Top cop William Bratton acknowledges slowdown, meets with borough commanders

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The NYPD is taking action to combat the work slowdown by officers, with Commissioner William Bratton confirming that there is a slowdown and telling his commanders to monitor the numbers.

Bratton called a meeting Friday morning with every borough commander, asking them what they're seeing and what the problems and solutions are. He also made it clear that he expected them to monitor their own boroughs.

NPR on Friday asked Bratton what's been going on with the number, and he acknowledge the slowdown.

"We're coming out of what was a pretty widespread stoppage of certain type of activity, discretionary type of activity, by and large," he said.

The commissioner is not calling it a job action, because that would imply an organized, across-the-board, concerted and directed effort, which his spokesperson says is not the case here.

A slowdown is subjective and does not require a union vote.

Bratton did not attribute the slowdown to any one thing, calling it a combination of factors that includes the protests and the weather in addition to the execution-style murders of two police officers.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Stephen Davis released the following statement:

"The Commissioner gave an NPR interview today in which he acknowledged that there had been a noted slowdown in certain enforcement activity on the part of officers. He categorized the areas of slowdown as 'discretionary' enforcement. He did state that the NYPD has been reviewing enforcement activity and it appears to be trending back up at this point but did not get into numbers."

Bratton has said he will go precinct to precinct, officer to officer, if necessary to fix the numbers.

Bratton met with the heads of several police unions Wednesday, trying to smooth over tensions between Mayor Bill de Blasio and officers who feel he has betrayed them.

After the meeting, PBA President Patrick Lynch spoke on behalf of the five police unions, saying they had a frank discussion with the commissioner. He said his issue is not with police department officials, but with City Hall, which Lynch called leaderless and unwilling to address the concerns of officers who feel unsupported by the mayor.

In a written statement, Lynch said: "We brought up our concerns about the safety of our members - the police officers, detectives and supervisors on the street - and the safety of the public. We start by thanking the public for the support they've given us throughout this time. But the problem was not created here at headquarters, it started at City Hall. We don't believe that there is a willingness on the part of City Hall to solve these problems. So we as union leaders will take the time to sit down and discuss these issues and come up with solutions to them. We wish that City Hall would have the willingness to fix these problems. Our concern is our members safety and the safety of the public we serve. We saw last night our police officers who could've went home, who could've closed their lockers at the end of their tour and ignore the radio...they did not. They ran out and they tried to stop a robbery and they got shot for it. We want the public to also understand that arrest for felonies are up, our members are doing their job. The other solutions will come from the leaders who are here...we wish there was a leader in City Hall."

A spokesman for Mayor de Blasio issued a statement: "Mayor de Blasio has a strong record of supporting our cops - from adding more than $350 million in new investments to bolster our police force to appointing Bill Bratton, the nation's finest police leader, as NYPD commissioner to clearly denouncing anti-cop rhetoric. That's leadership."