Editorinchief, james bennet. Thank you, commissioner, for being with us today. [applause] i thought id open with a familiar, oftrepeated statistic that i thought i should repeat again. Youll correct me if i have it wrong. In 1990, there were 2,245 homicide in the city of new york, which i think was the record mark. And last year there were 333 homicides in the city of new york. Though the population had grown by a Million People in the meantime, and there are however many millions more visitors to the city every year. I can remember what the social implications of that statistic were for neighborhoods across the city in the early 90s, and the transformation is nothing short of astonishing. You arrived in new york to lead the Transit Police this 1990. In 1990. And while there are no doubt many factors that explain the decrease, the source of strategies and tactics you put in place from aggressively implementing the broken windows philosophy to pursuing datadriven methods of policing are
[background sounds] [background sounds] flags at the capital flying at halfstaff today in honor of the Washington Navy yard shooting victims. In the house and Senate Members of congress commented on yesterdays events and gun violence. We begin with House Minority whip steny hoyer. Frankly i dont know enough about the facts. I lost three constituents that lost their lives working in the navy yard. Two of them lived in Charles County and one of them lived in Saint Marys County to county in which i live. I am sure that it will renew the discussions about access to weapons that can be used to kill a lot of people quickly. We have seen however in colorado just in the past weeks to legislators who had the courage to vote for legislation which simply asks that we do a background check so we know who is getting guns which 80 to 85 of the American Public say is a sensible policy. Now withstanding that these two legislators will recall in a special election. One can analyze who comes out to the