Latest / MyRye.com Conversations with Doug French / Michael Kopy, City of Rye Public Safety Commissioner, on Safety
Transcript
- MyRye.com: Welcome to the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French. I am your host, Doug French, former mayor of the City of Rye. And this podcast is all about the issues and the people impact Rye and our region. Today's conversation is with Michael Kopy Public Safety Commissioner for the City of Rye, on the topic of public safety. Mr. Commissioner, welcome to MyRye.com. Kopy: Hi, good afternoon. Hi, Doug. How's everything? MyRye.com: Good, good, So, you you have a very unique background, both in police and fire. And so you are what's called the Public Safety Commissioner. Tell us a little bit about your background as well as the pros and cons of them being together or those separated. Kopy: Well, my background is this. I've been in public safety since I'm 18. I was a volunteer firefighter and have been an active firefighter for 44 years. During that time, I rose the ranks and was the chief of the Department of the Mamaroneck as an interior firefighter. So I have experience there. As I was doing that, I started with the state police and spent 32 years with the troopers rising through the ranks. I was in command of Hudson Valley, our New York office, had a number of different assignments throughout the state. And so I did that until I retired in 2018. ⁓ five months later, I received a call to ⁓ see I was ⁓ interested ⁓ working the governor's office. I went back to work for the governor in January of 2019 and I worked with Governor Cuomo until October of 21. At that I started here in the City of Rye. MyRye.com: Is there any anecdote or fun story you can share about working in the governor's office? Kopy: ⁓ yeah, it's probably too many for a 30 minute podcast, right? Look, when I worked for the governor, ⁓ the governor is a very committed man. He's very committed to public safety and emergency management. so it was, ⁓ a lot long hours, right? Many, many long hours, long nights. ⁓ so ⁓ it's a topic that we could do separately on its own podcast. MyRye.com: definitely have you back. So can you paint a picture for you know what the first responders ⁓ through ⁓ to give the residents a sense of you know ⁓ issue in Rye or a story of some kind? Kopy: Well, listen, know, in Rye, Rye is recognized not just by me, but by a number of different magazines as one of the safer places. And I attribute that to ⁓ women and men of the Rye Police Department as it pertains to, you know, policing and law enforcement. You know, they were out there patrolling the streets, you know, 24 seven 365. This isn't an operation that never shuts down. You know, you always have police services working throughout the city. The fire department, the same thing, you know, the women and men at the fire department are 24 seven and they're out there. Both departments. Everybody is highly trained. It's one of the things that we've been very aggressive on over the last five years is ensuring not only did everybody has the training that they need today to do the job. We're trying to prepare everybody for the future and both landscapes change daily. So we're really looking to try to identify, you know, what's the next trend in firefighting? What's the next crime trend that's going to happen and ensure our people are prepared to respond to those challenges. Just an hour ago, I was ⁓ signing bills. You know, we just sent one of the detectives to forensic accounting school to ensure that we're able to deal with all of the financial crimes that that are occurring in the area. MyRye.com: Okay, so let's talk about technology. So I know you've done a lot of interviews about how the city's deploying technology to improve safety. Can you give us some examples? Kopy: Sure, well technology is changing everywhere in the world and law enforcement and the fire department are no different. know, put in perspective, when I started 40 years ago ⁓ the troopers, I didn't have a portable radio. Today everybody's issued their own cell phone, their own radio, you all of the technology they putting in place. What we're working on right now is plate readers and cameras throughout the city to ensure that we can rapidly respond to a crisis or an emergency. You know, we're working with the school districts to ensure that their cameras are hooked up and in sync with our system so that if we have an emergency in the school system, ⁓ know, almost instantaneously, we can identify exactly where the classroom is and get camera online so that we can transmit that feedback to the command staff as well as the officers who are responding. Sometimes when you're having an emergency in a school, you know, there are lot of different versions and locations that people say respond to. You know, going to different areas, not where the emergency is, costs valuable seconds. Now with this technology, we'll be able to identify in any of the schools in the city that participate with us exactly where is the emergency. We're using this technology just not with the police department, but with the fire department also. So when the fire department to an alarm at the school, they'll be able to go on, the location, ⁓ look at the camera feed to see what's happening there. ⁓ if