Q&A
Council Member Chi Ossé questions Sheriff Anthony Miranda on the process of identifying and prioritizing unlicensed cannabis shops for inspection
1:09:55
·
3 min
Council Member Chi Ossé questions Sheriff Anthony Miranda about the process of identifying, listing, and prioritizing unlicensed cannabis shops for inspection by the NYC Sheriff's Office. Miranda explains that complaints come from various sources, including 311, NYPD surveys, city council members, and community meetings. The Sheriff's Office compiles this data into a spreadsheet and prioritizes inspections based on factors such as reported health incidents, proximity to schools and places of worship, and crime statistics.
- The Sheriff's Office uses a spreadsheet to track and manage the list of shops to be inspected
- Prioritization factors include reported health incidents, proximity to sensitive locations, and crime statistics
- While most shops are added based on complaints, the inspection teams can also add locations they observe during their operations
Chi Ossé
1:09:55
Thank you so much, Chair Brewer.
1:09:57
I just have one question and and good morning.
1:10:00
I just wanted to ask who specifically is responsible for making the list of shops that are rated or inspected by your agency?
Anthony Miranda
1:10:10
The locations come in.
1:10:12
They come into our office by various means.
1:10:14
They are added to the spreadsheet depending on where they are, and then we try to ensure that we have
Chi Ossé
1:10:18
a balanced approach to all five counties when we go out.
1:10:22
Okay.
1:10:22
So people submit complaints through 311, through 911, and through council offices.
1:10:29
Could you maybe elaborate more in terms of how how you collect these locations?
Anthony Miranda
1:10:35
They come through 311.
1:10:36
They have come through surveys done by the police department.
1:10:38
They come from the city council.
1:10:40
Members as well.
1:10:40
They come from community meetings.
1:10:42
They come from a number of forms where people are exchanging information, and they wanna report the locations.
1:10:47
So we compile that data and is put into each of into the spreadsheet, the database that we have, the spreadsheet that we have.
1:10:54
And then we have teams that operate in each of the counties.
1:10:57
So therefore, that means that we'll break out so many locations per county depending on if we get it closer that closes.
1:11:03
A lot of operational things that we may consider, how many are right next to each other with the distance between response time, how many we can get done in the day, and the amount of personnel that's available in that particular county at that time.
Chi Ossé
1:11:15
So you would say you prioritize some some shops or locations more than others maybe.
Anthony Miranda
1:11:20
We prioritize locations where they have reported adults or children getting sick.
1:11:24
We probably hire us the locations that'll buy our schools, houses of worship in those areas.
1:11:30
Those are the ones that get first priority.
1:11:32
We also get we also look at some of the statistics in the police department.
1:11:36
They have heavy crime around a particular store that's an illegal cannabis shop, then we'll go in and try to make sure that we get the do the inspection of the cannabis shop as soon as possible.
Chi Ossé
1:11:45
And who particularly compiles this spreadsheet and and breaks it down for you all to to, I guess, prioritize which locations to to tackle?
1:11:56
Is it, you know, an individual?
1:11:58
Is it is it a group of of people who who convene and and and talk about this?
Anthony Miranda
1:12:03
It's more than one person.
1:12:04
We have an an an order that sits and inputs the data, then that we request for them what's needed.
1:12:09
But it's more than one person that meets in the morning and determines what we have available, what our resources for the day, where what we need to what's from more priority?
1:12:18
What what's come up in the last 24 hours?
1:12:20
Mhmm.
1:12:20
Again, we may have something on there.
1:12:22
There's nothing unusual that's come up when necessitating an immediate response.
1:12:28
Mhmm.
1:12:28
Then then we'll go right down the list, and we'll keep going through the index until we completed, which we have completed the 1st round of inspections already.
Chi Ossé
1:12:35
And are these all complaint based, or does the department sometimes add locations to list that you have seen yourselves.
Anthony Miranda
1:12:44
I believe most of it is gonna be complaint based.
1:12:47
We do when the teams are out there, if they see a shop opening and sometimes they will do one inspection.
1:12:53
So we're going into one location at location a.
1:12:56
And then they observed there's another location at location b that was not on our list, then they would call that location in to see if we have information on it already.
1:13:04
And if we don't, we'll put it on the list, and they'll go in and do that inspection as well.
Chi Ossé
1:13:07
On the list, you you know, find certain trends in terms of seeing where some boroughs or neighborhoods have a higher concentration of these shops more than others.
Anthony Miranda
1:13:19
I think that there's been a a kind of fair distribution of illegal smoke shops throughout the entire city in all five boroughs.
1:13:25
Okay.
1:13:25
Thank you.
1:13:26
Thank you, Cheers.
