Pols and victims’ families demanded Thursday that the NYPD send more detectives to probe outer-borough homicides after a Daily News investigation revealed Manhattan murders have more manpower available.
At a City Hall press conference, Councilman Jumaane Williams and Public Advocate Letitia James said the new NYPD brass must deal with the gap in how vigorously murder cases are pursued.
“I need to be able to look people in the eye and say the police department’s doing everything it can do and actually mean it,” said Williams.
The News analyzed 2013 homicides and detective staffing in the precincts and borough command homicide squads.
The Manhattan South jurisdiction had a combined 156 detectives who could potentially “catch” a homicide and 10 murders in 2013 – 15.6 detectives per case. The Brooklyn North jurisdiction had a combined 206 detectives and 86 homicides – 2.4 detectives per homicide.
About 86% of murders involving a white victim have been solved, versus to 45% where the victim is black.
Mothers whose sons were killed in still unsolved cases made emotional pleas for justice.
Through tears, Dolene John recounted how her son Kellan, 22, was gunned down on her Brooklyn stoop a year ago in a murder that remains unsolved. Police only completed a sketch of the suspect four months after the killing.
“I know my son is never going to come back. It’s hard, it’s a very hard pill for me to swallow. But until this person is brought to justice, then I could get peace,” she said. “He is still at large. And I think the police system is doing nothing.”
Donna Rayside said there’s been little revealed since her son Dustin Yeates was killed in Brooklyn .
“Do we think it would have been business as usual if this had happened in a white neighborhood and the victim was white?” she said. “Numbers don’t lie.”
Commissioner Bill Bratton said Thursday that detective staffing formulas are “very complex” and he does not plan to change them immediately.
“I am comfortable at this time at least preliminarily that the assignment of resources based on our current staffing is appropriate,” he said, adding he would review it. “It’s a lot more complex than saying some precincts in the city is getting more attention.”
But one detective told The News some cases do get the short shrift. “It’s so obvious that the cases that make the headlines get the most attention,” the detective said.
With Thomas Tracy and Rocco Parascandola