in fact there's an actual fire, we can start out additional resources almost immediately and three, four, five minutes, which in a fire, three, four, five minutes is a lifetime. MyRye.com: And how is the coordination across other levels of government, if you were to have an incident at the school, for example, does the county get involved or is this strictly the City of Rye or what are the other resources at play? Kopy: Well, Rye is not unique in that we are a smaller police department and you know with currently I think we have 38 39 officers. You know that's not enough on a daily shift to handle an emergency. So Rye participates in the Westchester County Mutual Aid Plan and I'm a active member of the County Chiefs of Police and I actually sit on the Mutual Aid Committee. I helped rewrite that policy 20 years ago, but we work with other departments. you know, least three times, sometimes four times a year, we in drills where we'll respond to locations ⁓ and engage in training with other police departments to ensure that our communication is clear to ensure that the officers ⁓ are comfortable together. So, you know, we routinely respond once a year to a different school district somewhere in the county, and we work with other agencies. So if we had an emergency here, the other departments would come, the county, the state, as well as the other municipalities in Westchester County. MyRye.com: And what about the use of drones? Kopy: Drones are coming. Drones are going to be everywhere, whether delivering ⁓ medicines from CVS, delivering your groceries. ⁓ are here, and drones are here ⁓ public safety. So ⁓ about months ago, ⁓ we a pilot program with a drone as a first responder. ⁓ And currently have one drone that's permanently mounted on the roof of the police department. ⁓ and we're putting a second drone mount in on the firehouse down in Milton Point. drone is a great tool. It's a force multiplier. It's like having our own aviation unit, right? And you say, well, ⁓ can that help us? In of the police department, it gives us an overview of a situation that we can look at a large crowd and see what's happening. Also ⁓ drone, as simpler as a burglar alarm, upon dispatch, MyRye.com: All Kopy: We received the call the desk officer can send the drone out immediately so we have a burglar alarm somewhere in Rye, any address, ⁓ drone is going to take off and be en route to the burglar alarm as officer is getting ⁓ the ⁓ More than not the drone can be on location ⁓ and assess the situation and provide information back ⁓ to desk to the responding officer. This will allow the office to say okay. We have Molly Maids in the driveway ⁓ often than not, they've triggered the alarm faulty. Or we a vehicle out of the driveway that might be heading in the direction of the officer, may have committed a burglary. Now the officer is coming this direction, can stop the vehicle where would ever have to first have to respond to the house and identify because the house had been broken into, that car was gone. So the drone is a tool. going to see this everywhere in public safety. I say within the next five years, and that's probably far out, that police department ⁓ and department will either have a drone or want a drone. And the price dropping drastically. So this is a great tool. What I've done though is, you know, I've taken this drone technology and we're using it for the fire department also. ⁓ So we're just keeping it strictly for the police department. So ⁓ as certain of fire calls come to to us, we're going to send the drone up automatically and have the drone arrive on location before the fire department can even get there. The drone will be transmitting pictures of what's happening to the fire trucks inside the trucks they're getting to the scene, sometimes even before they leave the firehouse. This going to cut back the time that we would need to get additional resources to the scene because they're going to have a bird's eye view of what's happening before they even get there. MyRye.com: Right. Sure. what about drones are threats? I mean, how does that work in terms of protocols? Is that handled by the county or? Kopy: No, actually a drone, the drone program itself ⁓ don't want monitored, but ⁓ really regulated by the FAA. And drones can be threats are actually enemies of the state. is not something that we can go ⁓ and shoot a out of the sky. ⁓ I certainly if drone were using deadly physical force or dispersing an agent, ⁓ we could take action. But just as a matter of routine, ⁓ you can't do that. That is that's by the FAA. That said, we've invested in technology now where we can identify where the drone is being from. So recently we had a drone report ⁓ a schoolyard in an afternoon and it was just hovering over the playground. You of course that's going to create a lot of concern for parents like who is looking at our children, why is this happening? We were able to identify where it was, you know, It was a contractor was doing a survey for a neighboring property owner ⁓ taking photographs, innocent enough, but had not identified who ⁓ it and what was happening, you'd have lot of nervous parents. know, as myself as a parent, I would be nervous too. ⁓ So a tool and we're constantly trying to stay on the front edge ⁓ of what is to