Mayor Adams’ top cop has been privately meeting with workers at top Big Apple businesses to convince them that NYC is safe as the city struggles to get workers back full-time amid the uptick in violent crime, The Post has learned.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell has held a series of unique, virtual security briefings with major companies that have requested them since April and has another meeting on the books Thursday morning with Adams and the Big Four accounting firms, according to sources and a copy of the invite reviewed by The Post.
“This is an incredibly important conversation, and I encourage you to join our Big 4 colleagues for this unique opportunity to hear directly from NYC leaders,” reads an invite to employees of the accounting firms Deloitte LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG.
“The mayor and police commissioner will discuss the City’s priorities centered on public safety, homelessness, and protecting our community members and economy, including the continued response to COVID-19 and initiatives to encourage New Yorkers to reunite with their offices and communities.”
Sewell has stepped in to aid the mayor at least a dozen times in his PR push to return the Big Apple to a bustling business hub from the lockdowns and work from home depletion of in-office workforce in Manhattan, according to sources.
At the same time, the majority of companies have all but dropped their full-court press to get workers back into the office full time, instead favoring a hybrid model. Currently, only 8% of Manhattan office employees are in the office five days a week, according to new data from a recent Partnership for NYC survey.
Thursday’s security briefing also comes on the heels of high-profile crimes on the city’s public transit system — such as the unprovoked murder of Goldman Sachs employee Daniel Enriquez on a Manhattan-bound Q train Sunday morning.
An insider said this type of meeting has never previously happened during their tenure but said it was something that needed to be done.
“People are scared to come to work,” the source said, referencing the death of Michelle Go, a senior manager at the top consulting firm Deloitte.
Kathy Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for NYC, said police brass under Adams offered to provide these briefings to all of the nearly 300 business leaders who are members of the non-profit group.
“This has been long set up, the NYPD has been doing these sessions,” said Wylde, who added that the meeting was for officials “to speak to employees over the web about what he/NYPD are doing to make the city and subways safe.”
Adams, Sewell, Brad Silver, PwC Partner, Roger G. Arrieux, Jr. Deloitte NY Managing Partner, Herb Engert, EY NY Managing Partner and Yessi Scheker, KPMG NY Managing Partner, will host the one-hour webcast at 8 a.m. Thursday.
Business sources were split as to whether the nearly two-year crime spike — driven primarily by car thefts, burglaries, robberies and grand larcenies as well as the more serious acts of gun violence — has made them feel unsafe.
“The subway isn’t unsafe enough to stop taking it, but I’m definitely more self-aware, stopped wearing headphones, and stand in the middle of the platform,” one banking source told The Post.
Another said, “crime is old news… people aren’t really talking about it.”
“Adams isn’t a miracle worker but at least he’s saying the right thing. But cities are more dangerous and people have accepted that. Wall Street leans right, though, and after Texas, even they were alarmed.”
Still, a banker in their 20s, blew off the concern, saying that only older people like his parents are concerned with crime in the city.
“I don’t hear about it from anyone else.”