Mayor's Office: NYPD Will Begin Retraining City Homeless Shelter Security
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio will soon announce a plan for the NYPD to retrain the security staff at city homeless shelters.
The mayor on Tuesday will announce that the NYPD will retrain all Department of Homeless Services security staff, and will send an NYPD management team to the department to develop a security upgrade plan at all city shelters, the mayor's office said.
The NYPD will also restore a domestic violence program for family shelters, and put in place a better reporting system for crimes in shelters.
Currently, all shelters except apartments used as "cluster" units have some level of security provided by either the Department of Homeless Services or private guards, the mayor's office said.
The mayor's office has already increased security at mental health facilities and commercial hotels as a result of a broader review that included the homeless shelters.
High-profile incidents at homeless shelters have made multiple headlines in recent months.
In January, former teacher Deven Black, 62, was stabbed to death and nearly decapitated at the Boulevard Homeless Shelter on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem.
Black's roommate, 21-year-old Anthony White, is a suspect in the case. The NYPD said White killed the victim after threatening for days to kill someone over his stolen cellphone.
White has not been located.
Last month, Rebecca Cutler, 26, and her two daughters -- 1-year-old Ziana Cutler and 4-month-old Maiyah Sykesa – were found stabbed to death at a Ramada Inn on North Gannon Avenue on Staten Island, where they had been staying as part of a city homeless services program.
Michael Sykes, 25, was charged with all their murders and with stabbing a third daughter – 2-year-old Miracle – who survived.
Earlier this month, unarmed security guards confiscated a terrifying collection of cleavers, knives, razors, daggers and other cutting implements from a homeless shelter at 30th Street and First Avenue, and numerous weapons were also collected from five Brooklyn shelters in a period of just 24 hours.
