Be loud is FDNY roof rule

[WAS967 97]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/187283p-162078c.html

By MICHELE McPHEE

DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF

The Fire Department is warning its members to take extra care on housing

project rooftops lest cops mistake them for dangerous criminals.

Last week, the FDNY's Bureau of Operations issued a citywide department

order telling firefighters to be extra careful on rooftop calls after Ladder

Co. 103 in Brooklyn had a scary encounter a month ago.

On March 15, the company got a call about a stuck elevator at 400 Williams

Ave. in East New York.

As the firefighters headed to an elevator room on the roof, two cops on a

routine patrol pulled their guns and pointed them at the firefighters,

according to the FDNY directive.

The building was in what is known as an "impact zone" - an area identified

as a high crime area where the NYPD sends in a flood of rookie cops.

No shots were fired and no one was hurt.

The FDNY memo warned of the stairwell and rooftop patrols in high crime

areas, and noted: "The police officers comprising the teams that work these

patrols are generally junior officers and in many cases are rookie

officers."

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon explained that the warning "is a safety memo to

make certain firefighters are aware of these police protocols."

The memo also comes in the wake of the Jan. 24 police shooting of an unarmed

teenager on the roof of the Louis Armstrong Houses. The 19-year-old, Timothy

Stansbury, died. A grand jury voted not to indict the police officer,

Richard Neri, who shot him.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne declined to comment on the FDNY memo yesterday

but sources told the Daily News that high level Fire and Police Department

officials have held several meetings to discuss the potential problem.

They agreed that firefighters will bang their equipment and yell "Fire

Department" as they reach rooftops, the sources said.

Police officials say cops are permitted to conduct the rooftop patrols with

drawn guns, and neither side is accusing the other of any wrongdoing.

Browne did point out that in 2003, police conducted 390,000 vertical patrols

without incident.

[WAS967 97]

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23174.htm

FDNY: BEWARE OF GUN-WAVING COPS

By MURRAY WEISS

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Timothy Stansbury, 19, was shot dead in January by a cop who was patrolling

a Bed-Stuy rooftop with his gun drawn.

April 25, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE

The Fire Department has warned its members to be careful entering stairwells

and rooftops after two on-duty firefighters walked onto a Brooklyn roof and

were confronted by two NYPD cops with their guns drawn and pointed at them,

The Post has learned.

While the cops didn't shoot, fire officials believed the incident was

serious enough to issue a safety bulletin to every firehouse this month.

"Members entering stairwells and exiting bulkhead doors are advised to do so

slowly and carefully, and loudly announce that they are members of the Fire

Department," the bulletin said, noting "members must be aware that this

situation can occur anytime day or night."

The bulletin comes months after Timothy Stansbury, an unarmed 19-year-old

boy, was shot to death by a housing cop on the rooftop of the Louis

Armstrong Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

In the latest incident, six firefighters from Ladder Co. 103 in East New

York responded to a March 15 call that people were stuck in an elevator

serving a city Housing Department building at 400 Williams Ave.

At around 3:45 p.m., two firefighters in bunker gear walked up the stairs,

pushed opened the door and stepped out onto the roof to shut down

electricity to the elevator, and were shocked to find the two cops with

their guns trained on them, the bulletin said.

"When they [the cops] realized it was FDNY members, they holstered their

weapons and said they heard someone coming up the stairs, which caused them

to react in the above manner," the bulletin said.

The startled firefighters later informed their supervisors of the incident,

and the officers talked it over with a police captain in the 75th Precinct,

sources said.

The captain told the supervisors the cops were doing "vertical" patrols as

part of the department's Impact Zone Program, which puts cops in designated

areas that have crime activity, and that the department patrols housing

projects as well as certain private buildings, sources said.

The supervisors contacted a borough commander, and the memo - which reminded

firefighters that most cops who do vertical patrols were junior officers and

rookies - was soon dispatched.

"This memo was sent out simply as a safety measure and a reminder to the

rank and file that the NYPD conducts vertical patrols, and these are

measures we should take," said an FDNY spokesman.