‘Impact’ Expanded, But Do Results Last?

The New York Times reports that Operation Impact, an NYPD initiative that floods high-crime areas with rookie officers, has been renewed and expanded. In addition to several neighborhoods in Brooklyn, communities in all three precincts served by the West Bronx News Network — the 44th, 46th and 52nd precincts — are all getting Impact deployments.

The piece is a lengthy 1,530 words but doesn’t ask or even allude to the most obvious questions, namely:

-Do neighborhoods where Impact has resulted in lower crime rates maintain those lower rates after the contingent of Impact officers moves on?

-Is there a correlation between Impact and the overall decrease in city crime rates? Yes, crime rates — particularly homicide rates — are at a historic low. And yes, of course crime in neighborhoods with Impact deployments see a drastic reduction. That doesn’t necessarily mean the two are related.

There are no perspectives from neighborhoods that have already had Impact. Are they better off since Impact left, worse off, the same?

The 52nd Precinct is well acquainted with Impact, particularly in the community just above Fordham Road east of the Grand Concourse. This community has also been the site of a Model Block program several years ago, and several other police initiatives that differed in tactics but were similarly short-lived.

Citywide crime statistics, and even precinct-wide stats, are not very useful in judging whether the effects of Impact last in the sectors of a precinct where it operated. Analyzing sector-level crime statistics before, during and after Impact would be useful.

We’ll see if we can fill in some of these gaps in an upcoming issue of the Norwood News.

End of Operation Impact?

It's been well reported (particularly in the Daily News here, here and here) that Operation Impact, the police program that floods high-crime hot spots with rookie officers, is endangered because there aren't enough new recruits to staff it. Officials credit Impact with taking a bite out of crime in several drug-ridden, violent neighborhoods throughout the city.

So, what does Impact's potential elimination mean for the 52nd Precinct and the rest of the west Bronx? Well, short of the disappearing police presence in the 52nd Precinct's current Impact Zones, it follows that there's virtually no chance that current Five-Two commander James Alles will get the Impact Zone he wants for Tracey Towers and Knox-Gates, where tensions between young people are high.

There's a City Council Public Safety hearing on Monday to discuss police staffing issues at 10 a.m. Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Coming on the heels of recent testimony from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, where he classified the lack of officer recruitment as the number one labor crisis in the City, Public Safety Chair Peter Vallone will host a long planned hearing to address what NYPD can do to meet its stated goals for hiring new officers. The hearing will address not only recruitment, but retention of officers and the impact that fewer officers is having on public safety.