make Rye safer. MyRye.com: Excellent. You had also mentioned to me in another conversation. Yeah, yeah, sure. Kopy: I don't don't fall more and I just I'm getting something here. You know that that is the main drone. We also have what we call ⁓ tactical drones ⁓ the officers can use these in buildings and know, as opposed to sending an officer in a building into a dangerous situation. ⁓ We drones now that you know we have a number of officers who are trained and we're working on training and every officer how to operate the drones where we can just ⁓ get the inside the building and the drone can scan the scenario, scan the scene to see who or what might be inside. And it's going to make it much safer for the officers. in terms of mapping out crime scenes and accident scenes, ⁓ technology is there to do that for the officers. And it's also saving a lot of time. Back in the day, we had to go out with crayons and chalk, yes, crayons and chalk, ⁓ and ⁓ And would map ⁓ out what at an accident scene. MyRye.com: Right. Kopy: by marking tires in the street and doing measurements. The technology takes what could have been a four and five hour project and it gets it done in 15 minutes. So a lot of what we're doing investing in technology is to make the officers more efficient and in essence you want the officers to be you know a hundred percent of their time to be a hundred percent efficient. MyRye.com: That's just... That's excellent. In another conversation you mentioned to me about the body cameras actually generate the report and they can also translate. You want to speak to that? Kopy: Yeah. amazing, ⁓ like I say, what technology and AI is bringing ⁓ to enforcement and public safety. about maybe more than months ago, eight months ago, ⁓ we had to the body cameras that were really first generation, the initial body cameras that were coming on the market back then. you know, we had gotten our out of him. So was to and the opportunity there was to upgrade. So the body cameras that we purchased, we purchased from a company called Axon and we purchased it with an AI package and this AI package is able to do two key things. The first is it'll prepare the report for the officer and so it's able to identify what's happening from the camera, from the audio and it prepares the report and it can prepare it in three different fashions. It can prepare a lengthy report, a moderate report or a simple report depending on how you program it. And that's saving real time. had one of my officers when we first got this and he's very proficient with report writing, one of our better report writers. He said, commissioner, this was a report that would have taken me four or four and a half hours to complete all the paperwork. With this, I was able to get it done in 20 minutes. That's real savings. Right now, you were able to put that officer back on the road. MyRye.com: Yeah. Kopy: you just gained three hours that were otherwise lost. ⁓ additionally body cameras ⁓ are to translate. ⁓ So know somebody comes up and speaks any of a hundred languages, I think we're currently at just over a hundred languages, the officer has to touch his body camera and in a It's translating exactly what the person is saying, you know, and certainly it's simple Spanish. A lot of us understand Spanish, if somebody comes up in a speaking Persian or Mandarin, the technology ⁓ that and lets the offer to know exactly what the person is saying. So, ⁓ know, somebody comes up and says, my child is choking. I need help in any of these hundred languages. ⁓ a second, the officer is going to know, and the officer will be able to talk back into the camera and tell the person. MyRye.com: Right. Kopy: and take me there now. So these are things that are making our officers more efficient and, you know, we're staying in front of it. Additionally, I talked about, you know, cameras, the drones, there are cameras in the cars, everything now syncs up. it automatically populates the report for the officer. ⁓ a lot of post-arrest work has to happen with the discovery process. The laws were changed a few years ago. MyRye.com: you Kopy: and what it's taking is, you know, ⁓ and eight hours of compiling ⁓ of the information because it's all under one roof, one vendor now. It minutes ⁓ to this work done and it frees up the detective lieutenant who was otherwise spend a day or half day depending on the arrest collecting the information. MyRye.com: I mean, that's really exciting. So last thing on technology, how about information and communication flow out to the residents? If I'm a resident and I need to know something, what is the push-pull in terms of technology and information communication? What's that flow look like? Kopy: we're using social media. So we try to put stuff out here from the police department through social media as well through the city's the city's apps. And so we work very closely with Nicole ensure that, ⁓ know, they get it there. Plus we have those who follow the city's ⁓ department social media. About a year ago, we sent Sergeant Chris Salguero he's a 10-year member of the department. sent him out for training on public information officer activities. you know, an effort let the public know what we're doing, we need a spokesman. ⁓ We sent Chris. has the level of training