It seems beneficial to have police officers monitoring the hallways to keep them safe. But it feels a little extreme to have to provide your ID in your own apartment building just for running down the stairs to grab some milk or answer the door. Aside from the fact that it is troublesome to those tenants, it’s taking away much-needed police presence from the streets, which could always use more officers and patrols.

Civil rights groups are suing the NYPD over a program allowing officers to patrol private apartment buildings. The "Clean Halls" program was established in the 1990s to help protect neighborhoods. Critics think the initiative contributes to the NYPD's controversial "Stop, Question and Frisk" policy, and unfairly targets innocent minority New Yorkers.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defended the crime-fighting program today. Kelly said, "Landlords invite the police in to stop and talk to people who are uninvited in the building. This is the level of safety that people have in buildings with doormen."

The lawsuit comes the same day politicians and civil rights activists protested a recent revelation that undercover officers attend the meetings of liberal political organizations. They claim the NYPD's Intelligence Division abuses its authority by monitoring groups that pose no threat to safety. What do you say?

Should police be able to patrol private apartment buildings? Does the program make New York safer, or does it result in the profiling of black and Latino New Yorkers? What's your reaction to undercover officers monitoring liberal political groups?

Send your thoughts using the link above.

I think the police have a duty to protect the city from criminals, but by the same token they need to temper their enthusiasm and their propensity for seeing only people of color as potential criminals.

Felix
Bay Ridge

I say that the Civil Rights Groups who are suing need to provide a solution to our problems not just criticize the NYPD.

The police should be able to patrol as needed all spaces if and when there is a need. I live in a private cooperative and at times we need a police presence to help residence recognize that although its private property, we support community policing.

However, If other private buildings choose not too they should be responsible for policing their spaces. This does not mean the police cannot have a look see from time to time as they see fit to assist with the safety of our population.

We live in a world gone mad with crime and violence. We need a police force who can rise to the occasion. The NYPD has been rising to the occasion albeit with some problems. The Civil Rights Groups should take note of that and work with the NYPD. The NYPD should allow the Civil Rights Group some insight on the matter so that they can understand why things are done a certain way.

Damond

If the landlord calls with a problem about loitering then they are calling in a complaint.

So how would they suggest the NYPD go about approaching this problem in a different way.

All I ever hear is this same person doing all the talking and she has no answers as to how the problem be approached or solved in a different way other than infringing on our CIVIL RIGHTS.

She did say that she was mugged and so what was the outcome of that incident. All that sounds like to me is just a statement and how do we know if its true or not.

The results could have ended with very serious circumstances to numerous to mention.

maxxiee
mp

This Clean Halls program is yet another type of warrantless search, this time enhanced by police presence on private property apparently without the knowledge or consent of tenants.

To continue another day in their positions, Herr Bloomberg, Herr Kelly and all NYPD members should be required to take a course on the principles of individual rights, freedom and the limitations on the power of government.

Man’s Rights and The Nature of Government both by Ayn Rand should be required reading for every government official. The booklets are available from the Ayn Rand Institute.

Joe
Port Richmond

While the routine presence of NYC police officers on private residential property does suggest a potential slippery slope, crimes committed in the public areas of these buildings are still crimes that justify police intervention.

The problem arises when persons of color, or of a certain age, are unfairly targeted and harassed for merely hanging out in or around the buildings in which they live while their white neighbors are not.

Better video and audio surveillance, monitored from a central location, will reduce the need for on-site police patrols while still providing a deterrent to illegal activity and a means of catching and prosecuting perpetrators without the intimidating presence of government law enforcement.

But the ultimate responsibility for building security falls to the landlords, who must more
vigorously enforce lease provisions that regulate the conduct of tenants and their guests
in the building's public areas, and who, along with aggrieved tenants, should request police interdiction only in cases of observed criminal activity.

BIG ANDY
Manhattan Beach

What about the neighbors that are "Public Noise Polluters?"

Loud music and video games were not made for the Manhattan, and surrounding borough apartments, built before the Millennium. This is the nuisance, of the Twenty-first century, and can be quite unnerving, for those helpless to do anything against the selfishness. “What’s Race Got to do With It”?

Rick “The Everyman”
UES

I am sooooooo against this.

It's getting to the point that I feel like I'm living in a Police state.

Barri
Jackson Heights

HOW DOES THE PUBLIC FEEL ABOUT VEHICLE CHECKPOINTS? GOOD EVENING, WHERE ARE YOU COMING FROM? WHERE ARE YOU GOING TO? PAPERS PLEASE, LICENSE, REGISTRATION AND INSURANCE CARD PLEASE. DO YOU MIND IF I LOOK INTO YOUR TRUNK AND INTERIOR OF YOUR CAR?

IF YOU DON'T, I'LL SUMMON THE K-9 TEAM.

WHY ARE YOU NERVOUS? HAD YOU ANYTHING TO DRINK? DO NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE OR MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVES. UP AGAINST THE CAR! AFTER THE FRISK AND PAT DOWN WE FIND EVERYTHING IN ORDER.

THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION AND HAVE A NICE EVENING.

JOE
BAY TERRACE

I am on the Board of my building and we do not have a doorman. If a police officer was patrolling our building I would call the police to get him out. If they did not I would call the state police.

Rob
Gramercy

I totally agree with NYPD doing walk throughs in privately owned buildings. Maybe this will help with eliminating drug use in the hallways, especially from non-residents!

Brenda
Washington Heights

Unfortunately we can't trust our cops. In my older age I have found myself wanting to trust the cops, and feeling safer sometimes because of them--but I am not black, or Muslim, or an OWS protester, and I haven't been sexually assaulted by any cops. We have seen the atrocious things cops will do when they think they can get away with it. And I think Commisioner Kelly is in large part to blame-- he is not instilling a culture of virtue and public service, but one of domination, and that includes racial profiling, a euphemistic way to refer to violent, racist and fascist intimidation. Our beautiful city deserves better than that. Clean Halls might work if we could trust our cops, but we can't.

Anel
Manhattan

I think the goal is admirable. There are plenty of buildings that feel unsafe, for even a brief visit. The ironic thing is these display the Operation Clean Halls sign but I can't say I have ever actually seen an officer. Example: Castle Hill projects, my grandmothers building at Starling Gardens by Parkchester.

However, for those where officers do make an appearance, its far more common for officers to have such a cocky, arrogant attitude and give a sense of us versus them. They target our minority kids and rough them up, submitting to a stereotype, definitely profiling. The worst part of all this is that too many good cops with wholesome intentions are not respected because of the great number of police who are drunk with and abuse the power given to them. I dated a cop and could not stand being around his cop friends. Its so sad that with power, many lose compassion and understanding. Its like they forget these are people just like them. Its disgusting. We are all merely human but so many of us forget that and feel omnipotent with a little bit of authority. I wish it were different but I just feel the actual motive on the part of these officers is not to create and maintain a safe environment but instead to show who is boss!

King Ray Kelly saying it's like these buildings having doormen making them safer? These are MY tax dollars being used to have my public servants being hired by a private enterprise for the sake of patrolling a building I myself would never enter, where they should be patrolling the much larger area like the city that my tax dollars are paying for!!!

THERE'S BEEN A NUMOROUS AMOUNT OF SHOOTING IN SCHOOLS BY YOUNG WHITE MALES THROUGHOUT THE NATION ARE THE POLICE GOING TO STOP AND FRISK EVERY YOUNG WHITE MALE BEFORE THEY ENTER SCHOOL. I DON'T THINK SO.

PEDRO
BRONX

I've got a solution for those against this law and all the other atrocities being committed by Bloomberg and Kelley, move out of New York City like I'm going to do in October -- I've had it.

Jeff
LES

Whether landlord is entitled to do so, is not the issue. They are. The intention is there. The question is whether the means by which it is being employed is proper. Sounds to me there is a lot of impropriety going on.....

The NYPD is doing a great job because even the bad guys call them for help. The only ones not happy with the NYPD are the people who like trouble. Patrol every where.

David & Anna
Glendale

Thanks to the cops of America many of our black men are either in prison falsely,in wheelchair or dead,its about time Bloomberg and his puppets stop harassing and start protecting the people who pay their taxes to keep this city alive there should always be equal rights and justice for all and stop making different rules for people of different status.It is apart of the constitution that no one is above the law.not even the president or Congress.

I am hearing a lot of comments about cops violating people rights, when did asking people questions a crime and if you don't belong in a building then what are you doing there... the public needs to take this issue with the commissioner, mayor, higher up, not the cops that's on patrol doing what the bosses tell them to do..let the cops do there jobs STOP harassing cops

Ray
Bayside

Here we go again, those who support criminal activity by trying to block any kind of criminal deterrent are against any kind of police action that could PREVENT crimes before they happen. There aren’t many office buildings, government buildings, or even schools that can be entered without showing an ID, going through a metal detector, or running an ID card through a machine at an entrance, so why not apartment buildings where people live. They’re always hiding behind the minority profiling nonsense. People always have, and always will be, judged by the way they look, dress, and act, it’s human nature. By the way, just who is a minority nowadays, the last I heard, whites only account for 40% of the NYC population.

Walter
New Dorp

i just wish that for one week or month there was no police presence... How many of you will still be complaining about cops... I SUPPORT THE NYPD

PETER
HOLLIS

All the so called patroling of NYCHA developements around the city, which we now know as stop, frisk & search, has resulted in the eviction of hundreds if not thousands of young black & latino males from their family homes even for, homes they grew up in even for misdemeanors. Maybe we should let the private bldg residents know this.

