THERE it was, an enormous report card with no red ink, spelling out the achievements of the 38,000-strong New York Police Department (NYPD).
It came about after an unarmed young bridegroom was killed in a hail of police bullets, a tragedy that traumatised the black community and sparked off accusations that the NYPD was trigger-happy.
So the cops fought back, through a full-page newspaper advertisement last month paid for by the NYC Detectives' Endowment Association.
Their message was loud and simple: “Policing New York City, especially in the post-9/11 world, is a difficult and dangerous job” and the NYPD had been “remarkably restrained in its use of force.”
According to them, there had been fewer fatal police shootings in New York compared to cities with police departments less than half the size of NYPD.
The ad stated a well-published fact that crime in the city dropped 4.7% last year. Rapes, for example, went down 7.9% to 1,486. Robberies continued to slide in this city of eight million, totalling 23,538 cases last year.
Dallas, incidentally, is the most violent US city. New York is No. 10 with 1,1,87 crimes per 100,000 people.
Yes, New York is the safest large city in the United States. But like anywhere else, no one takes for granted his or her sense of sanctuary here.
“I feel safe in New York, but there is still a need to be street-savvy. Don't walk around listening to your iPod as you would want to be alert to your surroundings, especially at night,” said Fern Chan, a Malaysian who works for a frame manufacturer.
Once, her bag that was placed on a chair was stolen during a night out in a crowded bar last year.
“Other than that, I have never had any unpleasant experience like being mugged,” said Chan, who has lived in New York for the past six years.
None of her friends or colleagues have been mugged “although they have been groped on the subway and the street!” Chan said.
She has no qualms, too, about taking the subway late at night. “My latest time was 3am,” she said. Or, she would take a taxi home.
Others such as Eve Ng, another Malaysian working here, are more cautious about taking the subway in the dead of night.
“Unless you are commuting with friends, it is more advisable to get a cab during late hours, especially after 1am on weeknights, since the trains run infrequently then,” she said.
Still, Ng finds the city to be a generally safe place with few neighbourhoods to avoid.
“There are only some areas in Harlem, the Bronx and certain parts of the Lower East Side that are considered dangerous,” she said.
She had also been fortunate, unlike a friend who witnessed a shooting in a rough neighbourhood one Sunday afternoon.
“It was pretty scary, since it was my first time hearing it from a friend. He also had another bad experience. Someone broke into his apartment and stole his laptop. He lives in East Village, which is considered a good neighbourhood. So you never know.”
Central Park, the famed green lung of Manhattan, is also preferably avoided after dark. Muggers are at play there, though these incidents are isolated.
But the consensus remains among locals and foreigners that there is largely no clear and present danger where crime is concerned. “After Sept 11, there has been a lot more security; more cops and more plainclothes policemen,” Chan said.
Others pointed to the low unemployment rate and that the big bunch of immigrants here are too determined and busy earning a living.
Locals themselves acknowledge that the police are quick to turn up at crime scenes. “That's because they are often patrolling the streets,” explained one New Yorker.
However, she was put off by what she felt was a quick tendency by the police to issue summonses even for traffic light offences. “They have to meet the quota of number of summonses given out,” she said.
Incidentally, New York police officers have a starting salary of US$25,000 (RM87,400) annually, which is considered low, since the average weekly pay in boroughs like Manhattan is US$1,453 (RM5,081) and Brooklyn US$691 (RM2,416).
Patrol officers' maximum pay is about US$59,588 (RM208,377) annually.
Still, nobody tries to bribe their way out of a traffic summons as the cops, apparently, just won't bite.
