Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday that the NYPD Quality of life Teams has now been expanded to Queens.
Photo by Dean Moses
Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday that the NYPD Quality of Life Team has now been expanded to whole borough of Queens.
Dubbed Q-teams for short, Commissioner Tisch told amNewYork on Aug. 11 that while these units will respond to any serious crime they come across, their main focus is to make daily life better for New Yorkers. Whether that be responding to reports of abandoned vehicles, homeless encampments, public drug use, and more.
The pilot program began in Brooklyn’s 60th Precinct and in July expanded to the whole of the borough and Manhattan. Now the program will expand to Queens.
“For too long, the kinds of problems that chip away at a block sense of safety have gone unaddressed. The abandoned car that hasn’t moved for months. Mopeds weaving through pedestrians, sidewalks vanishing under illegal vendors, loud music blaring deep into the night, homeless encampments lining city streets. These aren’t isolated issues, and they haven’t gone unnoticed,” Commissioner Tisch said at the Astoria Houses on Aug. 11. “Calls to 311 have doubled over the past seven years.”
Since the Q-teams were established in April during its pilot program, Commissioner Tisch says that the specialized unit has responded to more than 31,000 311 and 911 calls, they have towed over 700 abandoned vehicles, they seized over 300 illegal moped scooters and E bikes, and cleared 1,412 homeless encampments. Additionally, the Commissioner stated that NYPD response times to non-emergency complaints have improved dramatically by an average of 47 minutes since the advent of the Q-teams.
The Commissioner also pushed back against those who slam the Q-teams calling it a return to overactive policing.
“Some critics have tried to misrepresent this approach, calling it a return to zero tolerance policing, but that is a fundamental mischaracterization of what we’re doing here. This isn’t about preventing future crime, it’s about restoring present order. That means responding to the problems people are actually living with and making sure that they get fixed. That’s exactly what the people of Queens will get starting today, we’re building the infrastructure to take on these challenges consistently as part of the department’s everyday work, because it’s hard to measure quality of life, but you know when it’s missing and you know when it’s been restored,” Tisch said.
Tenant Association President of the Astoria Houses, Kimberly Elliott, says she welcomes the Q-teams to the Neighbourhood.
“I’ve lost sleep because of loud noises from my window. I felt uneasy walking into my building because of drug use in the buildings. We’re in danger from unauthorized vehicles speeding through our development. Yes, many of us have to grab our children out of harms way avoid them from getting hit by E-bikes,” Elliott said. “This is not just a nuisance, it’s a health hazard. “These aren’t small inconveniences.”
The Q-teams are now in every borough except for Staten Island, which is expected to receive them soon.
→ Continue reading at amNY
