QUESTION
Why was the response time for critical crimes no longer deemed a critical indicator?
0:33:27
·
5 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler raises concerns about the removal of response times for critical crimes as a critical indicator, while Dan Steinberg and Lauren Quinones suggest possible reasons without clear confirmation.
- Council Member Restler asks why response times for critical crimes were removed as a critical indicator from the PMMR.
- Dan Steinberg, Director of the Mayor's Office of Operations, acknowledges improvements in response times for critical crimes but does not recall making a policy decision on their designation.
- Steinberg outlines historical changes in reporting response times and suggests that holistic end-to-end response times are now emphasized.
- Lauren Quinones, First Deputy Director, indicates the possibility of clerical errors and promises to investigate further.
- The issue remains unresolved at the end of the discussion, with promises for further clarification.
Lincoln Restler
0:33:27
My recollection of the data across the board is we didn't see the same extreme uptick in FDNY or ambulance response times, it's significantly worse for the NYPD.
0:33:39
And not just for all crimes or progress at 13 minutes 48 seconds, even for critical crimes, the most serious crimes, things like shots fired robbery assault with a weapon were up almost 2 minutes year over year.
0:33:54
It used it was always under 5 minutes.
0:33:57
On a response as a response time, which is a, you know, a great response.
0:34:01
Now we're up at over 7 minutes 18 seconds.
0:34:03
So down and it was you know, year over year to see that kind of huge increase for the most violent crimes that are happening in New York City is deeply disturbing.
0:34:13
And while I appreciate that we've got a variety of congestion issues, especially cars coming in and out of Manhattan and the central business district, You know, most NYPD travel is relatively short distances within a precinct.
0:34:26
And the congestion that we may be dealing with in Lower Manhattan doesn't impact the Northeast Bronx or Southeast Queens or Central Brooklyn, and the ability for PD cars to travel within a precinct in a timely fashion.
0:34:37
So, you know, I I am interested in digging in more to the data that you all have access to that I don't think is captured in the PMMR on the travel times.
0:34:50
But I have to say, my my guess from looking at your data is that we're actually seeing Actually, before I go into my hypothesis of what's really causing the delay, I just want to ask, the response times on critical crimes was a I know this gets confusing.
0:35:09
But the response times are critical time.
0:35:11
Crimes was a critical indicator.
UNKNOWN
0:35:12
Mhmm.
Lincoln Restler
0:35:12
So it was one of your critical indicators what I understand in critical crimes is just the most serious crimes.
0:35:17
Right?
0:35:18
So and for the public that Mayer's office of operations designates critical indicators as the most consequential important indicators for us to follow and track as administration and for the public at large.
0:35:34
My understanding is that this was removed as a critical indicator.
0:35:38
Could you help us explain why that is?
0:35:41
And was what the process was for making that decision was deputy mayor Banks, the Office of Municipal Services Assessment.
0:35:48
Like, were they involved in making that decision?
0:35:50
Is that an op decision.
0:35:52
Thank you.
Dan Steinberg
0:35:53
No problem.
0:35:55
Just a step back.
0:35:57
In terms of response times, one thing you'll notice is that response times to fires barely fluctuates over the past 100 years.
0:36:03
The the real the only real way that one fluctuates is if you were to open or close more fire companies and ladders.
0:36:10
It's really the 2 that tend to move, and we need to pay very close attention to our response to medical emergencies and crimes and progress and critical crimes and progress.
0:36:22
And one thing that you'll note, although I don't wanna claim credit because data can be very noisy.
0:36:29
But if you look at the month since the PMMR was published, the response times for critical crimes and progress have actually started to improve while response times some medical emergencies haven't.
0:36:39
So, you know, that's something that we're obviously trying to understand, but it's important to to see that progress.
Lincoln Restler
0:36:45
Can you cite anything specifically?
Dan Steinberg
0:36:47
It's on the DMMR for sure.
0:36:49
Yeah.
0:36:50
If you look at the end, it was last time.
Lincoln Restler
0:36:51
Good.
Dan Steinberg
0:36:52
You can see the most recent months.
0:36:54
I'll have to look more carefully.
0:36:56
I don't remember making a policy decision around what's a critical indicator.
0:36:59
There is some history around why there's so many different indicators about end to end response times.
0:37:07
The the agencies report dispatch and travel only meant tricks, which are in the report also, that exclude the toll taking portion.
0:37:15
You know, that's for the purpose of seeing the different segments of of what's involved in response times.
0:37:21
It's sort of a historical artifact though of how of how the because the complete and then time wasn't always reported in the MMR before fiscal 2014 actually because the data was spread across multiple systems and hadn't been combined.
0:37:35
So now we have these, like, truly holistic end to end times that are reported in the MMR that are the critical ones that I don't know what you're talking about exactly.
0:37:44
So I have to Did do do do you?
Lauren Quinones
0:37:46
We were just trying to look actually in the book.
0:37:50
Sometimes there aren't just straight clerical or, like, print errors.
0:37:54
So we're gonna we will check and get back to you.
0:37:56
We don't have any memory off the top of our head of us dropping a critical there.
Dan Steinberg
0:38:00
But I I would say that some are more important than others, and that the end to end holistic kind of response sounds to the ones that we encourage the public to to use sort of assess what's really happening.
Lincoln Restler
0:38:11
Okay.
0:38:12
I do have additional NYPD questions, and I frankly have my own analysis for why we're seeing these response times move in the wrong direction.
0:38:20
But I know the customer Vernikov, sorry, you know, has a set of questions, so I wanted to kick it over to her.