Image Of Roosevelt Island WIRE Buildings From Wikipedia
Roosevelt Island resident Frank Farance sent the following inquiry to Roosevelt Island Operating Corp ( RIOC ) Acting President Don Lewis:
A couple weeks ago the RIRA Public Safety Committee (the RIRA committee that liaises with RIOC’s Public Safety Department) included in their monthly report:
[Excerpt …]
Vertical Patrols:None of the committee members present stated that they had seen vertical patrols being conducted in their buildings. Members acknowledged that PSOs were seen at the door station in Westview during the summer months, and is the 595 Main Street lobby as well, but not seen on the floors or in the stairways. Island House leaders stated similar experiences. Rivercross representative stated that he had not been seen PS Officers patrolling the building recently.
[… end of excerpt]I had similar experiences: I haven’t seen a PSO (Public Safety Officer) patrolling the floors in Island House in the past 5-10 years. As reported above, I had similar experiences seeing PS only at the 555 doorstation or the 575 lobby, not patrolling the building.When I read the IH Ground Lease Amendment, Exhibit H (page 99) includes a letter from PSD Director Keith Guerra, dated March 13, 2012, that states:
[Excerpt …]As a follow up to Steve Chironis’ letter dated February 14, 2012, this letter is to serve as further explanation to the services provided to the WIRE buildings by the Public Safety Department of the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation.
In addition to external patrols, the Public Safety Department provides internal patrols of the buildings at a minimum of one patrol per eight (8) hour shift. That is at a minimum three times during a 24 hour period. Internal patrols include check of all hallways, stairwells and entrance/exit doors, as well as making sure all apartment doors are locked, secured and free of vandalism (i.e., graffiti).
[… end of excerpt]A couple weeks ago I asked one of the doorman to look at the log book. On the pages I reviewed (which covered several months) I saw that virtually every day lacked a three-per-day patrol … typically one or two patrols a day, and some days had NO patrols. All of the patrols were short, approximately 20 minutes. Having distributed flyers in the building many times, it takes about 40-45 minutes to cover every floor (Westview residents have similar timings). In some cases, two patrols are being done back to back (3 PM and 4 PM) so the building goes unpatrolled for 22 hours at a time.I asked several doormen across several shifts if they had seen Public Safety patrolling the building or observed them via security cameras. All doorman said they saw the officers at their doorstation, but did not see him elsewhere in the building (i.e., outside of the 555 and 575 lobbies).
In short, the Public Safety Department is not giving us the service they promise (not enough patrols, inadequately performed, etc.), it is a safety issue, a contractual issue, and a cost issue for us tenants.
To me, this seems like fraud: if someone were billing 40 hours for a week’s worth of work and only actually doing half, we would call that fraud, right? On Saturday, consistent with prior observations, I saw a PSO check in at the doorman around 8:10 PM, and then check out around 8:30 PM — not enough time to patrol the building. He was filling out an Activity Report. How can that Activity Report be truthful or complete if the PSO didn’t actually patrol the building? Isn’t that Activity Report fraudulent? And why does PSD supervisors believe this is acceptable?
This appears to be a widespread and lengthy problem at Public Safety: the problem exists at a supervisory and executive levels (who schedule the officers, and they don’t schedule them properly) and at the officer level (because the officers themselves aren’t doing the patrolling they claim to be doing). Mr. Guerra’s assertion of PSD performance (Exhibit H) is significantly misleading because: (1) PSD does not do the patrols they promise, (2) the patrols they do are incomplete and inadequate, (3) they represent they do complete performance for other WIRE buildings (other than Island House) when, in fact, they do not do such performance.
This requires an investigation on what kind of performance PSD has provided (so tenants can get a refund), and requires a top-to-bottom investigation of the management structure of Public Safety. I encourage you to look at logs books, security video in WIRE buildings, and so on to verify PSD’s lack of performance. I note that when speaking with residents, I have heard second hand from PS officers that some staff is “family”, “connected”, and such. I looked into this and found out that Mr. Guerra and Mr. Martinez are fraternity brothers (a year a part), and there might be other relationships among the staff. Investigators should use appropriate care.
I asked RIOC Acting President Don Lewis for comment on Mr. Farance’s Vertical Patrols inquiry. RIOC’s Press Spokesperson replied:
We appreciate Mr. Farance expressing his concerns. We are looking into the issue.
More on Roosevelt Island Public Safety Department Vertical Patrols from these previous posts.
