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Safety in the Street

New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner at the dedication of the new home of the Fashion Institute of Technology on May 4, 1959.

The following is a special address by Mayor Robert Wagner on safety in the streets.

My fellow New Yorkers, just seventeen days ago on April fifth, I proclaimed a war against crime. Our first target was crime in the subways. We quickly mobilized the necessary forces and we moved. With the unflagging cooperation of Police Commissioner Mike Murphy and his department and of the Transit Authority headed by Commissioner Joseph O'Grady. We put together a force of about eight hundred and fifty additional men on a seven day a week basis. These men regular city policemen and transit patrolmen working overtime made up a special on crime busting shift from eight in the evening until four in the morning. Within forty-eight hours after I proclaimed the war, we had that force on patrol on the scene in action. We took a number of steps too we closed off the rails subway cars during the very late hours. Fewer cars are easier to patrol in crowded cars safer cars. Also in the night hours to lessen the chance of crime,w e shut down supplementary entrances and passageways into the subway stations.

We launched test and demonstration programs of special warning and communications equipment linking the subway cars on the change booths with police headquarters. This first phase of the war has been successful beyond our hopes. Here are the results in summary. The new crime fighter force made its first appearance in the subways at eight P.M. on Wednesday April the seventh. During the fifteen days in which they have been in action between the hours of eight and four there has been a total of only twelve report acts of crime classified as felonies. In the comparable period in the preceding month. There were thirty-seven reported felonies, in other words, there was a reduction of some sixty-seven point five percent. During the same period, there had been forty-two arrests for misdemeanors compared to seventeen in the comparable period a month ago. An increase of one hundred and fifty percent over the preceding month reflects the much-increased police activity. These summary facts but they are cold statistics.

There is a warmer reality in the fact that the thugs and hoodlums and purse snatchers now know that the subways are no longer safe for them. The financial cost of the force increase on the overtime basis is high: one million eight hundred thousand dollars a month. We have one million five hundred thousand dollars for the regular police and three hundred thousand dollars for the transit police; however, the use of off-duty police on overtime is temporary. We are moving at full speed to recruit and train eight hundred new transit policeman to replace the entire emergency force on over time. That will reduce the cost substantially. But the essential costs of making our subways safe for all citizens must be born. Today the subways are safer. Stamping out crime in the subways is only the first arm in the pincers attack on crime in our city. A larger front consists of the streets of this city, six thousand miles of streets crisscrossing our five boroughs. These six thousand miles do not include the five hundred and seventy-eight miles of river and ocean frontage or the park acreage nor a skyscraper office buildings that must be patrolled, nor the vast world of apartment houses.

Policing this endless expense, teeming with our eight million people in eighty-seven different communities ranging from the wide open spaces of Staten Island to the canyon-like streets of Lower Manhattan is an undertaking of tremendous proportions. Against this background we face the fact of a rising crime rate. I emphasize that as far as the increasing crime rate is concerned, we are receiving the impact of nationwide forces. In the nation as a whole the crime rate has been on the increase. The three-year crime rate average for the period of one nine hundred sixty to nine hundred sixty-three is fifty-four percent higher than the three-year average of the ten years before. During the last two years it has continued to go up and up nationwide. Our rate of increase has actually been less than that of most other major cities.

We must be aware that the rising crime rate reflects deep social ills and problems which need to be attacked at the roots. These are precisely the roots which we are attacking through our efforts against poverty and discrimination. but these long range efforts. The results will be long range results. The compelling fact is that there is fear in the hearts of many of our people because of crime in the streets the situation clearly demands every action of which we are capable my highest priority today is the war on crime. In my statement of April the fifth I said I was going to be available twenty-four hours a day. I have been. I have been in constant touch with police commission America and members of his top planning and operations staff. We have worked out new approaches and strategy. We have agreed upon additional mobilization of forces. We are going to institute some new technological improvements. We are not yet ready to announce some of these developments.

