NYPD Creates New “Quality Of Life” Unit, Sparking Concerns

On Thursday (April 10), New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the creation of a new unit of the force. The Quality of Life unit will be tasked with handling issues such as aggressive panhandling, outdoor drug use, illegal parking, and noise complaints. The unit will begin work in the city starting Monday (April 14).

“Today is about improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers in their neighborhoods, on their blocks, and at their front doors,” Tisch said at a press conference held at the 13th Precinct in Gramercy Park with Mayor Adams. The unit will service five precincts and one public housing area in the city, which includes the areas of the South Bronx, Far Rockaway, Coney Island, Union Square and East New York. Officers with the unit will be trained to receive and address 311 calls and will be aided by a new system known as Q-Stat. The Q-Stat system, modeled after the CrimeStat tracking system, will analyze the calls that come in. Monthly meetings will be held by NYPD officials to discuss their Q-Stat findings and pinpoint troubled areas in the city.

“We will not tolerate an atmosphere where anything and everything goes,” Mayor Adams said during Thursday’s news conference. “We will not rest until we address the issues that have affected the lives of everyday New Yorkers.” Led by Deputy Chief William Glynn, the unit’s officers are enabled to make an arrest, simply talk with the offender, or issue a summons.

The announcement did encounter some opposition, concerned that it could be a return to “broken windows” policing by the NYPD that occurred under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. “The quality-of-life policing, one way or another, ends up targeting low-income people of color,” said Police Reform Organizing Project founder Robert Gangi in an interview with the New York Times. “This is a different policy for a different reason,” Tisch said in the conference, seeming to address potential concerns. “Today is not about crime. Today is about improving quality of life.”