Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning, great to be out here on Staten Island. It is clearly not the forgotten borough under this administration. You are always in our hearts. And we clearly know how important this borough is for the City of New York. And it's really great to have both our borough president and our assemblyman that's here with us. Vito and Sam have been partners with us on so many different initiatives. And we want to thank them for their presence today.
Before I begin, I want to provide an update on the investigation into the shooting in Crown Heights over the weekend. Just a horrific, horrific shooting. And yesterday evening, a 13th victim walked into Kings County Hospital seeking medical attention for a gunshot wound to the ankle. And he is doing okay and expected to recover.
And early this morning, a 14th victim walked into Methodist Hospital seeking medical attention. He is also expected to survive. Obviously, hearing what both of these individuals have to say as part of the investigation is going to be important. And the P.C. will go further into any new updates on the shooting.
This horrific shooting really reinforces our commitment and dedication to removing illegal guns off our streets. But we want the entire community to know that they are in our hearts and prayers and the family. We want to thank the Crisis Management Team and our Pastor Monrose. They will be doing a vigil this afternoon. But there's been an immediate shooting response. And we want to thank them for the work they're doing.
On a happier note, yesterday, we learned that Officer Islam's wife gave birth to a young, beautiful baby boy. I stopped by the hospital in the lobby yesterday to talk with family members. Mother was in labor. And we're really excited that she gave birth to a beautiful young child. And we want to continue to let them know God works in mysterious ways, as Bishop Brown would tell us. And as mayor, I want to assure the detective and his family that we're going to continue to be there for them. They are our family and the family of this great city, New York.
On today's news, New York is a five-borough city. We say it over and over again. And Staten Island is a significant borough. It's a borough of working-class people. Many of our civil servants are in this borough. Families grew up in this borough. And far too long, they felt as though they were not receiving the same level of support that the other four boroughs were.
I'm a five-borough mayor, and I say that over and over again. And every inch of our city matters. And this administration remembers that the outer boroughs are never, they will never be forgotten in this administration. Staten Island is the gateway to our city's success and prosperity. And today, we are helping continue that success and prosperity.
We're bringing the successful Quality of Life Division right here to all of Staten Island. You know, you think about it, we're going to see in this borough safer and cleaner neighborhoods thanks to our NYPD Quality of Life Teams. Our localized precinct-based teams will be helping reduce crime and improve quality of life conditions.
Working hand-in-hand with the community to both keep our streets safe and clean. Because public safety is about more than just crime stats. We say this over and over again. People must feel safe, and they must be safe. They go together. And that is what we're going to provide here with our Quality of Life Division.
It's about how people are feeling and what people see when they walk out their front door. I say continuously that when I walk out my door at Gracie Mansion, I don't see abandoned cars. I don't see loud music playing. I don't see illegal dumping. If it's not outside the home of the mayor, it should not be outside the home of the mailman, the messenger, the person that's a cook, the person that works in city government. They deserve the same Quality of Life.
Whether it's taking their kids to school, walking in their neighborhood, going to work, visiting a park, the Quality of Life Division will continue to be a successful pilot and execute our quality of life vision and goal. And since then, we have expanded the program to Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, and the results continue to get even better.
The teams answered more than 41,000 calls for service and cut average response time by 50 minutes. And I believe that just those numbers speak volume. Nothing is worse than making a 311 call and not having the response of the local officials to ensure that it is carried out and corrected. And every New Yorker deserves to live in a neighborhood that is clean and safe, and we're going to continue to pursue that.
The NYPD's use of CompStat has led to a continued crime reduction that we see today and a record-breaking decline in violence. July saw the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history. And the first seven months of 2025 also marked the fewest shooting incidents. And when you look at going into the first six months with the lowest number of shootings and homicides.
But it's not only those crimes, those serious crimes, but also were down in July, including homicides, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, and grand larcenies. And this led to a 5.6 percent drop in major crimes across the city. And now our new QStat model after CompStat will allow our NYPD Quality of Life Teams to track and tackle Quality of Life issues the same way.
Precision policing corrects conditions. We continue to do better, and we are working to end the culture of anything goes in our city. It has been around for decades. And today's announcement also builds on our recent achievements in delivering a safer New York. This is the seventh consecutive quarter of crime reduction, and this continuous improvement in each quarter since January of 2024.
