Scott’s Plans

Public Safety and Justice

What Scott’s Done

In the State Assembly, helped lead fights to stop the death penalty and repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws, and repeatedly voted against the construction of upstate prisons.
Spoke out against police misconduct and system racism loudly and consistently for decades, including getting arrested in protest of the police murder of Amadou Diallo in 1999.
Called for the closure of the jail on Rikers Island (the first boroughwide or citywide elected official to do so) and stood at the forefront of the fight to end stop-and-frisk.
Held the Department of Correction accountable for ballooning budgets, rising violence, and deteriorating conditions in city jails — a fiscal and moral crisis for New Yorkers.
Worked with state legislators to introduce legislation to abolish mandatory surcharges and forgive outstanding debt in the criminal legal system to help end the criminalization of poverty, and pushed Albany to eliminate cash bail and commercial bonds, and legalize marijuana.
Pushed Bill de Blasio to require all law enforcement disciplinary records be made public, building on the repeal of 50-a, and protect the freedom of press by relieving NYPD of its duties to issue press credentials.
Led New York City to become the first major public pension plan in the nation to divest from the private prison industry.

Scott’s Plans

Scott Stringer will take action to keep all New Yorkers truly safe by confronting and ending structural racism embedded in our criminal legal system and acting decisively and creatively to stem recent upticks in violence. He has a multi-agency vision for public safety, including expanding alternative responses and services for issues of mental health, homelessness and substance use; increasing the City’s effectiveness in stopping serious crime; improving accountability and oversight of the NYPD; and reinvesting police dollars into communities. Under Scott’s leadership, the Comptroller’s Office has issued a detailed blueprint to transform our approach to public safety.

Strengthen and reinvest in communities

Move responsibilities that shouldn’t be handled by the police to trained professionals, from homelessness and substance use to mental health and disconnected youth.
Invest in programs and initiatives — from housing and education to overdose prevention and employment programs — that strengthen communities and get at the root causes of violence.
Keep public spaces safe, vibrant, and active with targeted investments in plazas, playgrounds, vacant lots, lighting, and other community spaces to increase foot traffic and promote safety.
Redesign our first-response system so that a gun and a badge isn’t the answer to non-crime calls.
End the school-to-prison pipeline and continue efforts to remove the NYPD from city schools.
Protect the First Amendment rights of New Yorkers and stop deploying militarized units at protests, marches, demonstrations, or parades.

Stop the climb of shootings and violence in our communities and ensure safe streets

Address concentrations of serious crime by strengthening detective work and increasing clearance rates (the percentage of crimes that are solved), which evidence shows reduces crime.
Stem the flow of guns into the city from out-of-state, using gun trace data and working in partnership with state and federal authorities.
Invest in and expand proven programs that interrupt violence and cycles of retribution, such as Cure Violence.
Take a multi-agency approach to preventing violence, targeting at-risk youth and young adults with a broad array of employment, education, mental health, and housing services.
Expand NeighborhoodStat, a community-led initiative that addresses material quality-of-life issues that lead to crime, into a citywide program.

Establish meaningful oversight and accountability

Give the Civilian Complaint Review Board final say on disciplinary decisions, and eliminate the Police Commissioner’s authority to overrule.
Establish a Critical Incident Review Board for all major incidents.
Bar officers who perpetrate major offenses from serving in law enforcement.
Take action against police officers who cover their badges, obscure license plates, or commit other infractions that undermine their legitimacy.
Create precinct-level financial accountability for officer misconduct that results in claims against the city.
Dramatically increase transparency of the NYPD budget, operations, and contracting and introduce independent audits of its data and surveillance practices.

Implement common-sense decriminalization measures and parole reform

For offenses that pose no threat to community safety, eliminate criminal penalties.
For low-level offenses, grant amnesty for open arrest warrants.
Stop locking people up for unpaid court debt and technical parole violations.
Dramatically improve re-entry services and increase access to supportive housing.

Fix the management of the NYPD

Substantially bring down overtime spending, by putting caps on overtime use for precincts and individuals and no longer providing overtime as a bonus for making arrests.
Overhaul managerial training and promotion systems to promote diversity in management.
Establish mechanisms to receive feedback from both the community and frontline officers and incorporate these surveys into the management and oversight of precincts.