‘NY precision policing’ key to fighting city crime
James P O’Neill, who can trace his roots to Monaghan and Longford, met Taoiseach Enda Kenny over the weekend during the Taoiseach’s trip to the US.
Asked his opinion on how the gardaí could fight the gang war in Ireland, he referred to the system used in New York.
“I think what works for us in New York city, we have something that we call precision policing.
“We know that there are very few people involved in the violence and crime in New York city and we identify them and put all our resources to that end to conducting long and short-term investigations and taking them off the street as quickly as possible,” he said.
Mr O’Neill also said that policing around Trump Towers is a “big challenge”.
Although he said the city, and especially the Manhattan area, is used to handling large events, Mr O’Neill said providing security around Trump Towers is taking a lot of resources and is costly.
“It’s a challenge for us there is a lot of traffic, vehicular as well as pedestrian, but working with the secret service I am sure we will come up with a very good long-term solution to it.
“It is costing us some money and we have to take resources from around the city to deal with the extra security.
“But we are looking to the federal government for some level of reimbursement to help us,” he said.
Referring to his Irish roots he said it would be a proud moment to walk in his first New York St Patrick’s Day parade as police commissioner.
“I look forward to St Patrick’s Day every year, before you know it, it’s December now and in the blink of an eye it’s going to be March 17 and we will be marching up Fifth Avenue.
“I am really proud of my heritage, I am proud of my grandparents, they all came over here in the 1920s and they built good lives and have a lot of grand-kids and everybody is doing well,” he said.
