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Mayor Bloomberg yesterday suggested using a fingerprint-ID system to boost security in the city’s public-housing system yesterday — an off-the-cuff comment that elicited an immediate backlash.
Speaking on his weekly radio show, Hizzoner was discussing the high crime rate in Housing Authority buildings when he brought up the difficulty of keeping track of trespassers with bad intentions.
“The people that live there, most of them, want more police protection . . . if you have strangers walking in the halls of your apartment building, don’t you want somebody to stop and say, ‘Who are you? Why are you here?’ Because the locks on these doors [break] with so many people coming and going,” he said on WOR Radio.
“What we really should have is fingerprinting to get in.”
City Hall staffers later said the mayor was merely mentioning an idea, not a specific proposal, for using technology to enhance safety for NYCHA residents.
They said the city is currently working to install electronic key pads or key card access at 26 NYCHA residences, at a cost of $11 million.
Still, the suggestion drew harsh words from several Democrats vying to succeed Bloomberg.
“Disrespectful. Disgraceful. No other words apply,” said former city comptroller and current mayoral candidate Bill Thompson.
“Mayor Bloomberg wants to make New Yorkers feel like prisoners in their own homes.”
Even elected officials who have worked closely with Bloomberg bristled at the idea.
“Public safety is a real concern in these communities, but the answer is not fingerprinting that will catalog residents, making them feel as if they are common criminals,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who as a child lived in public housing.
Bronx Borough President Rubin Diaz also weighed in, calling Bloomberg’s comments “incredibly insensitive” and “mind-boggling.”
At the Rafael Hernandez Houses on the Lower East Side, residents said the mayor’s comments merely confirmed his reputation as an out-of-touch billionaire.
“I don’t like that . . . it’s an invasion of my privacy,” said Nellie Quenones, 73, who has lived in the development for 43 years.
“This is a Big Brother theory all the way around,” added her neighbor, Jose Luiz Diaz.. . ., a 52-year-old paralegal. “Now you are saying they [we] are criminals without breaking the law.”
Bloomberg had also been a strong proponent of using electronic fingerprinting to combat fraud among city food-stamp recipients.
But the city was forced to end the practice last year after Gov. Cuomo signed a bill banning it.
Additional reporting by Georgett Roberts