The Adams administration has expanded quality of life policing teams across every precinct city-wide, although critics say this could lead to incarceration for minor offenses and further fuel deportations of immigrants.
The city in April launched Q-teams in six pilot commands which the Administration said responded to more than 41,000 “quality of life” 911 and 311 calls and reduced non-emergency response time by about 50 minutes.
Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch today said the “Q teams” cracked down on illegal mopeds, helped tow abandoned and derelict vehicles, identified and cleaned up homeless encampments, addressed outdoor drug use, and responded to noise complaints.
Their efforts, they said, resulted in the towing of 710 vehicles; seizure of 322 illegal e-bikes, scooters, and mopeds; inspection of 1,144 smoke shops and padlocking of 211 and dealing with 1,650 homeless conditions.
NYPD Q-Team officers are trained in how to address non-emergency, quality-of-life issues such as noise complaints, illegal vending, outdoor drug use, unregistered vehicles, encampments, and reckless e-bike and scooter riding.
After declaring the pilot successful, the administration recently expanded this more proactive initiative one borough at a time.
The NYPD expanded Q teams to every Manhattan precinct on July 14; every Bronx precinct on July 21, every Brooklyn precinct on July 28, every Queens precinct on August 11 and as of today across Staten Island.
Mayor Adams said that his Administration is “ending the culture of anything goes” by focusing on what’s often considered minor issues that collectively can impact neighborhoods.
NYPD Commissioner Tisch said they “expanded this dedicated team to all five boroughs, and made quality of life a core part of what the NYPD does every single day.”
The Legal Aid Society, however, called the decision “misguided” as well as “deeply troubling and dangerous.”
They described Q-teams as continuing “punitive policies of the past that criminalize low-income New Yorkers, particularly people of color and youth, including immigrants.”
And they called this expansion a mistake, while insisting on the need for “real investment in housing, mental health care, and community resources”
“This type of enforcement doesn’t make our city safer,” the Legal Aid Society said in a written statement. “It targets everyday New Yorkers struggling to survive in an increasingly unaffordable city and saddles them with the collateral consequences of an arrest record, impeding access to housing, education, and critical services.”
The Legal Aid Society added that the expansion is happening “when vulnerable immigrant New Yorkers” already face ramped up deportations that could be triggered by quality of life arrests.
“This expansion will only funnel more people into the criminal legal system for low-level offenses like jumping a turnstile,” the Society said, noting this $2.90 crime could lead to detention, deportation, and “permanent separation from their families.”
The Legal Aid Society said these offenses can be considered “crimes of moral turpitude and grounds for removal proceedings” and even mandatory detention.
“It places them squarely in ICE’s crosshairs, destabilizing communities, facilitating deportation, and deepening fear among those we represent,” the Society said.
The NYPD plans to expand these efforts to all housing commands later this month in addition to existing precincts.
“With housing communities next on the horizon,” Adams said, “we will keep ensuring every New York City remains the safest big city in America and the best place to raise a family.”