The war on crime requires as great a variety of weapons forces and devices as they rob a riot of danger and threat to law order and security. As in modern mobility is one of the greatest of all needs to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Yet in this war against crime an important deterrent effect is also exercised by visit the visibility of men in blue with a gun badge and nightstick. Of course we decided not reduce the mobility of our existing for us. Hence we decided to increase the size of the visible for us as one of the first steps to be taken the number of uniformed police now patrolling the city streets on foot will be strengthened immediately by five hundred new men each night of the week including weekends. This actually makes eight hundred and fifty additional foot patrolmen in the last three weeks counting three hundred fifty assigned above ground on April the seventh at the time the subway detail was activated. The new force of five hundred foot patrolmen will report for duty action for the first time at sundown tomorrow. This shift will start at seven P.M. and at three A.M.. These men like the subway patrol will be working on their days off that overtime rates. Almost half of this special foot patrol will be drawn from the ranks of the detective division. That's putting a highly trained crime fighters on the streets on foot patrol in uniform on their days off as detectives. In fact, the entire police force will be mobilized each man giving a minimum of two days off a month to all of the time duty. To summarize a total of approximately one thousand five hundred city police are now assigned as of tomorrow night on an overtime basis to the war against crime. About six hundred fifty to the subway detail and about eight hundred and fifty to the streets. To this total must be added the two hundred transit policeman also assigned on overtime to the special night crime fighting force. This is point one of our war action program on the streets. Point two is another major announcement.

I have approved a permanent increase of the police quota by one thousand five hundred men effective July first. This extra money will allow twenty-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-eight police officers. Forty-two percent more than the quota was eleven years ago when I first became mayor. We propose immediately to accelerate recruiting,screening, testing, and training. On April thirtieth one hundred fifty no man will graduate from the Academy on June thirtieth another three hundred and ninety patrolmen will graduate. That's by some a five hundred and forty new policeman will have been added to the ranks as they graduate they will be assigned to the troubles shift from four P.M. to midnight. They will also be available for overtime duty as needed. On April thirtieth three hundred and fifty new recruits will enter the police academy. By July first, four hundred and fifty more will be appointed and stocked that training on July thirtieth five hundred more will go into training the remainder required to make up the full quota roughly seven hundred and fifty will be named to the police academy as soon and as quickly as they can be recruited tested and qualified the cost of adding fifteen hundred men to the regular quota will be twelve million dollars per year. An appropriate amount will need to be included in the new budget to meet this cost and this cost too must be sustained. To translate the fifteen hundred man quota into actual police manpower it will be necessary to launch a major new recruitment drive. I have directed that such a drive be prepared then launched. This is point three Action Program. Point four will consist of the transfer to police duty of five hundred sixty-four able-bodied policemen now doing work which civilians can do.

To facilitate this I have authorized the creation of five hundred and sixty-four additional civilian positions in the police department at the cost of two million six hundred twelve thousand dollars. As soon as these positions are filled with an additional five hundred and sixty-four uniformed policemen will be assigned to the streets and other essential police activities these civilian positions include clerks, stenographers, fingerprint technicians, telephone dispatcher operators, and photographers. As qualified personnel fills these positions, the police officer is thus freed will go to police work. These are the four major points of our manpower program as of tonight. The purpose is to provide more men for the force and more force for the men, maximizing the number available for the direct attack on crime. Toward the further achievement of this purpose and mission number three and I have agreed to a fifth action program the provision of one hundred seventy-five additional radio motor patrol cars at the cost of four hundred two thousand dollars plus seventy-five thousand dollars additional for two-way radios. Of these cars seventy-seven will be assigned to newly established sectors throughout the city cutting the size for more intensive coverage. The remaining ninety-eight cars will be assigned to covering outlying districts in the residential areas of the city such as North Bronx East Queens South Brooklyn and Staten Island.

These will be one man patrol cars which will concentrate on bus routes and bus stops to discourage assaults and to provide security especially of course for women. Altogether the new cars will add four million miles of street patrols each year. In police work there is no such thing as perfect security as police commissioner said in a newspaper interview yesterday, even if you could station a policeman in every doorway, his would not prevent a crime one floor up. No the mad presence of police on every street corner will not stamp out crime. Nevertheless it is clear that streets and public places must be guarded as completely and as effectively as it is possible to guard them. The steps I have described tonight will be followed by others. This is by no means the full extent of the law against crime. I pledge to you that I am going to press on with that war. I'm determined that it shall be made as dangerous as possible for criminals to operate in New York City. New York must be made safe for New Yorkers. I am not going to rest until it is so. There is one subject. I have left for the last on which I shout touch only briefly tonight. But to which I shall return again and again in my discussions with you. I mean your participation in the war against crime. This is not just my police commissioner Murphy's war It is your war. Each of you has a stake in it. Each of you stands to gain by the progress we make against crime. Remember this whenever a crime is committed in this city your security is lessened thereby. Your security needs to be protected and when someone is hurt or robbed in this city, you are hurt and robbed too. Remember this when you see a crime committed or know something about it use the special police emergency number as established for this and related purposes that number is four four zero one two three four memorize it. It is your key to the police call box making each of the four million telephones in New York City a police call box the days ahead will be days of open war. We against the criminals. We are going to win and they are going to lose. You can help in that result. Thank you and good evening.