I disagree when the cops are across the street from my house playing cops and robbers playing badboys theme song and dont let me catch you riding dirty and chasing each other I came home from work on my way to the super markert I stopped my son and his friend down the block something told me to go home first the cops stopped my and friend questioned why they were in the hall once they heard my voice started saying nice hair cut where did you get it done they beat up my mother for asking why my brother was being arressted all on nyc property he was coming from my house and they were trying to make a bust he was going in the building but in the way as they were going out nothing was done.so yes in no if its the same cops that know the area then yes other wise no

First of all if a landlord is going to allow the police to patrol their property, then they should provide the police with every, (EVERY) tenants name and the amount of persons who live in each apartment so when they are stopped, and they show proof that they have every right to be there, they should be allowed to proceed to wherever they are going. Only and only if someone is acting in a manor that warrants further actions from the police, then it should be taken.

I'm sure that the landlord doesn't want trouble on his/her property but if this is their only way to crack down and make things safe, then do that but make sure that they have the information needed so that the ones who should be there don't feel like they are at risk just for throwing out the trash etc.

Zerline

Thank God the NYPD has stepped up to protect us from terrorist activity. If we depended only on the Federal Govt. for this we would have had at least two more 9/11's by now.

Bruce
UES

The NYPD has become an out of control paramilitary organization and they answer to no one but themselves.

Nick
Hell's K.

I am opposed to the prospect suggested by this police presence in residential bldgs.: that of abuses of "probable cause" stop-&-frisk practices, warrantless apt. Invasions, profiling incidents, planting of evidence, shakedowns, and corrupt misuses of authority escalating within this area of opportunity give me the willies! Don't even start me on yet more constriction of privacy and other civil-liberty fetterings contrary to Constitutional laws, let alone the effects on rent levels and costs of living which demarcate and exclude and oppress nearly intolerably as it is already. Pushing pressure collectively too far! Asking for disaster.

I live in a pretty crime infested neighborhood, Washington heights to be specific, and I would take 5 frisks a day if it meant my neighborhood and my building was safer. It seems to me the very moms that appear on TV complaining about their young men being frisked, also do not realize WHY the police react this way to their sons. These moms and family members of course never want to admit it, but many times its those very young men who sit on the stoops, and find hiding spots in the building to smoke marijuana and drink. I have seen it with my own eyes every day and unfortunately in these neighborhoods of high crime its an epidemic of parents and families enabling, allowing, and even JOINING this type of behavior. People are very quick to scream out racial profiling, but the reality is that these very communities are creating the stereotype! I used to live in Bayside, Queens in a building that had clean halls and there was never an issue like this out there. As a matter of fact everyone ended up knowing the regular officers by name and they would sometimes join us for a burger in our summer bbq's, or invited into our homes for tea, coffee or hot chocolate on those really cold winter days.
I am 100% hispanic and look it very much, and have also been stopped, but since I have nothing to hide and have been raised to be polite to officers I have not had a problem. On one occasion I had no ID since I was returning from a long walk with my dog and stopped by an officer. I politely invited the officer to my door and my home to see the ID I had readily available in my wallet on my counter and that was the end of the story.

This is a great idea. Why should anyone Not want the safety provided by a police officer patrolling the residence ? I keep hearing all these people cry foul yet we hear nothing on alternatives to the safety issues. Only when its rampant do they stop and say why are there not more police in our halls. Some of those projects and high rise tenements are occupied by seedy individuals who dont even live there. Some of our laws and these so called civil liberties unions should be changed and these bleeding hearts mouths should be duct taped shut.

Lets face it some of our liberties n even some constitutional rights need to be revised to reflect todays society. Its nuts out there!

Marcello

Well, I do not like what is going on here, little by little our rights are disappearing, and what is worse is if we the older people do not fight and not teach our children for freedom and rights, to the new generations, then when someone ask then about fighting for freedom and civil rights, they will probably say what freedom and rights are you talking about, since they not knew anything else. I live in Washington heights, I called the police few times when someone hid pills in the side alleyway, because walking the street and outside you can see the pill dealers and I do not like that, I want to be safe when walking with my baby in the street and not worry about someone shooting and am outside,

They need to patrol the streets more often, on those neighborhoods that are need it, but I do not agree on the clean halls to much, since it invades privacy, and lot of cops they think they can do anything they want if no one is looking, still, a lot or racism here in this country so because you have the power do not meant you can do anything you want with it.

In this place where am superintendent, my wife had a confrontation with a friend lady when the cops came , when one rookie talk to me, he said if I do not prevent or stop my wife from fighting or discussing again, if they come again they will put both woman in jail and take the children,to ACS, and he will make sure to talk to the owner of the building so he can fire me, so that is his power. what he want me to do with my wife?

About 20 years ago I was beating by police win the case, I was superintendent I stop a burglar and told my wife to call police the police came, I was beating and arrested?

About a year ago, the wrong place and the wrong time, about 8am was waiting for someone to buzz me in the building, since I went there to work, a police car came by, arrest me throw my things on the grown my back pack with my tools, took me to jail after they let me go, I called internal affairs since the lost (or trow) my wallet with all my ID;s money etc., they did it I guess purposely since after a couple of days someone found it like two or 3 blocks from I was arrested.

what I got? a police Capitan came to apologize but that is it.

Alvarez