N.Y.P.D. to Deploy Teams to Fight Minor Crimes, Touching Off Skepticism

The New York Police Department will deploy a Quality of Life division next week to crack down on low-level crimes, a move that critics say could disproportionately target low-income residents.

The department will start the program on Monday with six commands across the five boroughs, including one covering several housing developments, police officials said at a news conference Thursday. The program will deploy officers to respond to 311 complaints, which have been steadily rising even as major violent crimes have declined, according to the police.

Since the city has struggled back from the pandemic, some New Yorkers have complained that a sense of chaos is pervasive, with mentally ill people wandering the streets and subways and a spate of high-profile attacks. They have demanded action.

But the new units, called Q Teams, have drawn sharp criticism from some New Yorkers before they even hit the streets. Advocates of police reform say they fear the teams are reinventions of street crime units embraced by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in the 1990s, which harassed Black and Latino men.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch insisted that the new division was not a dragnet or part of a “zero tolerance” policing philosophy, but rather a response to complaints from elected officials and New Yorkers that the city feels unsafe.

Mayor Eric Adams said the initiative would take public safety “to the next level.”

“We will not tolerate an atmosphere where anything and everything goes,” he said during Thursday’s news conference. “We will not rest until we address the issues that have affected the lives of everyday New Yorkers.”