Improvements that are smashing records and saving lives. That includes, as I like to continue to give you the count, of 23,000 illegal guns removed off our streets, 110,000 illegal vehicles removed off our streets, and 3,400 illegal guns just this year removed off our streets. And you can't do a shooting if you don't have a gun. So each one of those guns we remove prevents shootings from taking place.
And we will continue to call on our national leaders. Just as we saw at the 345 Park Avenue shooting that we saw four of our New Yorkers that we lost, we know that we have to stop the flow of guns to inner cities. If a person can carry an AR-15 across our country with one goal, and that's to wreak gun violence and death, we need the help of our national leaders.
And we know we're going to do our job within the borders of New York. That help must come also from the national leaders to stop the guns from flowing into New York. We don't have gun manufacturing companies in New York City, and the guns should not be here.
So we're going to do it with serious crimes in seven major crime categories, but we also are going to focus on those quality of life issues. And so with another expansion of NYPD's Quality of Life Division, we're assuring that New York City remains the safest big city in America and the best place to raise a family. I'm going to turn it over to the police commissioner. Well done, commissioner.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good morning. I want to start with some good news. As the mayor mentioned, we are really overjoyed this morning because Jamila Islam, the wife of hero detective first grade Didarul Islam, gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night.
I also want to provide an update on yesterday morning's tragic shooting that occurred in Crown Heights at the Taste of the City Lounge. Detectives have identified two of the shooters, Jamel Childs, age 35, and Marvin St. Louis, age 19, both of whom were killed in the exchange of gunfire. So to be clear, two of the three deceased are the shooters involved in the incident.
Mr. Childs has eight prior arrests and is listed in our criminal group database as a member of Folk Nation, a violent gang that terrorizes Brooklyn and is responsible for at least a half a dozen shootings so far this year. Three of the other victims have also been identified as gang members under the Folk Nation umbrella. Mr. St. Louis has no relevant criminal history.
Video surveillance shows that about 10 minutes before the shooting, Mr. Childs and Mr. St. Louis spoke briefly inside the lounge. Later, Mr. St. Louis approached Mr. Childs and opened fire. Mr. Childs returned fire and two other gunmen immediately joined. We believe that there were four shooters in total. Two remain at large and NYPD detectives are actively working to identify them. Forensic evidence, including 42 discharge shell casings recovered from inside and outside the lounge, is being analyzed to assist with those efforts.
We've also identified two additional victims, as the mayor said, who later walked into area hospitals, bringing the total number of victims to 14. Today marks a major milestone for the NYPD's Quality of Life Division. With this expansion into Staten Island, we now have Q-Teams in every borough of New York City. This means dedicated teams answering and responding to quality of life calls that chip away at people's sense of safety.
The car that's been sitting in the same spot for months. Scooters cutting through crowds on the sidewalks. Corners and crosswalks taken over by unlicensed vendors. Music shaking windows long past midnight. Tents and makeshift shelters in public spaces. When those problems go unaddressed, they add up and they create a sense of chaos and disorder. They change the way that people feel about their city and the way that they live in it.
These issues do not make the news, but they make the neighborhood feel unsafe. Staten Island knows this better than most. A big city with the heartbeat of a small town. It's a borough where people take pride in preserving the character of their community and where keeping streets safe and clean is not just expected, it is personal.
That's why quality of life matters just as much as crime rates. For years, the department's focus has rightly been on violent crime and the women and men at the NYPD have driven it down to historic lows. Right here on Staten Island, major crime is down 6 percent year to date with shooting incidents and shooting levels at their lowest levels in recorded history, as it is throughout the entire city.
In our 120 precinct summer violence reduction zones, which include this very area, major crime is down 77 percent during our deployment hours. But even as crime continues to fall, the calls to 311 have doubled over the past six years from 2018 to 2024. Homeless encampment calls rose more than 500 percent. Illegal parking complaints climbed over 200 percent and noise complaints nearly doubled.
So in April, we launched the NYPD's Quality of Life Division and deployed Q-Teams in six pilot communities. And with the mayor's support, in just a few months, those teams responded to more than 18,000 311 and 911 calls. They towed over 700 abandoned vehicles, seized nearly 350 illegal mopeds, scooters and e-bikes. Then we expanded to Manhattan, to the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and the momentum just kept continuing.
