public safety agencies and holds significant decision-making authority over the NYPD.
He was also targeted in last week’s federal raids, as were his two brothers, schools Chancellor David Banks and business consultant Terence Banks, as well as David Banks’ partners, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.
None of the officials targeted last week by law enforcement, in a probe overseen by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, have been accused of wrongdoing.
Pearson’s role has also been far-reaching, including overseeing an office staffed with former police officers assigned to improve operations across city government. His actions in that office have been the subject of four lawsuits alleging sexual harassment of an NYPD subordinate and related retaliation against three of her Police Department colleagues.
Pearson has denied “discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation, or a hostile work environment” in response to the first of those lawsuits, through his taxpayer-funded attorney John Flannery, of the firm Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.
Pearson has also played a role in coordinating shelters housing migrants, including security there. His clash with guards who attempted to screen him for entry is now the subject of an imminent lawsuit by the security officers alleging false arrest, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
In addition to pushing Police Department personnel into civilian agencies, Adams has moved to bring the law enforcement units of those departments closer to the NYPD, as the Daily News first reported — an initiative driven by Phil Banks.
Adams announced in May that the role of the police academy facility in Queens is being expanded to handle the training of other entities with policing units — including the departments of parks, probation and correction, which previously handled their own training.
“Over the last two years, we’ve broken down silos, better connected all our city’s public safety agencies, and given them the tools and resources needed to continue to keep our city safe,” Adams said at a ceremony at the academy in late May.
‘Hardcore’ Policing
A union leader representing parks officers said he was infuriated by what he described as “overreach” by the NYPD.
“As soon as I heard, I was outraged that they would actually have another agency come in and direct our members without our acknowledgement,” said Joe Puleo, president of District Council 37 Local 983, which represents the park patrol officers.
His members were never supposed to be viewed as police officers carrying guns in parks, playgrounds, and beaches, he added.
“They weren’t primarily there to be like a police force,” he said. “But they were there to give comfort, information, stewardship, to the parks — and it worked great.”
Now, the NYPD brings a “hardcore” culture of enforcement, including stopping and frisking New Yorkers, he argued. Parks Enforcement Patrol officers do not carry guns.
Puleo noted that the city’s public transit and housing agencies used to have their own enforcement agencies.
“They all got gobbled up by the NYPD,” he said, adding, “bigger doesn’t make it better.”
He argued: “Bureaucracy takes it over and the concerns of the people are diluted.”
Puleo has a meeting scheduled with the NYPD on Sept. 18 to talk about the issue. He has also argued that the new initiative violates the union’s collective bargaining agreement.
The NYPD’s larger influence comes as some crimes in Central Park have gotten media attention. PEP officers, along with NYPD cops, patrol city parks. Major crimes in city parks remain rare, according to NYPD records.
The parks’ new NYPD chief of enforcement was formerly a precinct commander on Staten Island. He was referenced in a lawsuit filed by an NYPD officer who said he was demoted for refusing to honor “courtesy cards” — doled out by police officers to friends and family to evade tickets — during traffic stops.
The police officer, Mathew Bianchi, alleged that Wilson told him he could get kicked off the traffic unit because he once ticketed the friend of an NYPD chief. After Bianchi said he didn’t agree with the “courtesy card” policy, he alleged, Wilson asked him: “is it better to be right or better to be on patrol?”
Bianchi settled the case Tuesday for $175,000. Wilson didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
Elizabeth Glazer, who headed the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice during the administration of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, questioned the latest expansion of the NYPD.
“Seems like a bad idea to turn every kind of patrol into a police matter, especially when a different and civil method would work,” she told THE CITY. “Now seems especially bad timing as the Police Department is struggling with the governance of the department.”
