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Q&A
Council Member Salaam questions DHS on peace officer misconduct and training
1:47:12
·
3 min
Council Member Yusef Salaam inquires about peace officer misconduct and training in the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), focusing on disciplinary procedures, training methods, and reporting mechanisms for shelter residents. DHS Administrator Jocelyn Carter and DSS Commissioner Molly Wasow Park provide responses on the department's practices and oversight.
- DHS has its own state-licensed training academy for peace officers, focusing on de-escalation, conflict resolution, and trauma-informed care.
- Residents can report misconduct to shelter directors, DHS teams, or through an ombudsman's office.
- The NYPD's involvement in DHS security officer training ended in 2020, with DHS now managing training independently.
Yusef Salaam
1:47:12
I want to move to peace officers and misconduct.
1:47:14
In April 2024, New York focus released a report about DHS peace officers who provide shelter security.
1:47:24
The article focused on peace officer misconduct and detailed DHS's failure to discipline peace officers taking six months or more to suspend officers found guilty of misconduct.
1:47:35
With the suspended officers often able to return a month later.
1:47:39
The article also mentioned that peace officers have trained with the NYPD since 2017.
1:47:46
Can you tell me more about the training the peace officers received?
1:47:49
Do you think that the NYPD training is appropriate for this role?
Jocelyn Carter
1:47:56
Thank you.
1:47:57
DHS actually have our own training academy that is licensed by New York State and so there is, for us, it's our comprehensive training academy where we train DHS police officers, and then we have our deputy commissioner that is able to, with her staff, look at what's happening in terms of disciplinary for police officers.
1:48:23
There is absolutely a oversight of what's happening with police officers.
1:48:31
They are standards of expectations of behaviors.
1:48:35
They do de escalation training.
1:48:37
They do conflict resolution.
1:48:40
And so, go through that, you know, looking at what's happening there in terms of disciplinary.
1:48:44
We are licensed by state.
1:48:46
Then they have eight hours of training that's happening within our police officers training process.
1:48:54
And so, we are comprehensively trained.
1:48:56
It is on-site, our academy where we do the training.
Molly Wasow Park
1:49:01
If I could just add on to that.
1:49:03
The DHS peace officers were under the auspices of NYPD from 2017 until 2020.
1:49:11
In 2020, the NYPD involvement in the DHS security officers was ended, and we have since managed that entirely on our own since then which with Administrator Carter noted we have our own training academy with a focus on trauma informed care.
Yusef Salaam
1:49:33
Gotcha.
1:49:34
Just a follow-up in terms of when there are instances of misconduct, how are residents that are sheltering able to report those those instances of misconduct?
Jocelyn Carter
1:49:50
Oh, thank you.
1:49:51
So, every provider and every resident that we shelter have the opportunity to make reports to either the shelter director or straight to my team And when that does happen then we do follow ups with the directors or and we actually go on sites to see what's happening there.
1:50:07
So, there's an opportunity for them to get investigated of whatever the reports are.
Molly Wasow Park
1:50:13
We also have an ombudsman's office where people can report if they're not comfortable reporting directly to shelter staff.
Yusef Salaam
1:50:19
And just a final follow-up, how many reports of misconduct did DHS receive fiscal year twenty twenty four and how many have you received so far in fiscal year twenty twenty five and how many of these instances have been committed by maybe repeat offenders or such?
Jocelyn Carter
1:50:34
We'll get back to you with those numbers.
Yusef Salaam
1:50:36
Alright.
1:50:36
Thank you.
1:50:37
Thank you chair.