that the FBI gives their officers. We were able to get him in a course in Colorado, and we sent him there. So a lot of what we try to do now is to ensure the public has awareness of what we're doing and whether it's us transmitting about a road closure ⁓ monthly stats. We started that about five months ago, eight months ago. We're monthly, we're putting out what the officers have done, how many car stops, how many calls for service, arrest, ⁓ ⁓ you know, we're doing it a number of ways, but it's important that the public knows what its police department is doing ⁓ ⁓ We're constantly looking at that to make sure that we have, or they have all the information they need. MyRye.com: So if you're a resident, really need to make sure you're registered with City Hall with your cell phone if you want to get a text message, correct? Or is that done? Yeah. Kopy: Yep, should get the city app ⁓ or Instagram with the PD ⁓ and sign and this is where we put our information out. We also in an emergency, have access to Code Red where we can reach out to the public during a crisis or an emergency. That said, I try to preserve that of communication for a true emergency. So when you get that message, you should know something ⁓ either happening ⁓ about to happen that you might have to take action on. So I try to not put out the road closures and more generic things on that. This way, the public gets that message, they know, okay, we have a flooding that's imminent. We should move. to higher ground and take action. MyRye.com: That's excellent. Rye is a unique spot. We've got Playland, we've got the coastal ⁓ we've got ⁓ ⁓ lot of opportunities for outsiders or threats to happen. I mean, how's coordination with that? Anything you can share with Rye Town Park as well? Kopy: Sure. Well... You know, we currently have certain cameras and plate readers that are positioned throughout the city and we provide that feed to the real-time crime center in Westchester County. And the county police work on this and they do a great job with that. So the coordination is there because I don't have the resources to monitor that equipment constantly where the county does and they're doing it for us. And then in turn, they're putting out the information. ⁓ you know, when there's a stolen car or a wanted person either comes through one ⁓ our plate readers or somewhere in the region, ⁓ broadcast that information out to let us know. ⁓ we get that, the officers respond to locations that are appropriate depending on where that car or person might be ⁓ be on the lookout. That's been very, very effective for us because, ⁓ know, one of the trends I've seen here in the last five years is we have stolen cars, almost ⁓ there a stolen car coming into the city that is used with other individuals ⁓ to ⁓ the of stealing the other car. ⁓ So when have a stolen car that comes in the city, ⁓ it's really hands on deck, you know, get to your pre-identified locations ⁓ and wait and see we can identify that stolen car that's coming in ⁓ to prevent new crime. MyRye.com: Speaking of crime, one of crimes in the headlines was the Arts Center with the stones. Anything share with the public about how you cracked that case? Kopy: A lot of work from the Detective Bureau. This is... This is really a great detective bureau who takes a lot of pride in their work. And so, you know, with social media and putting the information out there that this crime has happened, were able to get a tip as to somebody who might be selling similar stones. We had undercover officer who was able to covertly ⁓ reach out the individual ⁓ and inquire a price and the stones. ⁓ And then location was identified. where the individual arrived and attempted to sell the stolen stones to the officer. He was quickly taken into custody and arrested and now is awaiting his day in court. We were able to recover a few of the stones. The victim was very, very happy and so I'm glad that that was able to be, at this point, resolved to the extent that we've recovered a couple of the stones and we're still looking for the others. Thanks. MyRye.com: You are right. You said I had a lot of questions and it'd be tough to get through them all. So let's just move to kind of, I'll just one question, maybe one sentence answers, all right? ⁓ Leave Blur a Law. No, no, no, no, this is excellent. This is why we're doing this podcast, to really get in depth. Kopy: I'm sorry. I. We don't have time for that. Leaf blower, you think we can get through that with one sentence I can't. MyRye.com: Yeah. What's the latest? May 1st? May 1. Kopy: May 1 May 1 the city council has. adopted a law that changed how leaf blowers can be used in the city and the type of leaf blower. And in one sentence, effective May 1, you can no longer use a gas leaf blower. Simple. Regardless of the size of property you're on, you the previous law would allow leaf blowers, I'd say ⁓ in I remember if it's R1, but a one acre district, but not in a house in other districts, even though it might be over an acre. So basically you can't use a gas blower after ⁓ 1 unless you are a membership club ⁓ ⁓ handful of other large properties. MyRye.com: And you may hear in the background, my neighbor has one going, so that's why I asked. Double parkers downtown. Carrie would not let me get