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Speaker 1: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City, from WNYC. It's Wednesday, July 30th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani is back in New York City after a nearly two-week trip to Uganda with his wife, and passing through JFK airport. On his return without any incident, Mamdani's campaign withheld details of his travels to avoid him facing difficulty re-entering the country, even though he's a US citizen, some Republicans have called on the government to deport him.

In other news, the Adams administration is trying to increase the number of family size units by reconfiguring a key senior housing subsidy. WNYC's David Brand reports.

David Brand: The city uses the Senior Affordable Rental Apartment program to subsidize the development of new housing for low income seniors. The program has financed 7,300 apartments since 2014, but all of them are studios, or one bedrooms. The city's housing agency will now require developers to include two bedrooms, and at least 20% of new apartments to qualify for the program in some neighborhoods. Agency officials say a third of older adults live with their children, and need these larger units. Senior housing developers and advocates say, it's a good idea, but needs more funding.

Michael Hill: Police say a train hit and killed a man after a fight on a Brooklyn subway platform. The NYPD says officers responded to a 911 call about an assault in progress at the Prospect Park Station on the Q and B lines around 2:30 in the morning, found a man unconscious with severe head trauma. Police say they have a person of interest in custody, but have not made an arrest.

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95 in Central park with sunshine and low humidity, slim chance of mid afternoon showers and thunderstorms. Sunny and 95, feeling like 104, with a calm wind.

Speaker 1: Stick around, there's more to come.

Michael Hill: The shooting in a midtown Manhattan office building this week is raising concerns about whether any additional security measures could have prevented it. Brian Higgins is a security expert and a former Bergen County chief of police and director of public safety. He joins us now to help us understand how buildings with prominent tenants are guarded, and what corporate security teams are thinking about in the aftermath of Monday's incident. Brian, as a security expert, what was your initial reaction to this news?

Brian Higgins: Good morning, Michael. It's a horrific event, as are all these active shooter events, people losing lives. The question really is, what brings a person to this point where they want to take the lives of so many people?

Michael Hill: From when we know about this case, are there additional securing measures that could have prevented it.

Brian Higgins: Michael, an after the fact review is always in order after these incidents, and we'll know more as that's done, but the fact of the matter is, it's very difficult to anticipate crimes like this, and know what measures will be needed at the time. When you think of security measures, particularly those in high rise, high occupancy buildings, you have to have this balance between allowing your business to occur, your clients, your vendors, your employees to come in and out, while at the same time, providing for a level of security, once they do enter your building.

The balance of having a fortress mentality, where you can't get in the door, it takes multiple layers to get into your building, while at the same time, allowing for people to get in and out, and move freely is very difficult balance to strike.

Michael Hill: You would think someone walking-- Anyone walking into a building and seeing a security guard, and of course, seeing an off duty officer in an NYPD uniform would act as somewhat of a deterrent against criminal behavior.

Brian Higgins: Yes. Look, there were layers here that should have prevented this. We now know that the shooter, we believe-- We've been told that the shooter had mental health issues, so if he had documented mental health issues, then there were services and programs that didn't work to prevent this. He came through states like New Jersey and New York, where the firearm he was carrying and crossed state lines was illegal.

The fact that he was carrying that weapon walking through Manhattan, in and of itself, is illegal. Then, as you said, you have an armed police officer, you have security, you have other measures in place in that building, and yet he went undeterred, and carried out his intent.

Michael Hill: This building was home to a lot of really well-known companies. The National Football League, investment firm Blackstone, and Manhattan is full of offices just like this. Is that something corporate, or building security thinks about?

Brian Higgins: It does. What you're building houses, the companies that are there, we, our company has some very high profile clients who from time-to-time are targets of protests. That adds another layer of security, and should be considered in any security measures.

Michael Hill: Do you think this event will change how we address building security in New York City going forward?

Brian Higgins: Unfortunately, Michael, what will happen is, there'll be a lot of discussion about this for now. As the weeks go on, if another shooting doesn't occur, other topics become the issue, so I hope that we can continually look at measures that could be put in place. Measures that we can't even think about yet, that don't look like a fortress, that don't seem to be over security, but at the same time, prevent something like this from happening.

Michael Hill: Brian, what do we know works best to secure situations to secure buildings like this?

Brian Higgins: The number one is early detection. There are camera systems out there, off-the-shelf camera systems, security camera systems that can detect a person carrying a firearm, so you see how he-- That individual got out of his vehicle, double parked, which should have brought attention on a very busy street, and walked to the building carrying what the police commissioner called an M4-style weapon.

That should have been detected by anybody on the street, but it could have been picked up by a camera. The first rule is to try and identify any threat outside the building, and then to implement security measures that will prevent this from happening. Really, there are no silver bullets. There is no one or two layers of security that will prevent this. We look at security measures as a delay, so that this individual is delayed, it would reduce the amount of victims.

The police officer who drew fire was doing his job by literally delaying this individual from harming civilians, so every security measure we have, should be a measure that delays the individual from getting towards to victims.

Michael Hill: Our guest has been Brian Higgins. He's a security expert and a former Bergen County chief of police and director of Public Safety. Brian, good to talk to you again.

Brian Higgins: Thank you. Michael, good talking to you.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day for your top news headlines, and occasional deep dives. Also, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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