NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — The NYPD’s International Liaison Program added two new appointments—in Bogotá, Colombia and Tucson, Arizona—to help address the migrant crisis and the flow of drugs and guns into New York City from the Southern border.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced the postings during his “State of the NYPD” address on Wednesday morning, adding two new locations to the existent 14 global spots the NYPD has sent liaisons.
“These posts will help the NYPD address the myriad issues that are coming across our Southern border, from guns, to drugs to people,” Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said.
The Bogotá-based detective will work with the Colombian National Police and focus on migration and drug trafficking, while the detective in Tucson will work at an inter-agency facility run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, she said.
Weiner said that after talking with government officials, shelters and migrants themselves, it became clear that the NYPD “can’t adequately understand the problem, or identify opportunities to address it, without the same kind of forward-deployed liaison capability that we have in the counterterrorism domain.”