An officer within the High quality of Life division patrols Coney Island.
Picture by Dean Moses
New Yorkers love their metropolis, however they’re very clear about what they don’t love about residing right here: noise, trash, unlawful merchandising, open-air drug use, reckless driving, double parking, and different on a regular basis offenses. These and plenty of different quality-of-life points have an effect on not simply the fact of public security, however the feeling of security that makes life in our metropolis doable.
As we’ve got so typically mentioned, public security is about extra than simply crime statistics; it’s about what individuals see and really feel after they stroll out their entrance door. That’s the reason, earlier this 12 months, we launched a pilot program launching our new NYPD High quality of Life Division, and the primary 60 days have been a powerful success.
In simply six pilot instructions, our localized, precinct-based “Q-Groups” have answered greater than 7,500 complaints for quality-of-life associated offenses. Utilizing “Q-Stat” — a program modeled after CompStat — our Q-teams have made greater than 350 arrests and issued over 6,100 summonses. They’ve towed practically 3,500 deserted autos, seized roughly 200 unlawful e-bikes, mopeds and scooters, shut down problematic smoke retailers, cleaned up encampments, and helped individuals residing on the streets join with providers.
The impression was fast and simple, and now we’re gearing as much as develop our Q-teams citywide. Beginning subsequent month, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn will begin seeing Q-teams on the streets, combating the low-level crime, dysfunction and chaos that, left unchecked, can undermine public security and public confidence. Queens, Staten Island, and all remaining Police Service Areas will comply with shortly in August.
This growth can’t occur quickly sufficient. Once we take a look at what these groups have already achieved in simply two months and all the issues that they’ve solved, it’s clear why we’re scaling it up on such an aggressive timeline.
However whereas our timeline could also be aggressive, our strategies and motivations should not. These efforts should not about making arrests or bringing again the “damaged home windows” fashion policing of the previous; it’s about responding to actual complaints from actual individuals in actual time, and fixing the problems they’re coping with every single day. This program isn’t about making arrests; it’s about making a distinction.
Since day one, our administration has been clear: We won’t tolerate an environment the place something goes, and we’ve got made document progress in delivering a safer metropolis for New Yorkers. We are actually in our sixth straight quarter of lowering crime, with the bottom variety of shootings and homicides in recorded historical past for the primary 5 months of this 12 months.
The fact is that the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers haven’t been the sufferer of crime; most haven’t even witnessed one. However what all of us have lived with is the gradual and gradual breakdown of the issues that make a neighborhood really feel like dwelling. That’s what our Q-Groups are out to alter. Going ahead, New Yorkers could be assured that we’re addressing chaos and dysfunction every time we discover it. Whether or not it’s scooters flying down the sidewalk, noise that retains you up at night time, or an deserted automobile that hasn’t moved in a month, our Q-Groups will reply.
We’re dedicated to retaining New York the most secure large metropolis in America, and one of the best place to lift a household. We’re doing that by making it even safer, cleaner, and extra attentive to the individuals who dwell and work right here. We’ll preserve listening and we’ll preserve adapting, working intently with communities to construct neighborhoods the place everybody feels secure and at dwelling.
