An eight-week Police Department study of squeegee men shows that officers can easily drive them away from the entrances to bridges and tunnels where most of them work. But some law-enforcement officials acknowledge that stopping them from cleaning windshields could push them toward more serious crime.
The study, which accompanied a crackdown on squeegee men during October and November, found that aggressive patrolling and arrests, typically for disorderly conduct, reduced their numbers by two-thirds. Since then, freezing temperatures and continued enforcement have kept the numbers down, the police said.
But while the study also found that many of the windshield washers had criminal records, it did not address a concern that has been raised by advocates for the homeless, as well as by some police and Giuliani administration officials: Will the crackdown lead squeegee men toward more violent crime to replace the $40 to $100 a week that the study determined they make washing windshields?
Previous Convictions
The study, which surveyed 41 squeegee men, found that most of them had previously been convicted of crimes like selling and possessing drugs, assault, robbery and illegally possessing guns. Richard J. Schwartz, a senior adviser to the Mayor on crime issues, acknowledged concerns that the men might commit more serious crimes. But he added that they hurt the city's economy, particularly in tourism, and said more money might be available for treatment programs to help prevent other crimes if fewer windshield washers were on the streets.
"This is a situation that is a barometer for the quality of life on the streets of New York City," Mr. Schwartz said. "If you're a motorist and you are stopped at an intersection and accosted, and you have to roll up your windows because you are in New York -- that kind of issue we think is very important to address."
Richard Thomas, who says he is an alcoholic who makes his living cleaning windshields, remembers the days when squeegee men would do favors for the police like clean their windshields for free on Halloween nights after their patrol cars had been splattered with eggs. 'A Man Can't Hustle'
But those days are over, he said last week as he worked the traffic coming off the George Washington Bridge in Washington Heights.
"Now the police drop out of the sky, harass us from behind our backs and arrest us," Mr. Thomas said between sips of wine. "They want us off welfare. They don't give us a job, and now a man can't hustle for a living no more. One way or another we've got to make a living."
Mr. Thomas and another squeegee man working the bridge Thursday afternoon said some of their colleagues had already turned to more serious crimes.
The 41 men surveyed in the Police Department study -- which began in the final months of the Dinkins administration when Rudolph W. Giuliani was pointing to squeegee men as a prime example of the deteriorating quality of life in New York -- had either been arrested or issued summonses for disorderly conduct or illegally soliciting money from drivers.
The study, called "Managing 'Squeegeeing': A Problem-Solving Exercise," was completed last week. It was financed by a $20,000 grant by the Police Foundation, a private policy group, and was based on arrests made by police officers from eight precincts around the city.
Sad Conclusion
It concluded that squeegee men "are of a population that is largely beset with alcohol and drug abuse, economic marginality, unemployment (and, sadly, many who appear to be unemployable save some heroic efforts that go beyond any rehabilitation technologies with which we are familiar), and finally, for about half of the population, arrests for serious criminality."
Of the 41 men surveyed, 31 had homes, 5 lived in shelters and 5 indicated they were homeless. Twenty-one had been arrested for one or more counts of assault, burglary, larceny or carrying a gun. Several others had been arrested on drug charges.
Eight men told the police they had no previous arrest records, but five of those gave false names or addresses, leaving only three whose records could be verified as clean. Most of the arrested squeegee men were released from jail after a day or two. The most seriously punished was a man who had a previous record of 30 arrests and was kept in jail for 10 days.
Police records covering eight weeks of sweeps conducted for the study suggest that squeegee activities can be quickly brought under control. In the first week of the study, there were 48 sightings of squeegee men at eight locations, a number that decreased to 28 the second week, and was then reduced to 10 by the fifth week before stabilizing at 15.
Program Seen as a Model
Senior police officials say their program for cracking down on the squeegee men offers a model they will now follow in dealing with problems like public urination and alcohol consumption, as well as aggressive panhandling.
Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has promised to make a forceful effort to reduce such offenses, on the theory that tolerance can breed more serious crime, an idea that is also advanced in the study of the squeegee men.
"For many predatory persons, disorder left untended is a sign that nobody cares and encourages their predatory behavior," says the squeegee report, which was prepared by Deputy Chief Michael Julian and George L. Kelling, a criminal justice researcher at Harvard University and adviser to Mr. Bratton.
Mr. Julian said squeegee men "balance the pain against the benefits, so a day in jail does the job."
"We don't even need to increase the penalty," he said.
Mr. Julian also conceded that he shared concerns that the squeegee men might commit more serious crimes, although he said, "Half of these guys already had records of theft."
"A few months from now," he added, "we'll look at the criminal records of the guys we picked up before and see if they commit other crimes."
Squeegee men say these are particularly hard times for them, and those who continue to face the winter cold and the police offensive hope that by trying to act more politely they will attract less attention.
Seeing Police Officer Richard Wells walk by on patrol on Broadway and 178th Street at the George Washington Bridge, Richard Thomas dropped his squeegee blade and squirt bottle behind a staircase banister, walked up to the officer, and shook his hand.
Officer Wells responded with a curt smile and later said: "It's not as bad now as it used to be when five or six guys worked here. Now we're down to one or two."
William Gibson, 29, who was also working at the bridge, said he would quit washing windshields as soon as he made enough money to buy a new pair of black shoes and black pants to interview for a job.
When drivers told Mr. Gibson they were not interested in his services, he bowed politely and moved on.