through this interview without asking you. Double parkers all the time. How can we expedite some of that or move traffic along? Kopy: We regularly put a special detail out there at night. try to tackle the double parkers, primarily people running in and out of the restaurants. So we speak with the restaurant owners and we encourage them to talk to their delivery drivers, not just their drivers, but the third party vendors that are delivering food and encourage them to come to a rear door to pick up their food. they work very closely with us. We have a great working relationship with the chamber ⁓ with the individual business owners. What can we do? We're out there. Unfortunately, it takes enforcement. And so we try to do this. You we'd rather not write a ticket. All right? there's nothing else that we can do at this point. So, and we encourage the homeowners too, please, when you stop to drop somebody off to pick the food up, square the block. It's gonna take three minutes. to get the food and come back out. you just square the block, it allows traffic to keep flowing through that. And while I had a minute here, you know, one of the things that we're working to curtail is the illegal parking in the handicapped spaces, right? And everybody thinks, well, I'm only in there for a minute. Yes, but that's a minute that deprives somebody who specifically needs that spot of getting in there. So, you know, while I have a moment, you know, if I can encourage all the residents, please be mindful of the fact that that spot is dedicated for somebody who has a special need. MyRye.com: Okay, thank you for that. And what's the top complaint that you get from residents? Kopy: probably leaf blower is one of the complaints. Leaf, leaf blowers. And you know whether we get a complaint or not, know, larcenies. Larcenies from vehicles overnight, stolen cars. I that our statistics will show over the last three months because of just the horrendous winter that it was for Rye. You're going to see a decrease there, ⁓ but are two of the big things. You know, primarily the leaf blowers, just people who call the complain about the leaf blowers creating noise. MyRye.com: and community relations with the police. It's been up and down through the years. How would you rate it now? Good, bad, ugly? Kopy: I don't think good is a good enough explanation. I think that we have ⁓ strong relations with the community. ⁓ just sat at the police advisory board. I meet with them quarterly ⁓ ⁓ that's a great way for the community to come ⁓ just provide concerns or to talk to myself or the officers that I have with me at the meeting. ⁓ I think that police community relations are very, very strong in this community. I don't know. I ⁓ have seen bad relations. here in the community and my almost five years here. So I think it's very, very strong. MyRye.com: That's great to hear. Yeah, I hear the same thing. Quick thing about the police station. What's the update on that? Kopy: Well, look, we're dealing with a station here that got to be 100 years old, ⁓ And it was constructed for the policing needs 100 years ago. And it's not suitable for today's policing, especially because we need more officers. That said, know, we've done everything we can here to. compartmentalize all of the equipment and everything. But this is not a facility that's useful for policing today. That said, you there are a number of demands on the public's tax money and this is not something that I see happening right now. I am more focused on ensuring that I have enough bodies on the road to keep people out there and keep enough people on the road. MyRye.com: And so how are you doing with budget and staffing and some of the capital expenses that you need to purchase? Kopy: Good, ⁓ we have standardized the purchasing of police vehicles to ensure that we're taking the delivery of a new vehicle least ⁓ every four months, sometimes every three months. What happened with COVID ⁓ ⁓ the supply chain problems, we ⁓ couldn't get vehicles and then sometimes are being purchased prior to that. in a parcel, in a group, we would purchase three vehicles, vehicles at a time. And I don't think that works well. So what we do is we develop a plan. The police vehicles are in service for three years each year. They put on about 25,000 miles on. Remember, cars never shut off. They're on 24-7 because of the electronics. the way we have it with the vehicles, they're every three years, then they go to a surplus role where they're just doing traffic details or they're not in prime. primary police operation. And then after five years, they can either be auctioned off or they can go to another department in the city that does not have emergency management needs. Using that formula every three to four months we get a new vehicle in and that allows us to spread and identify the cost over the year We know what it is going to cost for a vehicle. We know we need this. I can't have every officer walking and running from headquarters out to Milton Point. That's not effective. We know that these purchases to happen and you know we've been pretty successful that and just today I signed off on a purchase order for a new vehicle that you know we tell the vendor you have to deliver it to us four months from today he knows that vehicle has