New Yorkers love their city, but they are very clear about what they don’t love about living here: noise, trash, illegal vending, open-air drug use, reckless driving, double parking, and other everyday offenses. These and many other quality-of-life issues affect not just the reality of public safety, but the feeling of safety that makes life in our city possible.
As we have so often said, public safety is about more than just crime statistics; it’s about what people see and feel when they walk out their front door. That is why, earlier this year, we launched a pilot program launching our new NYPD Quality of Life Division, and the first 60 days have been a resounding success.
In just six pilot commands, our localized, precinct-based “Q-Teams” have answered more than 7,500 complaints for quality-of-life related offenses. Using “Q-Stat” — a program modeled after CompStat — our Q-teams have made more than 350 arrests and issued over 6,100 summonses. They’ve towed nearly 3,500 abandoned vehicles, seized approximately 200 illegal e-bikes, mopeds and scooters, shut down problematic smoke shops, cleaned up encampments, and helped people living on the streets connect with services.
The impact was immediate and undeniable, and now we are gearing up to expand our Q-teams citywide. Starting next month, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn will start seeing Q-teams on the streets, combating the low-level crime, disorder and chaos that, left unchecked, can undermine public safety and public confidence. Queens, Staten Island, and all remaining Police Service Areas will follow shortly in August.
This expansion can’t happen soon enough. When we look at what these teams have already accomplished in just two months and all the problems that they’ve solved, it’s clear why we are scaling it up on such an aggressive timeline.
But while our timeline may be aggressive, our methods and motivations are not. These efforts are not about making arrests or bringing back the “broken windows” style policing of the past; it’s about responding to real complaints from real people in real time, and fixing the issues they’re dealing with every day. This program isn’t about making arrests; it’s about making a difference.
Since day one, our administration has been clear: We will not tolerate an atmosphere where anything goes, and we have made record progress in delivering a safer city for New Yorkers. We are now in our sixth straight quarter of decreasing crime, with the lowest number of shootings and homicides in recorded history for the first five months of this year.
The reality is that the vast majority of New Yorkers haven’t been the victim of crime; most haven’t even witnessed one. But what all of us have lived with is the slow and gradual breakdown of the things that make a neighborhood feel like home. That’s what our Q-Teams are out to change. Going forward, New Yorkers can be confident that we are addressing chaos and disorder whenever we find it. Whether it is scooters flying down the sidewalk, noise that keeps you up at night, or an abandoned car that hasn’t moved in a month, our Q-Teams will respond.
We are committed to keeping New York the safest big city in America, and the best place to raise a family. We are doing that by making it even safer, cleaner, and more responsive to the people who live and work here. We’ll keep listening and we’ll keep adapting, working closely with communities to build neighborhoods where everyone feels safe and at home.