Q-Teams handled more than 23,000 calls, towed more than 570 abandoned vehicles, seized 325 illegal scooters and bikes. Across the board, non-emergency response times have improved, as the mayor said, by an average of 50 minutes.
Still, some critics have tried to misrepresent this approach, calling it a return to zero tolerance policing. I won't let them do that, because that could not be farther from the truth. This isn't about broken windows, it's about building trust. And the way to do that is quite simple, by listening to what people are actually calling about, showing up and fixing their problems. That starts today on Staten Island.
We're putting the people and the resources in place to take on those challenges, not as a one-time sweep, but as a full-time commitment. That's been Mayor Adams' vision from day one, that public safety isn't just about driving down crime. It's about confronting disorder, protecting quality of life, and making every neighborhood a place that people are proud to call home.
I now want to turn it over to someone who knows Staten Island better than just about anyone, and that is Minnie Graham. A born and raised New Yorker, a resident of Park Hill for three decades, and a true fixture in this community. Minnie, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Minnie Graham: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. My name is Minnie Graham, and I'm proud to be here today to celebrate the NYPD's Quality of Life Division expansion here in Staten Island. I am a native New Yorker, born and bred in Brooklyn. I moved to Staten Island in 1976 and settled down in the Park Hill neighborhood.
Living in Park Hill over the past three decades has made me very familiar with the community and the hardworking New Yorkers that live here. It's also helped me understand the challenges that communities like ours face. Back in the 80s and 90s, you could hear gunfire in the streets and around the neighborhood. Gratefully, much has changed since then. But the issue of improving the quality of life here remains as important as ever.
I knew that I had to do something to change our community for the better, and for my children and all the other families living here. To ignite that change in my community, I founded the Empowerment Zone, an organization that provides vital services like health education, after-school homework help, and access to technology where our efforts are to bridge the digital divide for our youth. Last year, I was recognized as a Staten Island Woman of Achievement for the work that I do in the community, work that I am continuing to do to this day.
Since founding the Empowerment Zone in 2007, our mission has been simply to give back to the community and improve the lives of the people that live here. In the past, Empowerment Zone has sponsored community cleanups and conflict resolution programs in Park Hill, programs that are crucial in improving the quality of life of Staten Islanders.
And for many years, I've been working with building owners and tenants in Park Hill to address the quality of life issues in their buildings. So when we heard that the NYPD's Quality of Life Division was being expanded across the city, we were eagerly looking forward to the day that Staten Island would finally get its own team. Thankfully, that day has come. Yay!
We are thrilled to be here for the expansion into our borough, and we're happy that help has finally arrived to address the quality of life issues that our communities have had to put up with on a daily basis for far too long. I want to thank Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Tisch for seeing this through.
When I first began my work to help my community, I never imagined that we would eventually get the much-needed support from the city. We did feel overlooked, and it seems like no one was listening to our complaints. Today, our city listened and took action.
It gives me great joy to be here today and see that the work I started so long ago is now receiving the support that will help us accomplish our mission. The mission to build a stronger, inclusive, and safer New York for our children, seniors, and families. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thanks for the work you're doing already. I want to bring on two great elected officials, and I want to thank our community partners that's behind us as well, and our law enforcement personnel that's here. I'm going to bring on our borough president and our assemblyman, Sam, Vito. And Sam, can you follow? Vito. Board President. Okay.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella: Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. I want to thank Mayor Adams for bringing us together here today and, once again, delivering for the people of Staten Island. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, that you've come here so frequently that you have just become eligible for the residency discount for EZPass. I appreciate that. Now, did you pick this court because that's the only one in the city that you can jam on? I probably still can't either.
In any event, the touchstone, if anybody asks what our job is, the simple response is our job is to improve the quality of life for the people we represent every day. That's the focus. There are a lot of other things that go on, but fundamentally, that's what we're supposed to do. That's why today is so important, because the mayor recognizes, once again, as he has since he took office, that we must continue to improve the quality of life for the people of New York City, but especially the people of Staten Island.
