Why-COs: Critics question expanded police presence in schools

By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

New York City students can expect ABCs, 123s, and YCOs this spring semester. A reported increase of NYPD Youth Coordination Officers in schools—from the initial quota of 350 cops— was confirmed to the Amsterdam News by a department statement this week.

“In response to recent incidents, the NYPD is increasing the number of Youth Coordination Officers (YCOs) citywide,” said a police spokesperson by email. “These officers will be assigned to sergeants who will supervise the YCOs. Additionally, precinct administrative personnel will be utilized to patrol dismissals at designated schools and we will ensure that Transit District School Safety Teams are strategically deployed.”

Two students and a security guard were shot outside a Williamsburg charter school last

Wednesday, Feb. 8. All three are reportedly in stable condition. Another two teenagers were shot in the Brooklyn neighborhood near another school just two days before, reported NBC New York. Last month, three teens—including a 13-year-old subsequently charged with murder—were arrested for their alleged involvement in the fatal stabbing of Coney Island high school student Nyheem Wright.

On paper, the added police presence is tasked with not just responding to such violence but preventing it in the future.

YCOs date back to 2020 under the Bill de Blasio administration, while the NYPD was led by thenPolice Commissioner Dermot Shea. These officers are tasked with crime prevention, focusing on intervention long before at-risk youngsters end up in handcuffs. The program deploys cops to interact with such students, partnering with community groups and non-police agencies in the process. Shea predicted YCOs would serve as “force multipliers” for preemptively saving lives and keeping families intact.

But three years in, critics argue there’s a lack of data or peer-reviewed research proving the program actually reduces violence.

Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) Deputy Director Josmar Trujillo calls the increase of YCOs a “regressive step,” unmoved by the NYPD’s attempts to merge policing with community solutions and restorative justice.

“You cannot have police officers masquerading as social workers,” he said. “Police officers don’t have training to really tackle root causes. They use the identity of being seen as nicer officers to have more access to people to monitor them. At the end of the day, the role of police officers is enforcement.

“The idea that officers need to be intertwined with community solutions, to me, is a lie. A myth. Social workers are social workers. Counselors are counselors.”