Sanjana Bhambhani

Apr 15, 2024 | nysfocus.com | Sammy Sussman |Annika Grosser |Sanjana Bhambhani

UPDATE: April 18, 2024 — This story has been updated to reflect the April 2024 DHS peace officer head count of 480, which a department spokesperson provided after publication. Previously, the story listed 700 officers, the 2018 number. This story has also been updated to include a statement a DHS spokesperson sent after publication.

Apr 15, 2024 | muckrock.com | Sammy Sussman |Sanjana Bhambhani |Annika Grosser

In April 2018, at a New York City intake center for homeless families, Melina Cardona and five other city employees handcuffed a woman who had just walked in to get information about emergency housing. They applied the cuffs in a manner “so excessive,” they fractured her arm. At the time, Cardona was a peace officer with the New York City Department of Homeless Services Police, an obscure, approximately 480-member agency that maintains security throughout the shelters the city owns and operates.