This is no time to cut the NYPD budget.

0:00 Speaker 1 And joining us now is the former commissioner of the NYPD and of also many other offices around the country too as well, Commissioner Bill Bratton. Commissioner. This is Rita Cosby. We have in the studio Judge Richard Weinberg. We also have Ed Cox and also former Governor David Patterson, and the great John Katsimatitis is also with us, joining us remotely. Commissioner.

0:25 Real quick, you wrote, boy, a blockbuster story just talking about how thin sadly that the NYPD is and how concerned you are about the counter terrorism unit of all times right now? Can you talk about that and why, boy, it is so important to have our men and women in blue.

0:45 Speaker 2 The fessonal sciatical you recurring to Rita was in the New York Post today. I believe I’m actually in Santa Monica, excuse me, San Diego, California, attending a major City Chief conference with the seventy five chiefs and Elijah cities in Canada in the US, so there’s a lot of conversation stage you might imagine, about what’s going on in Israel.

1:04 That New York Post piece I wrote was to make it known that the defund effort of the city Council several years ago has impacted significantly on the NYPD, and the department has about three thousand fewer offices than we had several years ago, and the city Council will just not hire anymore. At the same time they’re complaining about

1:26 the department’s overuse of overtime. They’re using overtime to make up for the loss of those three thousand offices, and so what happens those offices are getting worn out. But more critically, ironically, at this time, the counter terrorism capabilities of the department, which were extraordinarily large, a thousand detectors in the Intelligence Bureau created by Commission Kelly, twelve hundred

1:49 offices in two units created by me when I wass commissioner. Those units are now down by about four hundred offices from their peak strength. Why do the police department is trading down? It’s not growing, And ironic as it is that that strength has been weakened at just this critical moment.

2:09 So that was the trust of that article.

2:11 Speaker 1 And let me bring in John Katzimatidis with Bill Bretton.

2:15 Speaker 3 Well, Commissioner, I am worried about our capabilities that we did have to keep track of world terrorists coming into our borders and working with the federal agencies. What say you about that?

2:32 Speaker 2 Well, the good news, John, is that the capabilities of the NYPD are still superb. They closely coordinate through the Joint Terrorist and TASH Force with all of the federal agencies involved in dealing with terrorism issues. They fearing, I think the issues along the southern border of our Canadian border.

2:49 But here in New York, even with the shortage of those personnel and those units and the overworking of the offices of the NYPD, the city is still being extraordinarily well served its counter terrorism personnel. This morning, Rebecca Winer, who is the new head of counter Terrorism Intelligence in the NYPD, replacing John Miller, gave a superb presentation by

3:12 video and actually did not want to leave New York in the middle of this crisis. To these seventy five chiefs about what to expect going forward. One of the things we need to understand. Well, they called for a day a g had today. Not much has happened. I understand it as a demonstration in Times Square right now

3:29 that at seven o’clock they’re going to match up to the Israeli consoled on forty second Street and second half, But other than that, not much happening. But this crisis is not a one day situation. If they go in this weekend into Gaza, which is anticipated, we are in for weeks of unsettled concerns about the idea or increase terrorism.

3:53 So we’ll have to understand this is not a one day event that people are going to have to kind of adjust their lives around the idea that they is an increased threat potential. But fortunately in New York we got superb capabilities to defend against it, our guard for it if they were an incident, to respond to it.

4:10 Speaker 1 You know, I’m Commissioner Bratton. What I think about too. Just recently the Mayor Eric Adams came out and said he’s really worried about sort of a lone wolf attack, if you will. Obviously you just brought up the protests that are taking place thousands in Times Square and marching all over the place. The other day in front of

4:30 the Israeli mission there were thousands upon thousands. How complex is that from a counter terrorism perspective? And boy, I’ll tell you one thing we do every day here and I know you know this Commissioner Bratton, we do back the blue segment every day. I do it on my nighttime show at ten o’clock because we love our men

4:49 and women in blue. How complicated is that with a reduced force too?

4:55 Speaker 2 Right now, don’t we all wish that the New York City Council of State legislatu back to bloom. They’ve been stabbing them in the back for the last several years. But going forward that the principal concern Rebecca Winer references in her comments to the chiefs today is the lone wolf action. Lone wolf who’s inspired by as they used

5:16 to be by al Qaeda and ICs. Now the third player entering the scene, the fourth, third and fourth player, I’m asen. That’s balloup encouraging as they did today a day a g had, which basically is the day of demonstrations.

5:28 But the lone Wolf is still the one of most concerned because the one that’s the most difficult to detect. But once again, this city has had at least sixty attempted terrorist attacks since nine to eleven. The vast, vast majority of them were thwarted before they could pull them off.

5:44 They have been several successful ones, but again well, the capabilities of the NYPD, particularly its uniform resources, have been diminished sigifically because of the city’s defunding of its police department. The intelligence capabilities, thank god, still the best in the country.

6:02 Speaker 1 Well, Commissioner Bill Bratton, we thank you so much and thank you for always shining a light on our men and women in blue. Please keep us posted and we always appreciate you being here on the show so much.

6:12 Speaker 2 Okay, thank you, Thank you so much. Commissioner