We get calls every day, whether it's those illegal mopeds or the trucks parked illegally, as the commissioner mentioned, and our great commissioner. Can we hear it for this great commissioner, Commissioner Tisch, and the men and women she represents?
You know, I'm going to say it. There are a lot of folks out there talking trash. Just a few years ago, some people were talking about defunding the police. We are making progress in the city on public safety, on putting the people first, and we need to keep that progress moving forward, because the right people in office make things better. The wrong people in office make things worse, especially here in Park Hill, but across Staten Island.
We need to keep the emphasis on the good 98 percent, 99 percent of the people who just want to live in peace. They want their neighborhoods to look nice. They want the communities, as the commissioner said, to look nice, the character to be enhanced and maintained, and these quality of life issues do add up.
So we've been doing it day to day. We have the greatest police force in the entire world who put their life on the line every single day. Now they're going to get additional help with the cavalry arriving, and we want to thank the mayor, thank the commissioner, thank the great men and women of the New York City Police Department, and God bless the people of Staten Island. Thank you.
State Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo: Good morning, everyone. How are you today? I would like to thank the Mayor's Office for inviting me. My name is Sam Pirozzolo, I am the assemblyman from the adjacent 63rd Assembly District, and I would also like to echo the sentiments of how well the police commissioner is doing. My wife this morning actually told me I had to give her a special shout out because she loves the job that you're doing.
But not only do we have a good mayor and police commissioner, we have good members of the NYPD that are here. We have some superstars on Staten Island. Let's face it. It's quality of life. It doesn't make a difference if it's Park Hill, Toad Hill, Tottenville. Everybody wants a better quality of life. Quality of life, peace, safety, love knows no religion, knows no race. It's something that's cherished by everyone.
When you walk out of your house and you see an abandoned car or you're walking down the street and you see graffiti and trash, it makes your heart slump. That's really what happens. It makes your heart slump. And when we get a quality of life initiative like this that will help clean up our neighborhoods all across the borough and give people a sense of pride for where they live, that's how good things begin. That's how good things start.
So again, thank you to the mayor. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Commissioner, fantastic job. All right. And I'm proud to be here, and I can't wait to see the results of what we're doing here on Staten Island. Thank you.
Question: I'm curious if the announcement today and the update today has anything to do with what you're seeing in Washington, D.C., and if you're worried at all about federal overreach as you're addressing crime here in New York City.
Mayor Adams: Nope. As we indicated over and over again, we got this. Our numbers speak for themselves. And we do need assistance on the federal level to deal with the flow of illegal guns into our streets. When we have shown our ability to take illegal guns off our streets, 23,000 as I indicated, and then you have a person that drives across the country and creates havoc with an illegal gun, it just really hurts these inner cities.
And so our numbers are clear. We're willing to share what we're doing successfully here with other cities. We've done that before. We meet every morning at 10 a.m. with our federal partners, our state partners, our city partners. So we know how to work in collaboration with our federal authorities. And I think that we are an example of what all cities can do.
But we're not responding to some of the things that we're reading about this. New York is handling the crime situation. Our subways are the safest they've been. We take up to two years from COVID. And so New York, we have it right.
Question: Staten Islanders might be wondering what took so long. Was the program supposed to expand at this point like four months in or was it based on demand?
Police Commissioner Tisch: Actually this has been the fastest rollout of anything that I have experienced in my 17 years in government. We piloted this program in the spring in about six commands. And now, as of today, the end of August, it is rolled out in every precinct in New York City. So that is a very aggressive rollout. And it was based on the great results, frankly, that we saw from the pilot.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: So, Mayor Adams, I'm just wondering real quick, talking about quality of life. And here in Park Hill, one of the biggest impediments to quality of life is a negligent landlord. These buildings have hundreds of violations. If you go all up and down from 140 to 280, you'll see hundreds of violations in each building. How is quality of life for the tenants going to be addressed?
Mayor Adams: Every time I'm on Staten Island, I hear about Park Hill and what they're going through. Randy, my first deputy mayor, we're going to be meeting with the landlord here. And we want to do a meeting here with the tenants and get a specific list of what are the quality of life issues. Those things that are in violation of DOB policies, DOHMH policies, and any other city policies.
