BROOKLYN, N.Y. —Kings County officials announced May 25 an initiative to protect school safety officers from random attacks.
Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Local 237 Teamsters President Gregory Floyd have created the Assault on School Safety Officers Program. The initiative, the first of its kind in New York City, is designed to ensure that assaults on school safety officers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
The program is similar to the DA Office’s Assault on Police Officer Program (APOP) and Assault on Transit Workers Program, which were implemented in 2008, in that the programs’ goals are to protect those officials from random attacks. According to a Local 237 Teamsters press release, these programs consist of a team of prosecutors and investigators who look into cases where an officer, transit worker or school safety officer has been seriously injured, shot at or attacked with a deadly weapon, or if there is an attempted assault.
“This new program lets the public know that if they assault a School Safety Officer, they will be arrested and prosecuted the same as if a police officer or transit worker was assaulted,” said District Attorney Hynes. “They will face felony assault charges.”
NYPD Commissioner Kelly said, “While NYPD School Safety Agents represent only a fraction of the more than 1.1 million students and faculty in public schools, the reality is that they are the victims of one-third of the assaults that happen there.”
There are 5,000 school safety agents in New York City. There has been a 6.9 percent increase in felony assaults against school safety agents since last year.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Colleen Babb from the Crime Prevention Division will be heading up this new program.
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