Eric Adams on Crime

	Eric Adams on Crime

Beaten by police at 15, joined NYPD to reform from within

When he was beaten by police in the basement of a precinct house at 15, Eric faced a life-changing act of injustice. But instead of giving into anger, Eric turned his pain into purpose and decided to change the police department from within. 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.

Source: 2021 NYC Mayoral campaign website EricAdams2021.com , Jul 7, 2021

Reduce crime by having cops focus on police work

About 500 police officers work in full time clerical jobs or driving trucks or removing barricades instead of conducting investigations or preventing crime. Even police officers tasked with fighting crime spend huge amounts of their time on court appearances and paperwork. A starting police officer earns $42,500 a year, which goes up to about $85,000 in less than six years. Police administrative aides make just $33,875 a year. The total savings could go into programs proven to reduce crime.

Appoint the first woman police commissioner. There are about 6,500 female officers in the roughly 36,000-member force, according to city statistics. While the number of women cops have grown over the years, there are few in the higher ranks, starting at captain and on up. We will encourage more women to test for promotion to join the upper ranks--all the way to the top.

Source: 2021 NYC Mayoral campaign website EricAdams2021.com , Jul 7, 2021

I'll have cops' backs, but they'll have backs of the people

Asked what he would say to officers who are angry about calls to defund their departments, Adams said, "I say to my officers, 'If you don't want to be on the street anymore, then get off my streets.' I don't want to hear someone say, because they don't like what government is doing, you're not going to protect my public. No." He promised, "I'm going to have the finest officers. I will have their backs, but they're going to have the backs of the people of this city." Source: Associated Press: 2021 NYC Mayoral press release , Jul 7, 2021

Abusive "stop-and-frisk" will never happen under my watch

To "bring back stop-and-frisk" is not accurate. [Adams told CBS New York last year, of stop-and-frisk, "Used it, used it often, great tool. We should never have removed stop-and-frisk."] Police officers must follow the rules to be able to question if there's reasonable suspicion that someone is carrying that firearm. That's not what we were doing. We were stopping and frisking people based on their ethnicities and based on the communities they were in. That will never happen under my administration. Source: Vanity Fair on 2021 NYC Mayoral race , Jun 21, 2021

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*Other big-city mayors on Crime:*	*Eric Adams on other issues:*
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Page last updated: Feb 23, 2022