Antonio Bolfo

Operation IMPACT is a New York Police Department [NYPD] program that takes the youngest, most untested officers in the department and sends them to the most violent and dangerous neighborhoods of New York City for a full-scale plunge into “The Job.” With the current economic crisis forcing the NYPD to slash overall budgets, resulting in dwindling resources, IMPACT has been forced to recycle officers, extending these demoralized policemen in the unit indefinitely. And yet the bosses at IMPACT have demanded an increase in arrests, asking discontented officers to do more with less. This report presents one IMPACT unit consisting of thirty novice officers assigned to the Mott Haven housing projects in the South Bronx, one of the poorest, most notorious neighborhoods in America. Despite their raw status and conflicting responsibilities, these officers have brought crime to record lows. But the focus on arrests comes at a price, sacrificing community policing and therefore creating a tense relationship between the neighborhood’s beleaguered residents and the overstrained cops.