Posted on 04/11/2007 10:59:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday whether some of the city's police officers could be deployed with U.N. peacekeeping missions.
Recruiting police for the U.N.'s 16 peacekeeping missions around the globe has been historically challenging.
"New York City has one of the most diversified police forces around and I think the secretary-general would like to explore possibilities," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said before the meeting. "Getting police to join peacekeeping operations is one of the high priorities for the U.N."
Bloomberg left the meeting without speaking to reporters. Stu Loeser, the mayor's spokesman, said his office had no comment.
New York City has recently fallen short of its police recruiting goals so it's unclear if it would have any officers to spare for international peacekeeping.
The U.N. peacekeeping department said 321 American police officers are currently involved in missions abroad, primarily training local police. Of those, 225 are in the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia, and others are in Haiti, Liberia and Sudan.
*snort* maybe Bloomberg can lend ‘em the cops so that he can continue cracking down on “illegal” guns in areas out of the city’s jurisdiction...
Many police departments are short. Wonder why? With all of the public bashing cops have to take day in and day out...many people figure who needs this sh*t?
There was a time not too long ago the number of applicants far outnumbered actual hires, by the thousands.
If I lived in NY I would pray for the day Bloomburg was voted out. This guy is such a joke. He claims to be a Republican but his actions prove otherwise. This guy has no personality. He is a dud.
Why dont they enforce all of the illegal parking tickets that have gone into the hundreds of thousands!!
those are the traffic agents, not cops. get your facts straight.
wait. i’m sorry. were you referring to the UN officials who have racked up 1000’s of unpaid parking tickets? if so, i apologize. i just realized what you were talking about.
well shoot, you dont have to call me names. i though you were talking about the parking tickets that were written in error by the traffic agents because they are too lazy to find real offenders. but then i realized you might be talking about diplomats and their staffs who park illegally every day and do not pay their fines. sheesh!
also, relax on the language. control yourself.
Won’t happen.
In other words: “We’re giving you the opportunity to hop aboard and look like a hero....before we gut your department anyway.” Mebbe?
From my reading, this is neither U.S. military or U.S. private contractor. They may be looking for some language skills and urban policing expertise. But I don’t see a lot of NYPD signing up for this.
An executive stroke of the pen is probably required to make a hitch part of official US mil time, which might trigger the "no department refusal" thing. GW gonna go for something like that? A couple years ago I woulda said 'no way.' Now....? And the new guy at the top of the UN is someone a tad more conservative than Kofi.....to maintain good relations, the USGOV might go for it??
I do know that the reservist cops considered UN duty a really good gig. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised is pressure were to be applied from the police union(s) to make it happen.
NYC is already short recruits. The starting salary is surprisingly low.
If the UN wanted instructors, they’d do better to go after some of the retired guys or work a deal to send foreign recruits through the academy.
I don’t even know if the skill set would transfer to another culture. Truthfully, the whole idea just sounds screwy to me. But what do I know?
The back story is the UN is trying to get it’s claws and personnel into the new billion dollar plus training facility that the NYPD is about to break ground for.
You probably heard this, but for those who haven’t:
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=104818
College Point, Queens, to be Location of new NYPD Police Academy
April 6, 2007 News Release
Story Art
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced Thursday the selection of the NYPD Tow Pound, located in the College Point section of Queens, as the site of the new police academy. A site selection committee reviewed eight locations and concluded that the Tow Pound is best suited for this use. The Tow Pound will allow for a modern complex that will consolidate in one campus facilities for civilians, recruits and active police officers that are currently spread out across the city.
“All the successes our city has achieved are built on a solid foundation of public safety,” said Bloomberg. “As we invest in our city’s future, we must also strengthen this foundation. Today, we’re taking an important step towards that goal with the selection of a site for a new 21st Century Police Academy, which will train police officers to meet the challenges of tomorrow to protect our city in an ever-changing and complex world.”
The NYPD currently conducts training in numerous facilities scattered throughout the New York. The main facility, the Police Academy, located in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, is over 40 years old and is too small and outdated to meet the needs of today’s department. It was intended for a department half of the size of the current force. A primary benefit of a new facility will be the consolidation of all NYPD training facilities at one location, creating a police training campus. Currently the Firearms and Tactics Section, where all firearms training is conducted, is located at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx, while the driver training field where the Emergency Vehicle Operations Course is taught is far away at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.
“The police department is not the agency it was a mere five years ago, never mind 43 years ago — when the current police academy was constructed,” said Kelly. “Since that time we have expanded in both size and mission to include new Counter Terrorism and Intelligence programs, expanded community outreach and greater focus on quality of life. The new police academy will provide what our police officers and all New Yorkers deserve: the most advanced law enforcement training facility anywhere in the world.”
Once it is designed and constructed, the new police academy will feature instruction space, support and administration buildings, a field house, indoor shooting ranges, a tactical village, housing facility, driver training fields, K-9 environments, parking, a vehicle maintenance facility and a utility plant. A cost estimate has not been developed for the new Academy project but the capital plan in the mayor’s upcoming executive budget will allocate $1 billion for the project. The Department of Design and Construction will oversee the project and the city expects to break ground on the new Police Academy campus by the end of 2009.
I’m thinking that the UN wants to get as much use out of that $1 billion in US taxpayer money as they can, without having to actually provide any benefit to the US taxpayer. Also, wouldn’t be surprised if the NYPD unions are pushing for it as you said.
Ha!ha! The thick plottens!
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