NYCLU Slams City For Shifting School Safety Agents Closer to NYPD Command

NEW YORK CITY – After the New York City Police Department (NYPD) announced it would shift oversight of thousands of school safety agents from the Community Affairs Bureau to the Office of the Chief of Department, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement, attributable to Jake Martinez, deputy director of the Education Policy Center:

“Mayor Adams’s decision to shift oversight of Student Safety Agents — notoriously the largest school police force in the country — to directly under NYPD brass is a dangerous move that will hurt students and make schools less safe.

“The NYPD has no place in our city’s classrooms. Every year in New York City, hundreds of students are suspended, arrested, and put in jail under the command of the NYPD. This dangerous practice puts students’ safety at risk, threatens their futures, and fuels the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately funnels students of color into jail.

“Schools should be safe places for learning and growth, not danger zones where one wrong move could put a child in police custody. To truly achieve school safety, the city must remove the NYPD from our classrooms entirely and stop creating more opportunities to put children in handcuffs.”

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