We're going to let the message be loud and clear that they will be held accountable. We've heard these complaints about Park Hill for far too long. And our goal is to really focus on exactly what are the specific issues that need to be done. And not allow to be overwhelmed by it. We want to correct each one of the items that the residents have brought up.
Our religious town hall was here last month. And that was raised again. So we want to bring people to the table and fix these problems here.
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Adams: To the residents that are here that have questions, when I finish up, we can caucus and speak. But let's get this press stuff out of the way. And then I will speak to you that are here that are residents.
Question: The officers who are assigned to this new division on Staten Island, are they from the area? Did they work in the area before this?
Police Commissioner Tisch: Yes. So we have quality of life teams, we call them Q-Teams, in every precinct now in Staten Island. And they have all previously worked in Staten Island. There are no, either rookies or no one new to the borough.
Mayor Adams: Okay folks, thank you. Let me handle these off topic questions, alright?
Question: Mayor, you talked about mobilizing the mass shooting plan after what happened in Crown Heights. Just wondered if you had an update on your faith leaders and violence interrupters?
Mayor Adams: Say it a little louder, I didn't hear you, I'm sorry.
Question: Sure, you talked about mobilizing a mass shooting plan after what happened in Crown Heights. Faith leaders, members of the NYPD, violence interrupters. Do you have an update today on how that's going?
Mayor Adams: Yes. AT Mitchell, who is part of Man Up! and Pastor Monrose, are coordinating for a full mobilization. They actually started over the weekend. And what that looks like is a combination of going out and speaking to the family members, friends, and associates, because you don't want retaliatory shooting. That's what happens, oftentimes, when you have shooters in general, but specifically when a gang involves shooters, as we are seeing the presence of gangs that were in this shooting.
And their procedure is really just to hit the streets, talk to friends and family members that's associated, and really calm the nerves of the residents who are impacted. Yesterday, when I was at the scene, I met with some of the crisis management team members, and they were already on the ground doing that shooting response mobilization.
Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, how are you? I wanted to ask you, you again sued the Campaign Finance Board over their denial of your matching funds. Can you talk to me again, why sue them when you've already sued them before and that didn't go well? Why sue them again? And why do you think you'll get those matching funds this time?
Mayor Adams: No, actually, it did go well. There were some specific things that came out of that court proceedings that we believe CFB is going against what came out of the court proceedings. That's why we want to go back, because it did go well the first time. And there was some clear, if you read the ruling that came out of the proceedings, you'll see why we're going back to court, because we believe they're in violation of the ruling that came out of the proceedings.
And the attorneys are handling that. I'm still campaigning and doing what I have to do. The most important thing you can do in this job is what I've said when I ran for mayor. Stay focused, no distractions, and grind. I know what I have to do. The attorneys know what they have to do. My staffers know what they have to do. Everyone is going to do what they're supposed to do. So I got a good legal team, and the judge will make the determination. I need to focus on bringing a good quality of life to Staten Island, and that's what I'm doing.
Question: I wanted to ask you, the Legal Aid Society today says that the NYPD or the city has spent over $77 million in the first month of this year on misconduct lawsuits for police officers. Did you want to comment on that?
Mayor Adams: I think if you do an analysis of the amount that they spent, how long are these lawsuits open? Were these lawsuits that happened in three years and six months while I was mayor, or were these lawsuits that were finally settled from suits that took place for many years?
So, I may be the brunt of how much was spent in the last, you said seven months?
Question: First couple of months of 2025.
Mayor Adams: But were they settling cases that were pending, or is this dealing with just the seven months that I've been on?
Question: Before you came into office.
Mayor Adams: Okay, and that's what happens. I think if you do an analysis of lawsuits, as long as I can remember, even when I was in the Police Department, these cases are settled. They go to court. Some of them go through the full scope of the court, and they're finally settled in the meantime.
What I do know is that when I was a police officer, we were doing almost a million stops and stops, questions, and frisk. You do an analysis now. There's a different response. Quality, precision policing is allowing us to get the results without harassing the communities that are involved. Are you going to have encounters with civilian and police officers that are going to cause lawsuits? Yes, that has been around as long as I can remember.
When you look at the number of interactions that police officers have with civilians, it is an extremely large number. We're going to continue to train our officers to do the job correctly, but there will be lawsuits. Okay, thank you.
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