NYPD Looks into Vests for Auxiliary Officers

[JakeLock]

source

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelley said yesterday that the cost resulting from high turnover in the department's auxiliary force could be a bar to outfitting volunteers in the same fitted bulletproof vests that regular officers are getting.

Volunteer officers Nicholas Todd Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik were shot to death last week in Greenwich Village when they tried to stop a gunman who had killed a restaurant worker. The gunman was later killed in a gun battle with plainclothes officers. Pekearo was wearing a vest; Marshalik was not.

Auxiliary cops wear police uniforms but are not given vests.

Kelly said that outfitting the roughly 4,500 volunteers with vests would cost about $3 million.

"We will make certain that they have the right type of equipment, and if we're going to give them vests, we want to make sure that we're not giving them hand-me-downs," Kelly said during a hearing of the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

"Having said that, whether or not we can give them a measured vest is another issue. There's significant turnover in the ranks of the auxiliary force, so we're going to have to factor all of these things in," he added.

Since the shooting, the NYPD has announced it is putting together a committee to study the issue of safety for auxiliary officers, and Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., a Queens Democrat, is calling for an oversight hearing in the Council.

"I think it's a very legitimate issue. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to surface issues that are right in front of us and we didn't necessarily see," Kelly said.

The committee pressed him on the issue, requesting vests for the volunteers.

"When it comes to auxiliary officers, clearly their function was to be eyes and ears, to stay away from any danger. But in this day and age when people in uniform are attacked . . . just because they're in uniform, things may have to change," Vallone said.

Meanwhile, paid officers are being measured for fitted vests, Kelly told the committee. To date, 15,000 officers have been fitted for new vests, and the department has ordered 9,000 of the 18,000 it intends to buy with city funding.

In addition to being custom-fitted, the vests have higher necks and additional underarm protection, Kelly said.

[japrufrock]

Now if they'd just start considering a program for us to be armed

[danninator]

Ahh we have hand me downs.

I wouldnt do this job without a weapon and certainly not without a vest. Just seems like youre one big target for the bad guys.

Seriously if their are any nypd auxillaries on here looking for a vest I have an older level IIa they are more than welcome to have. It's not the best but the ballistics are still good and certainly better than nothing.

[matt87]

Gee, happy to see they're making sure they have the right equipment after two guys get killed. Good job staying on the ball, Chief. :rolleyes:

[japrufrock]

Looks like they're going to improve what we have a bit: The vests are welcome and necessary, and collapsible batons are just nicer to carry than the ones we have (not necessarily more effective), and mace doesn't do a lot for self-defense if the other person is armed. it may help if someone were assaulting a totally innocent person, but that's about the only situation an auxiliary needs mace in. We're supposed to report, not actively arrest, so mace seems like an odd thing to provide.

I'll say it again: GUNS and VESTS

(CBS) NEW YORK Some members of the New York City Council have a plan to protect auxiliary police officers. It comes in the wake of the shocking murders of two auxiliary cops in Greenwich Village earlier this month.

Two weeks after two auxiliary officers were killed in Greenwich Village, there is a move for stricter guidelines to protect those who volunteer to protect our streets every day.

A man opens fire in DeMarco's pizzeria, killing the worker inside. Then, he tries to take off down Sullivan Street, where he runs into two auxiliary NYPD officers, who were responding to reports of shots fired.

In a matter of minutes, officers Nicolas Pekearo, 28, and Eugene Marshalik, 19, were shot and killed.

At noon Tuesday, City Council members will announce a new plan on the steps of City Hall.

Councilman David Weprin and other City Council members are announcing an Auxiliary Officers Assistance Plan to provide the officers with greater protection that would include: bulletproof vests, mace, expandable night sticks, protective gas masks and defibrillators.

But that's not all: The plan would also increase penalties for attacking or injuring auxiliary officers, as well as require the NYPD to provide more training and self-defense classes for the officers.

These volunteers do not carry guns and currently are not issued bulletproof vests.

Pekearo and Marshalik were the sixth and seventh auxiliary officers to be killed in the line of duty since 1993.