Coronavirus COVID-19

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience. During March 2014, Phil Pulaski retired as the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Chief of Detectives with more than 33 years of experience managing NYPD patrol, investigative, counterterrorism and other public safety activities. During the October 2001 anthrax terrorist attack, he was placed in-command of the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF) by Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. On October 19, 2001, the NY Post newspaper published an article stating that Police Commissioner Kerik had selected Phil Pulaski “as the department’s bio-terrorism czar”. Together with his FBI counterpart, SAC Gregory Jones, Phil Pulaski and the JTTF team conducted a “joint epidemiologic/law enforcement investigation” in collaboration with the US Public Health Service, US Centers for Disease Control and the NYC Department of Health.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease that was first identified in December 2019. The World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern regarding COVID-19 on January 30, 2020, and later declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 161 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed and more than 3.35 million people have died from the virus. The COVID-19 virus pandemic is one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

People infected with the COVID-19 virus experience a wide range of symptoms. Some infected people are asymptomatic and do not even know they have been infected. Others have very severe symptoms and ultimately die from the virus. Transmission of the virus is believed to occur when people are exposed to respiratory droplets or small airborne particles exhaled by an infected person. The virus particles may be inhaled or may reach the mouth, nose, or eyes of a person through touching with contaminated hands. Studies show that people remain contagious for up to 20 days, and can spread the virus even if they do not develop any symptoms.

The pandemic has resulted in significant global social and economic disruption including the largest global recession since the Great Depression. Additionally, it has led to significant shortages of essential goods and supplies. In particular food shortages have resulted from agricultural disruption and panic buying. The pandemic also has raised issues regarding the balance between public health mandates and individual rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Phil Pulaski and NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience, and served for more than 33 years with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) where, as a senior police executive, he managed patrol, investigative, counterterrorism and other public safety operations. From 2002 to 2013, Phil Pulaski worked for NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly in numerous exceptionally mission-critical positions. Commissioner Kelly thought very highly of Phil Pulaski and promoted him to the absolute top ranks of the NYPD an amazing 3 times in 12 years.

Upon assuming office in January 2002, Commissioner Kelly chose Phil Pulaski to be the commanding officer of NYPD’s extremely critical counter-terrorist commands: first the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF), then the Counterterrorism Bureau and then the Intelligence Division. Several serious terrorist attacks on NYC were prevented as a result of the outstanding efforts of JTTF, Counterterrorism Bureau and Intelligence Division personnel. Phil Pulaski was subsequently promoted to Deputy Police Commissioner of Operations where he was responsible for NYPD’s crime reduction programs and, together with Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, directed the nationally recognized COMPSTAT (short for COMPuter STATistics) process. In 2009, Commissioner Kelly promoted Phil Pulaski to the legendary rank of Chief of Detectives. As NYPD’s Chief of Detectives, Phil Pulaski was responsible for 3,600 personnel who, during 2013, investigated more than 256,000 felony and misdemeanor crimes (including 335 homicides), and arrested more than 39,000 offenders.

During 2015, Commissioner Kelly’s book entitled Vigilance: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City was published and rapidly became a best-seller. In his book, Commissioner Kelly describes Phil Pulaski as an “innovator” and “major contributor” to the success of the NYPD who “was constantly pushing the Detective Bureau forward, developing new ways to harness burgeoning technologies to help solve crimes.” The book chronicles Commissioner Kelly’s incredible life of service to the United States and New York City. Raymond Kelly is the longest serving Police Commissioner in New York City history and served twice as Police Commissioner: 1^st under Mayor David Dinkins in the early 1990s, and 2^nd under Mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2002 to 2013.

A major focus of the book is Raymond Kelly’s 2^nd appointment as Police Commissioner and his incredible success in making New York City the safest big-city in America with regard to both crime and terrorism while also maintaining a 75% approval rating from the City’s 8 million residents. The book also describes Commissioner Kelly’s incredible accomplishments as a United States Marine Corps officer during the Viet Nam war, undersecretary of the US Treasury for enforcement, commissioner of the US Customs Bureau and commander of the international police force in Haiti.

NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau’s Threat Reduction and Infrastructure Protection Section

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience, and was the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Chief of Detectives for more than 5 years where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. During his more than 33 year career with the NYPD, Phil Pulaski managed patrol, investigative, counter terrorism, community affairs and other public safety operations. In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Phil Pulaski managed the NYPD’s counter terrorism and weapons of mass destruction operations. He also supervised, together with his FBI counterpart, numerous terrorism related investigations including the 9-11 World Trade Center attack and October 2001 anthrax attacks. Subsequently, Phil Pulaski served as commanding officer of the NYPD’s Counter terrorism Bureau where he managed the Threat Reduction & Infrastructure Protection Section, and the daily counter terrorism deployments in NYC involving more than 300 NYPD police officers as well as NYPD helicopters and watercraft.

