Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams told an advocacy group this month that he would halt a de Blasio administration plan to transfer school safety duties from the NYPD to the Department of Education, The Post has learned.
During a Zoom meeting with InformNYC, Adams rejected City Hall’s push to end NYPD control over more than 5,000 school safety agents, according to several sources who were on the call.
While Adams said he would introduce new training methods and other changes to school security, the mayoral front-runner was firm in backing the NYPD’s purview over the agents.
“He was crystal clear about it,” said one participant in the call.
Adams argued that school security involves more than hallway fights and often veers into serious violence and other forms of misconduct.
He also vowed to tighten reporting mechanisms for staffers at city schools, sources said.
Asked about his comments on the call, a spokesperson said Adams would “reassess” de Blasio’s overall school safety vision.
“As mayor, Eric will institute new training for school safety agents to improve their conflict resolution skills, change their uniforms, have safety teams in the schools determine how to use the agents, and reassess the decision to transfer them out of the NYPD to ensure that the change is in the best interest of students and parents,” spokesperson Eric Thies told The Post.
Backers of de Blasio’s plan to detach the NYPD from school safety argue that the association creates a hostile and demoralizing atmosphere inside schools.
Others have demanded the total elimination of school safety agents outright.
The unarmed force is roughly 90 percent black and Hispanic and about 70 percent women.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Councilman Mark Treyger have staunchly backed severing the police department from school safety responsibilities.
Both have called for the installation of social workers and the creation of new positions for those left jobless by any dissolution of the current school security structure.
Opponents of de Blasio’s plan counter that the DOE is ill-equipped to maintain safety and calm inside city schools.
Greg Floyd, head of the school safety agents union, has argued that handing the reins of school safety to the DOE would cause disorder inside city classrooms.