This prerecorded broadcast was a special address by Mayor Robert F. Wagner on safety in the streets.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150552
Municipal archives id: T1030

This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
The following is a special address by Mayor Robert Wagner on safety in the streets my felony has just seventeen days ago on April fifth I proclaimed a war against crime first target was crime in the subways we quickly mobilize the necessary forces and we moved with the unflagging cooperation of police commissioner Mike Murphy and his department and of the Transit Authority headed by Commissioner Joseph O'Grady we put together a force of about eight hundred and fifty additional men on the seven day a week basis these men regular city policemen and transit patrolmen working overtime made up a special crime busting shift from eight in the evening until four in the morning within forty eight hours after I proclaimed the law we had that for us on patrol on the scene in action we took a number of ciliary steps to we closed off the rails subway cars during the very late hours fewer cars easier to patrol and crowded cars safer cars also in the night hours to lessen the chance of crime we shut down supplementary entrances and passageways into the subway stations we launched test and demonstration programs of special warning and communications equipment linking the subway cars in the change bills with police headquarters this first phase of the war has been successful beyond our hopes here are the results in summary the new crime fighter force made its first appearance in the subways at eight P.M. on Wednesday April the seven during the fifteen days in which they have been in action between the hours of eight and four there has been a total of only twelve reported acts of crime classified as felonies. In the comparable period in the preceding month there were thirty seven reported felonies in other words there was a reduction of some sixty seven point five percent during the same period there had been forty two arrests for in this to mean is compared to seventeen in the comparable period a month ago and then crease of one hundred and fifty percent over the preceding month reflecting the greater greatly increased police activity these summary facts but they are cold statistics there is a warmer reality in the fact that the thugs in the hotel rooms and person is now know that the subways are no longer safe for them the financial cost of the force increase on the overtime basis is high one million eight hundred thousand dollars a month one million five hundred thousand dollars for the regular police and three hundred thousand dollars for the transit police however the use of off duty police on overtime is temporary we are moving at full speed to recruit and train eight hundred new transit policeman to replace the entire emergency force on overtime that will reduce the cost substantially but the essential costs of making subway safe for all citizens must be born today the subways are safe stamping out crime in the subways is only the first in the prince's attack on crime in our city a larger front consists of the streets of this city six thousand miles of streets crisscrossing five boroughs. These ticks thousand miles do not include the five hundred and seventy eight miles of river an ocean frontage nor the pocket a corridor nor a skyscraper office buildings that must be patrolled nor the vast world of apartment houses policing this endless expense teeming with our eight million people in eighty seven different communities ranging from the wide open spaces of Staten Island to the canyon like streets of Lower Manhattan is an undertaking a tremendous proportions against this background we face the fact of a rising crime rate I emphasize that as far as the increasing crime rate is concerned we are receiving the impact of nationwide forces in the nation as a whole the crime rate has been on the increase the three year crime rate average for the period of one nine hundred sixty to one thousand nine hundred sixty three is fifty four percent higher than the three year average of the ten years before during the last two years it has continued to go up and up nationwide our rate of increase has actually been less than that of most other major cities we must be aware that the rising crime rate reflects deep social ills and problems which need to be attacked at the roots These are precisely the roots which we are attacking through our efforts against poverty and discrimination but these are long range efforts the results will be long range results the compelling fact is that there is fear in the hearts of many of our people because of crime in the streets the situation clearly demands every action of which we are capable my highest priority today is the war on crime. In my statement of April fifth I said I was going to be available twenty four hours a day I have been I have been in constant touch with police commission America and members of his top planning an operations staff we have worked out new approaches and strategy we have agreed upon an additional additional mobilization of forces we are going to institute some new technological improvements we are not yet ready to announce some of these developments obviously the war on crime requires as great a variety of weapons forces and devices as a robber riot he's a danger and threat to law order and security as in modern war mobility is one of the greatest of all needs to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness yet in this war against crime an important deterrent effect is also exercised by visit the visibility of men in blue with a gun badge and nightstick cos we Dan not reduce the mobility of our existing force hence we decided to increase the size of the visible for us as one of the first steps to be taken the number of uniformed police now patrolling the city streets on foot will be strengthened immediately by five hundred new men each night of the week including weekends this actually makes eight hundred and fifty additional foot patrol in the last three weeks counting three hundred fifty assigned above ground on April the seventh at the time the subway detail was activated the new force of five hundred foot patrol men will report for duty action for the first time at sundown tomorrow this shift will start at