NYC Mayor Adams announces new NYPD Quality of Life Division
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Thursday the creation of a new NYPD Quality of Life Division.
"We will not tolerate an atmosphere of any- and everything goes," Adams said. "We are going to have a city that's clean and safe. The Quality of Life Division will begin operation next Monday with a pilot program in five precincts and one housing PSA area."
The new division will combine existing NYPD community roles like neighborhood coordination officers, youth coordination officers, and traffic safety officers into specialized "Q-Teams" to address quality of life problems in those communities like noise violations, abandoned vehicles, homeless encampments and outdoor drug use.
"Issues like illegal vending, substance use, abandoned vehicles, illegal mopeds and reckless driving, and more have persisted for far too long, and we want to ensure that we continue to move our city in the right direction," Adams said.
"It erodes our sense of public safety, and New Yorkers have had enough," Tisch said.
Return of "broken windows" policing?
Some critics worry it's reminiscent of the "broken windows" policing strategy under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and have concerns it will unfairly target marginalized communities
"Quality of life enforcement is a euphemism for broken windows policing, which we know will mean more police harassment and profiling of poor people and people of color," New York Civil Liberties Union Assistant Policy Director Michael Sisitzky said in a statement.
"When you're rolling out new programs, you know, there's a lot of concerns. So what we have to do is watch, wait and see, because it all changes when the rubber meets the road," community activist Stephanie McGraw said.
"Some have criticized this as a return to zero tolerance policing, which is a complete mischaracterization of what we're doing here. We are addressing quality of life issues, yes, but this is different policy for a different purpose. In 2025, quality of-life enforcement is not about preventing more serious crimes. It is about improving quality of life. It's about being responsive to actual community complaints and fixing the very real issues people are dealing with every day. That is why we're are doing this," Tisch said. "The vast majority of New Yorkers have never been the victim of a crime. In fact, most of them have never even witnessed a crime, but many of them have struggled to find parking because abandoned vehicles are taking up spots in the neighborhood, or had to jump out of the way for an e-bike on the sidewalk, or avoided walking through a park with their kids because people were there openly using drugs. These encounters make people feel less safe."
New Q-Stat program
Adams said that, along with the new division, the NYPD is also launching Q-Stat, a program modeled after CompStat, which tracks crimes and uses the data to adjust police deployment. It will track 311 complaints the way CompStat tracks major crimes.
"We are going to use the same recipe for success this time to address quality of life issues. Q-Stat will help us track and tackle quality of life issues using real-time data and deployment," Adams said.
The pilot programs will take place in the 13th precinct in Gramercy Park, 40th precinct in the South Bronx, 60th precinct in Coney Island, 75th in Brooklyn and 101st precinct in Far Rockaway, along with Public Service Area 1.
The city says there's no extra cost. The division is being built through internal restructuring. The pilot program will roll out citywide if it proves effective.
During his announcement, Adams touted five straight quarters of decreasing crime since Jan. 1, 2024.
"We are shattering crime records. The first three months of this year saw the lowest number of shootings in recorded history," Adams said. "Since the start of modern crime tracking there has never been this few number of shootings in any quarter in any year."
"New Yorkers are telling us that even as crime falls, that they still don't feel safe, so we're putting together a plan to address illegal parking, abandoned vehicles, homeless encampments, unreasonable noise, out-of-control scooters and e-bikes, open air drug markets and more. All of this, especially when it's compounded day after day, gives people the impression of chaos and disorder," Tisch said.
Quality of life complaints nearly double in past 6 years
Officials say quality of life complaints have nearly doubled in the past six years. Complaints about panhandling are up 2,000%, homeless encampments up 500%, illegal parking up 200% and noise up 100%.
Reaction was mixed among people in the city.
"I'm 100% on board. It's desperate. I mean, you can't even cross the street without possibly getting hit. Homeless people everywhere, women begging with their small infants and children at Penn Station, Grand Central Station," Claudia Powers said.
"Quality of life is a feeling, and the feeling in the city has been one of distress for quite some time. I don't think an announcement with a big marketing campaign is going to change that feeling," a Gramercy resident named Jim said.
"I have heard some pretty scary stories, unfortunately, so I think it's a great program and a great initiative," another person said.
