New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch on Thursday said the city will be forming a new Quality of Life Division within the Police Department, a citywide public safety initiative that will address everyday, non emergency issues that impact New Yorkers' sense of safety and well-being.
The first outposts will be in Coney Island (61st Precinct), East New York and Cypress Hills (75th Precinct) and Police Service Area 1, which serves the New York City Housing Authority developments in Red Hook, Canarsie and Gowanus, among other places.
The Quality of Life Division will unite specially-trained officers from various existing community-oriented roles — including neighborhood coordination officers, youth coordination officers and traffic safety officers — into a citywide effort to tackle persistent quality-of-life concerns.
Non-emergency 311 concerns, such as noise complaints, illegal parking, homelessness-related issues, outdoor drug use, aggressive panhandling and other issues that affect New Yorkers’ everyday life have risen steadily across the five boroughs over the last six years, the officials said.
"We will not tolerate an atmosphere where anything goes, and today, we are taking public safety to the next level with the creation of a new NYPD Quality of Life Division," said Adams. "Issues like illegal vending, substance use, abandoned vehicles, illegal mopeds, reckless driving, and more have persisted for far too long. We will not rest until we have addressed the issues that affect the lives of everyday New Yorkers, and we will continue to make every borough, every neighborhood, and every block safer across our city."
The Quality of Life Division will be led by Deputy Chief William Glynn. Glynn, a 21-year NYPD veteran, oversaw the creation of Community Link, an Adams administration multi-agency response addressing quality-of-life issues, and was assigned to lead the joint effort to restore order to the Roosevelt Avenue corridor in Queens.
Now that crime is decreasing, Tisch said the police department is now "turning our attention toward the issues that New Yorkers see and feel every day — the things that don’t always make headlines but deeply impact how people live."
The inclusion of Coney Island into the pilot rollout is a big deal, said Council Member Justin Brannan.
"In a neighborhood where we’ve too often been left without the resources we need...this program will offer a go-to team to address neighborhood conditions with the care and specificity we deserve," he said.