seven P.M. and at three A.M.. These men like the subway Patrol will be working on their days off at overtime rates almost half of this special foot patrol will be drawn from the ranks of the detective division that's putting highly trained crime fighters on the streets on foot patrol in uniform on their days off as detectives in fact the entire police force will be mobilized each man giving a minimum of two days off a month till all the time duty to summarize a total of approximately one thousand five hundred city police on now assigned as of tomorrow night on an overtime basis to the war against crime about six hundred fifty to the subway detail and about eight hundred and fifty to the streets to this total must be added the two hundred transit policeman also assigned on overtime to the special night crime fighting force this is point one of the war action program on the streets point to is another major announcement. I have approved a permanent increase of the police quota by one thousand five hundred men effect of July first this will make a quota of twenty eight thousand two hundred and twenty eight police officers forty two percent more than the quota was eleven years ago when I first became mayor we propose immediately to accelerate recruiting screening testing and training on April thirtieth one hundred fifty new men will graduate from the Academy on June thirtieth another three hundred and ninety patrolmen will graduate us by some a five hundred and forty new policeman will have been added to the ranks as they graduate they will be assigned to the tribal shift from four P.M. to midnight they will also be available for overtime duty as needed on April thirtieth three hundred and fifteen new recruits will enter the police academy by July first four hundred fifty more will be appointed and start their training on July thirtieth five hundred more will go into training the remainder required to make up the full quota roughly seven hundred and fifty will be named to the police academy as soon and as quickly as they can be recruited tested and qualified the cost of adding fifteen hundred men to the regular quota will be twelve million dollars per year an appropriate amount will need to be included in the new budget to meet this cost and this cost too must be sustained. To translate the fifteen hundred man quoter into actual police manpower it will be necessary to launch a major new recruitment drive I have directed that such a drive be pad then launched this is point three of our action program point four will consist of the transfer to police duty five hundred sixty four able bodied policeman now doing work which civilians can do to facilitate this I have authorized the creation of five hundred sixty four additional civilian positions in the police department I'd an annual cost of two million six hundred and twelve thousand dollars as soon as these positions are filled an additional five hundred sixty four uniformed policeman will be assigned to the streets and other essential police activities the civilian positions include clerks stenographers fingerprint technicians telephone dispatches telephone operators and photographers as qualified personnel are obtained to Philly's positions the police offices thus freed will go to police work these are the four major points of our manpower program as of tonight the purpose is to provide more men for the force and more force for the men maximizing the number available for the direct attack on crime. The further achievement of this purpose commission a Murthy and I have agreed to a fifth action program the provision of one hundred seventy five additional radio motor patrol cars at a cost of four hundred two thousand dollars plus seventy five thousand dollars additional for two way radios. Of these cars seventy seven will be assigned to newly established sector was throughout the city cutting the size of President sectors for intensive coverage the remaining ninety eight cars will be assigned to covering outlying districts in the residential areas of the city such as North Bronx East Queens South Brooklyn and Staten Island These will be one man patrol cars which will concentrate on bus routes and bus stops to discourage assaults and to provide security especially of costs for women altogether the new cars will add four million miles of street patrols each year in police work there is no such thing as perfect security as police commissioner Murphy said in a newspaper interview yesterday even if you could station a policeman in every door way this would not prevent a crime one flaw. No the mere presence of police on every street corner will not stamp out crime nevertheless it is clear that streets and public places must be God and as completely and as effectively as it is possible to God then the steps I have described tonight will be followed by others this is by no means the full extent of the law against crime I pledge to you that I am going to press on with that was I am determined that it shall be made as dangerous as possible for criminals to operate in New York City New York must be made safe for New York because I am not going to rest until it is. There is one subject I have left for the last one which I felt Cha-Cha only briefly tonight but to which I shall return again and again in my discussions with you I mean your participation in the war against crime this is not just my way. Police Commissioner Murphy's Law It is your law each of you has a stake in it each of you stands to gain by the progress we make against crime remember this whenever a crime is committed in this city your security is lessened thereby your security needs to be protected and when someone is hurt or robbed in this city you heard and robbed to remember this when you see a crime committed or know something about it use the special police emergency number as stablished for this and related purposes that numbers fall for oh one two three four memorize it it is your key to the police call box making each of the four million telephones in New York City a police call box the days ahead will be days of open law we against the criminals we are going to win and they are going to lose you can help in that result thank you and good evening this prerecorded broadcast was a special address by Mayor Robert F. Wagner on safety in the streets.

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