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ELEVATOR VANDALISM SQUAD
By
Ronald Welsh
Captain
Housing Authority Police Department
New York, New York
and
Peter Cestare
Sergeant
Commanding Officer
Elevator Vandalism Squad
Housing Authority Police Department
Today, most Americans take elevators for granted. These
wonders of the modern age allow architects to design structures
that provide ample working and living areas, while making
efficient use of limited space in urban centers.
However, elevators also create special problems for law
enforcement agencies that provide police service to public
housing highrise buildings. In New York City, this
responsibility rests with the Housing Authority Police.
With an increasing number of apparent elevator vandalism
cases that caused some New York City elevators to come to a
halt, new problems confronted Housing Authority officers.
Department leaders responded by creating the Elevator Outage
Reduction Program, which evolved into the Elevator Vandalism
Squad (EVS).
This article discusses the EVS and how it aids in reducing
vandalism and serious injuries on elevators. It also explains
how the squad assists in investigations of crimes that occur on
elevators, such as robberies and sexual assaults.
BACKGROUND
In 1980, the estimated cost of elevator vandalism in New
York City's public housing developments approached a staggering
$10 million annually. In addition to this large financial loss,
the vandalism also caused great inconvenience to scores of
housing development residents.
To combat the problem, Housing Authority administrators
developed the Elevator Outage Reduction Program. They began the
program by assigning two investigators to review elevator
records in buildings that reported an unusually high number of
outages. Officials hoped to determine whether the outages were
actually caused by vandalism or whether the problem was,
instead, a result of stolen elevator parts.
These investigations revealed that most outages were a
result of parts thefts, not merely vandalism. However,
investigators also discovered a far more dangerous situation--
juveniles were playing in and on the elevators, which resulted
in many injuries and deaths. This discovery led department
leaders to expand the program and to form the Elevator Vandalism
Squad, which now focuses on reducing the number of juvenile
deaths and injuries on elevators.
SQUAD SELECTION
Given the technical nature of the assignment, most
investigators chosen for the EVS have either a mechanical or
electrical background. These backgrounds are helpful because
squad members receive extensive training, much like that given
to elevator mechanics. Squad members learn about elevator
electrical systems and how to read wiring schematics and
blueprints.
The extensive training provided to squad members gives them
an added edge in solving cases. Their expertise in elevators
allows them to pursue suspicions they may have about how the
crimes were actually committed or how the accidents really
occurred, either proving or disproving the original theories of
responding investigators.
SQUAD DUTIES
The Elevator Vandalism Squad focuses primarily on reducing
the number of elevator injuries and fatalities among juveniles
who play dangerous elevator games. However, they also
investigate other elevator injuries and deaths and make
recommendations for elevator safety modifications that may
reduce unsafe access to elevator shafts. In addition, they
assist in other investigations that involve elevators, and they
support drug teams when they raid apartments in highrise
buildings.
Investigate Elevator Deaths
The expertise of EVS members is crucial in investigations
of elevator deaths. This expertise allows them to determine
whether an injury or death resulted from a dangerous elevator
game or whether it resulted from an elevator malfunction.
For example, when Housing Authority officers found a blind
woman at the bottom of an elevator shaft, they originally
believed that the woman was murdered. However, the responding
officers immediately called in EVS members to assess the
incident.
When squad members arrived, tenants advised them that the
elevator doors on the third floor (the victim's floor) would
often fail to open. With trained eyes, EVS members focused on
the elevator's locking mechanism, which should have prevented
the outside door from opening before the elevator arrived at the
floor. When squad members took the lock apart, they found that
the catch to the lock had actually been bent, allowing the door
to open without the elevator being on the floor.
Further investigation revealed that the blind victim had no
way of knowing when the elevator arrived at her floor. Because
of this, she constantly pulled on the hallway door to the
elevator until it opened. When the door opened, she assumed the
elevator was there. Tragically, on the day she died, the lock
failed because of the repeated pulling action.
In other cases, EVS members determined how juveniles died
while playing dangerous elevator games. The youths would gain
entry to the elevator shafts by circumventing safety features
and then jump from the top of the elevator to the counterweight
or from one elevator to the next. Eventually, bad timing, lack
of concentration, or other factors led to the loss of life.
Investigate Elevator Injuries
The EVS also investigates elevator injuries to determine
how the injuries actually occurred. For example, one youth left
his apartment and returned later with three fingers missing.
The youth told responding Housing Authority officers that the
injury was caused by the elevator door closing on his fingers.