Immediately upon assuming office in January 2002, NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly created the Counter terrorism Bureau comprised of approximately 400 police officers. One of the most important units within the Counter terrorism Bureau was the Threat Reduction & Infrastructure Protection Section (TRIPS). Police Commissioner Kelly realized that NYC’s iconic locations, buildings and professional sports venues were extremely vulnerable to terrorist attack. Commissioner Kelly also realized that NYC’s infrastructure including its bridges, tunnels, airports, subway & commuter rail systems, water supply facilities and power distribution grid required substantial target hardening. The mission of TRIPS was to provide expertise in developing security plans for critical buildings and infrastructure.

One of TRIPS’s most remarkable accomplishments was the development and publication of the book entitled, Engineering Security: Protective Design for High Risk Buildings. The purpose of Engineering Security was to provide the NYC building community with a guide to minimize the likelihood and mitigate the effects of a terrorist attack on a large building. Since September 11, 2001, government agencies and the private sector struggled to find a reasonable balance between security, on the one hand, and economics, creativity and openness on the other hand. Engineering Security struck that balance and was composed of two main parts. Part one explained the NYPD’s risk-tiering system that categorizes buildings into Low, Medium and High Tiers based upon assessed threat, vulnerability and impact levels. Part two contained a set of specific terrorist attack prevention security recommendations tailored primarily to High Tier NYC buildings. At the time of its publication in 2009, no such book had been written to meet the specific needs presented by NYC’s unique threat environment and its status as the primary target for attack by international terrorist organizations. The building community praised the NYPD for its initiative in publishing Engineering Security and overwhelmingly adopted its security recommendations.

NYPD’s COMPSTAT process by Phil Pulaski

Phil Pulaski has 38 years of law enforcement experience and served for 34 years in the New York City Police Department (NYPD). During 2014, Phil Pulaski retired as NYPD’s Chief of Detectives where he was responsible for more than 3,600 personnel who, during 2013, investigated more than 256,000 felony and misdemeanor crimes including 335 homicides, and arrested more than 39,000 offenders. Prior to being promoted to Chief of Detectives, Phil Pulaski served as Deputy Police Commissioner of Operations where he was responsible for NYPD’s crime reduction programs and managed NYPD’s intelligence-led policing activities. Phil Pulaski, together with Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, directed the nationally recognized COMPSTAT (short for COMPuter STATistics) process; and conducted the weekly 3 hour COMPSTAT assessment meeting where senior NYPD police commanders were questioned in detail regarding the management of their crime reduction, patrol, investigative and community affairs programs. The late Jack Maple was the first Deputy Commissioner of Operations in NYPD history and was responsible for what many experts believe was the single biggest change in policing philosophy in more than a century.

Jack Maple was born in 1952 and grew up in Richmond Hill, New York City. The street Jack Maple grew up on was renamed in his honor due to his extraordinary contributions to public safety. Maple joined the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) Police Department as a police officer during the 1970s at a time when the position was considered one of the most dangerous jobs in NYC. During that time, robberies accounted for the majority of violent crime in the subways. Jack Maple tracked the robberies by pinpointing them on scores of maps on the walls of his office. Some officers mockingly called the maps “wall-paper”, but Jack Maple called them the “Charts of the Future”. He used them to identify subway crime patterns and deploy police officers to the robbery “hot spots”. Due to Jack Maple’s innovative tactics, crime was reduced in the subway system by 27%.

When Bill Bratton became chief of the NYCTA Police Department, he recognized how successful Jack Maple’s innovative crime reduction strategies were and implemented them throughout the entire subway system. In 1994, when Bill Bratton became Police Commissioner of the NYPD, he brought Jack Maple with him. Police Commissioner Bratton promoted him to Deputy Police Commissioner and Jack Maple formulated and implemented the NYPD COMPSTAT process. The NYPD COMPSTAT process immediately became an incredible success and violent crime as well as property and quality of life crimes were dramatically reduced in NYC. Jack Maple’s COMPSTAT process revolutionized crime reduction strategies and tactics in the NYPD and was subsequently implemented in police departments across the nation as well as in many foreign countries.