A quiet July 4th. Drunk drivers are a scourge of the City.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us today is from the NYPD, the New York Police Department, Chief Shell, and he’s in charge of all the precincts in New York City. And this is a long weekend, an extra long weekend, and Chief Shell give us an update. How did the five boroughs do on weekend like this?

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, you know, mainly July fourth, big day for the city, and to put it into a timeline, then we had the Macy’s Fourth of July. Thousands of people on the West Side joined the fireworks. Then we had a horrific murder of an eight year old boy where our cops had to make some serious decisions and fire their weapons

0:45 and kill the person who killed that young man. And then we had the We had protesters trying to get into the July fourth and the West Side Highway. Then we had the horrific car accident down on the FDR where three people were killed by a drunk driver. And then we had to go out through the night and

1:04 we did a good job and keeping the city safe. So it was a long night. Some tragedy in there, but violence wise, which we’re always concerned about. After the fireworks last year, we had eleven shootings after the fireworks.

1:18 This year we had three, so a little success. They were happy with that, and the weekend’s going pretty good so far, understood.

1:29 Speaker 1 It was so you feel it was better than previous years because of less murders, and yeah, I was.

1:37 Speaker 2 You know, last year we had eleven shootings. We don’t like that. But we had a pretty good year last year. But this year we kind of again we always post action what we’re doing. We look what the hotspot saw.

1:48 We bought more resources to keep New York City safe and like I said, after those fireworks nine o’clock last night was six in the morning. It was pretty quiet New York City and we’re very happy with that.

1:59 Speaker 1 Understood. What do you project for the summer.

2:06 Speaker 2 Well, you know, the summer is the summer, right, people, more people are out, warm weather. We know where to go historically, we know how to move fast. Crime we’re going to keep down. We’ll keep the shootings down. We’re three year lows and shootings, So it’s just a matter of keeping the eye on what’s going on twenty four

2:26 to seven, moving quickly. Quality life. Like we talk about that John all the time, those smoke shops, those mop heads, drinking and driving crime. It’s a big to do, but we’re a pretty good team and we’re going to do our best to hold it down.

2:41 Speaker 1 Chief. That big incident you had with the drunken driver that mowed into those people, and I know they had the same kind of incident. Was it in Suffolk County where we’d rest the or Nassau County we would lost that NYPDU officer for drunken driving. How bad of a problem is it with with people being on drugs or

3:06 marijuana and driving because there’s no real test for it.

3:11 Speaker 2 Well, look driving while in pad you just said it, John, You see what can be the tragic end results. You just mentioned our fine young officer in Queen’s getting a nails done, people celebrating for the July in the park last night. And we enforced DWI intensely. We do it all year round, and when the Holliys come up, we

3:31 really emasize more preventions. Don’t drink and drive because the end results are tragic sometimes And like you’ve seen it right now.

3:41 Speaker 1 And how are we handling don’t smoke marijuana and drive. It’s a hard question.

3:50 Speaker 2 It’s hard. We do enforce it. Our highway cops know how to enforce it, know how to look at it and see it. But again, a ropervention getting the word out, don’t use drugs when you drive, don’t drink when you drive.

4:07 But it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s tasking for us because there’s so many people in the city which always trying to get the word out, roadblocks, checkpoints, teaching, arrests. But we’re always on top of it to the best of our ability.

4:20 Speaker 1 Now, this person that that people died in that incident on that moved into those people, is that true?

4:30 Speaker 2 Yeah, we have well three people, three people passed away, one is still fighting for their life. And we had children how too. I mean, really think about it. Across America, people are doing the same thing, barbecue and having a good time, having a family out. You have an irresponsible person driving at a high raty speed, intoxicated and the

4:50 damage he caused that community and those families involved totally tragic and totally avoidable.

4:57 Speaker 1 Very sad, very very sad. U does he is he in jail or was he just getting.

5:06 Speaker 2 The charge? Initially we’re drinking and driving driving an influence, but they’ll be upgraded to vehicular manslaughter. So you know he’ll have to pay for what he did.

5:19 Speaker 1 Well. Sad, but the NYPD, you’re doing as much as you can with the new laws, and I understand that.

5:28 Speaker 2 And job cops are doing a great job with everything. All the law changes were being subjected to all of the fund the police crowd. We’re a little understaff, and the cops in New York City are still working at tails off holding this city together.

5:45 Speaker 1 I’m so proud of him, Chief John Shell, NYPD. How many years NYPD?

5:52 Speaker 2 Oh, in my thirty first year, I’m getting little old.

5:54 Speaker 1 Thirty one years NYPD. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our New York and continue to do for New York. Thank you so much, you

6:03 Speaker 2 Too, John, be well, be well,