It's been over two years since the the New York City Council passed legislation requiring police officials to share the locations of metal detectors and random scanners in the city's public schools. To date, the New York City Police Department has not shared one of the required quarterly reports.
City Council Education Chair Mark Treyger told WNYC that he and three other Council members would send a letter on Thursday, outlining their concerns to Police Commissioner James O'Neill.
"This was not a recommendation to the police department,” Treyger said. “This is a law. So they are not complying with city law and that is a major problem."
Treyger said he and fellow lawmakers wrote in the letter that the data was crucial for making effective policy. “We need to know if permanent metal detectors are being disproportionately used at schools with students of color,” he said.
Analysis by WNYC that relied on information provided directly from individual schools found that metal detectors do, in fact, disproportionately impact students of color. Nearly 50 percent of black students attended schools with metal detectors, while only 14 percent of white students did.
The NYPD pointed WNYC to a portion of the law that allowed it to withhold information that “could compromise the safety of the public or police officers or could otherwise compromise law enforcement operations.”
In a statement, a police spokesman said giving out locations of metal detectors could be a "roadmap for bad actors" who wanted to circumvent security measures.