NYPD's teenage ‘Commissioner for a Day' is on a mission to end deadly subway surfing through social media
A bright Bronx teenager who won the NYPD's annual 'Commissioner for a Day' award Wednesday is on a mission to end deadly subway surfing through social media, he told The Post.
Carmelo Vereen, 18, was given the honorary role after penning an essay on how to 'deter young people' from the daredevil stunt, which has killed 14 New Yorkers in the past two years.
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'Kids are subway surfing as young as 11, so their minds aren't really fully comprehending what they're doing,' Vereen, an 11th grader at the Urban Assembly Bronx Academy of Letters, told The Post.
'Social media is one of the ways that subway surfing has gained a huge popularity. It's one of the [reasons] why people are doing it now,' he said.
The same tool should be used to 'dismantle it' and 'make it seem as not cool a trend,' he said.
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For the contest, the Police Athletic League posed the essay question, 'As Police Commissioner, what steps would you take with MTA officials to prevent and deter young people from participating in 'subway surfing?''
Vereen, center, said social media and other forms of education could help stop subway surfing.
Gregory P. Mango
Vereen — who eventually wants to become a police officer himself — begins his essay with a bold statement about the growing trend, which involves riding on top of moving trains.
'When a 14-year-old died subway surfing in 1996, former Mayor Giuliani said this: 'There is no way that you can protect a child who decides to surf on top of a subway car.' '
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'However, I disagree with that,' he writes.
Vereen wants to eventually become a police officer.
Gregory P. Mango
He goes on to recommend a 'TrendStat' program that would track and flag online posts that glamorize subway surfing with the goal of getting them taken down.
In the essay, the clever teen also pushes for cops to use youth programs that bring the survivors of subway surfing and families 'who lost loved ones' together to educate young folks about the dangerous trend.
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During a ceremony at One Police Plaza Wednesday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch praised Vereen's ideas.
'Your essay rose to the top. And it wasn't just because of how well you wrote. It was the way that you thought,' she said. 'You approached it with empathy, with depth, and with the understanding that no one agency can solve any problem alone.'
Along with the honorary title, Vereen was also awarded $500 cash and a chance to spend the day with some of the city's top cops, according to PAL New York.
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