A trail of blood from the elevator to the youth's apartment
appeared to corroborate this story, but the officers could not
find the severed fingers.
When EVS members arrived to investigate, they meticulously
searched the garbage-strewn elevator shaft for the fingers.
They then examined the top of the elevator, actually riding the
top to check every ledge, where the fingers might possibly have
fallen.
Past experience then led them to check the guide rollers on
the floor where the accident occurred. (Guide rollers are
wheels attached to the steel tracks that run vertically inside
the shaft. The elevator runs on these tracks, and the rollers
stabilize the cab while it is in motion.) Juveniles who ride the
tops of elevators sometimes grab the steel tracks for balance.
This young man, while playing a dangerous game on the elevator,
grabbed the steel tracks for balance, and his hands slid up to
the guide roller, severing his fingers. EVS members found the
fingers still in the guide roller.
Through investigations of this type, the EVS provides
valuable information that protects the Housing Authority from
costly negligence lawsuits. Officials estimate that this
program saved the Housing Authority between $40 and $50 million
over the last 10 years.
Recommend Modifications
In addition to investigating injuries or deaths on
elevators, EVS members make recommendations concerning possible
safety modifications that could prevent future incidents. In
some cases, simple modifications can totally eliminate specific
problems.
For example, prior to the formation of the EVS, the city
required that all safety hatches at the tops of elevators remain
unlocked in order to allow trapped riders to exit the elevators
in cases of emergency. However, EVS members determined that
juveniles were being killed or injured when they climbed through
the hatches to ride the tops of elevators.
EVS members convinced city administrators that trapped
riders would be safer if they remained inside the elevator until
help arrived, rather than risking injury by climbing through the
safety hatch. Now, the city requires all safety hatches to
remain locked. This simple modification resulted in an
immediate decrease in the number of juvenile injuries and deaths
caused by riding the tops of elevators.
At times, specific cases serve as the impetus for changes
that enhance elevator safety. When the blind woman died as a
result of the faulty elevator lock, the EVS recommended certain
changes that have since been implemented. First, whenever
possible, building managers rent ground floor apartments to
blind individuals. Second, elevator maintenance workers now
focus special attention on the locks of elevator hallway doors
on the floors of blind residents. These simple precautions can
help to reduce elevator fatalities among the blind.
Investigate Other Elevator Crimes
The EVS also investigates other types of elevator crimes,
such as robberies and sexual assaults. Elevators provide ideal
environments for such crimes because criminals can contain the
movements of the victim and control the movement of the
elevator. The isolation also heightens the victim's fear.
When a particular crime pattern develops, EVS personnel
mount cameras (approximately the size of a pack of cigarettes)
equipped with pinhole lenses on the roofs of elevator cabs.
This allows them to view the interior of the elevator on a
television monitor located in the motor room. They can also
video tape any action within the elevator.
This technique helps to obtain valuable information in
cases where authorities identify particular crime patterns. The
EVS has used the cameras in over 20 crime patterns that
detectives identified, solving cases in 8 of these patterns.
Assist Drug Teams
Often, EVS members are called on to assist drug teams that
plan to raid apartments in highrise buildings. When such a raid
is planned, the drug teams contact EVS members, who enter the
buildings disguised as elevator mechanics. They then hold an
elevator at the main floor so that the drug team can enter the
building, quickly get on the elevator without waiting for one to
arrive, and go straight to the appropriate floor.
Another benefit of having the EVS present during drug raids
is that they can keep the elevator at the floor where the raid
takes place. This way, if any injuries occur during the raid,
an elevator is immediately available to take the injured persons
directly to the lobby.
CONCLUSION
The Elevator Vandalism Squad has proved to be an asset to
the New York City Housing Authority Police. The professional,
knowledgeable investigations conducted by the squad avert costly
lawsuits, saving the Housing Authority large amounts of money.
Because of their speedy responses to elevator accidents, the
squad can reconstruct the incident almost immediately, as
opposed to reconstructing the incident at some later date in
response to a civil lawsuit. In addition, the EVS reduces the
amount of vandalism to elevators, as well as thefts of elevator
parts.
Most importantly, however, the EVS saves lives. Buildings
that previously experienced numerous elevator incidents now
report no problems. This is due, in large part, to the
implementation of EVS recommendations.
Departments continually seek out programs that make their
citizens safer, while conserving money. This is a program well
worth consideration by departments that must ensure the safety
of their citizens while in elevators.