to be done and it gives him the time to do it and put us on the schedule and these vehicles these vehicles are just you know one thing for you ⁓ MyRye.com: I Kopy: It would be easy if I could walk across the street to. Rye Subaru and say, give me that vehicle. Here's a check it go. You know, that's not what it is today. You know, these cars are specially designed for police work. You know, there are ballistic panels in the doors. There's computers, the hard wiring. You know, the cages have to go in the back. These are cars now that cost us one hundred and fifteen, one hundred and twenty thousand dollars each. And it requires a lot of planning and coordination to get it here. And we're in line. with a lot of other people. So the number of people who are doing this, that number is dropping down significantly and there's always a demand for new police vehicles. So by ordering them up months ahead of time and telling the vendor, yes, we're going to need it, we're allowed, ⁓ able to stay on top of this ⁓ that prevents us from being in the boat we were in a few years ago where we couldn't get vehicles and ⁓ the vehicles were getting bad. So ⁓ doing that. Same thing with the fire department. I just jumped ⁓ topic. Council has ⁓ the purchase of two new fire trucks, ⁓ last year ⁓ one this year. ⁓ what we're trying to do is to do the same thing with the fire department that every five years, the city is going to have to take delivery a new fire truck, right? ⁓ And it's to plan for it now. You know, you're going to need this. ⁓ These trucks, ⁓ we go to a fire without a truck. ⁓ We can't do it. All the equipment's there. So I think these practices are setting the city up for future success by identifying exactly what their costs are going to be in the future. MyRye.com: Yeah, that's great to hear. And ⁓ had mentioned one time that the residents are your eyes and ears to contact you if they have a question or a comment. What's the best way to contact you other than 911, of course? Kopy: Well, there's two things there. If you see something, say something. I this is pretty standard post 9 11 and that counts for everything. You know, a lot of times talk to residents say I saw this happening. I said, what did you do? ⁓ I posted on social media. Well, we don't social media like that. ⁓ I encourage residents to call the desk ⁓ and it's a bother. And sometimes I think the residents are afraid. Do I really want to bother the police with this? I say yes. of the police, right? We have other pieces to the puzzle. except what you can report. So I tell people to the desk, whether it's 911 for an emergency, ⁓ it's an administrative problem, dial seven-digit number. ⁓ Either goes to the same officer. There's one officer sitting at the desk, it's one phone or the other. ⁓ Just the information to the officer and let the officer ⁓ figure what's happening there. This is they're paid to do, ⁓ and this what they want to do. So ⁓ if want get a hold of me, I'm ⁓ at my desk. I encourage the residents, you know, call me directly. I'd rather they not call me for an emergency. That's what 911 is for. But if you have concerns or comments, you know, you can either call me or like I said, I meet with the police advisory board and you can either email them and call them and they will bring your concern to my attention. Very often somebody will call them and say, ⁓ you ask the commissioner what's happening with this or bicycles on Purchase Street? ⁓ they'll bring it to my attention. ⁓ advise them. But most of all, I would hope that the resident would call me personally and say, hey, Kope, I'd like to talk to you about something. I never don't take a call. I never push it off to somebody else. MyRye.com: Thank you for that. And before we part ways, I just want let our listeners know that if you have a topic or a guest you want to hear on the MyRye.com podcast, Conversations with Doug French, just email me at French at MyRye.com. And can find more local news and a full episode transcripts at MyRye.com. If you found this conversation helpful, please follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And Commissioner, I see Rye Neck emblem in the back, logo in the back. You and I, former Rye Neck'ers, we used to train together. We were going to be lean and mean. ⁓ Kopy: Ha Well, I was in the day, That was four years. Yeah, and you know what? Rye Neck is important to me. And for everybody's awareness, ⁓ Neck High School in its entirety sits in the City of Rye. probably fifty percent of the middle school too and you know now with all the development and with all Sloan Kettering site was back there probably twenty percent of the student population is uh... at least from the City of Rye and you know i say go Panthers and you know i love my Garnets too right we're good with Rye High School but uh... there's now a graduate from Rye Neck High School who's the commissioner MyRye.com: Yeah, and it's great that you've been a part of the community for so long, and it shows in your knowledge and your expertise. ⁓ Commissioner, Michael, thank you very much. It's been a real pleasure. Kopy: Thanks Doug. Anytime, let me know and thank you to all the residents of Rye for your support for the police and fire department. MyRye.com: That's great. All right. Thank you, listeners.