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Transcript: Mayor Adams, NYPD Commissioner Tisch Expand Quality of Life Division to Continue Enhancing Public Safety, Community Trust

June 16, 2025

Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry, Public Safety: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. My name is Kaz Daughtry, and I'm the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety. I'm proud to be joined here today by Eric Adams, the NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, New York State Senator Roxanne Persaud, New York City Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, and members of the Brooklyn community, including Mohammad Razvi, the CEO of the Council of People's Organizations. 

We are here today to announce a major step forward in our mission to keep New York City safe, orderly, and livable. Let's be clear, public safety is about more than just crime statistics. It's about what people see and feel when they walk out their front door. 

If you ignore these issues that make people feel uneasy or less safe, like illegal vending, open-air drug use, blocked sidewalks, trash piling up where it doesn't belong, you send a message that anything goes. Under the police commissioner and Mayor Adams' leadership, those days are over. 

Today's announcement is about expanding efforts that have already proven successful in turning problem areas around. Efforts like guided strategy precision, and most importantly, input from the people who live and work here. This is what public safety looks like in a city that listens to its residents and takes action. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Mayor Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much, D.M. Daughtry, and really thanks to our partners behind us, both our Councilperson and the State Senator, and community residents. I recall back when I was running for office, I walked the streets of this community on 105th Street by the L Line and they pointed out the trash, the concerns, and we wanted to zero in on the ground. 

And the commissioner came up with this real important concept and philosophy of Q-Stat that she would go through of about how do we go to the quality of life issues. We have been successful in bringing down crime, now we need to match it with people feeling safe. And one thing that Canarsie would tell you about often, abandoned vehicles, abandoned vehicles, abandoned vehicles. And it is just taking far too long to identify those vehicles and move them off the street. And that's what Q-Stat is about, is going after the quality of life issues. 

We know that the last five months, and really the last five quarters, but the last five months in general, specifically, we've decreased the amount of homicides and shootings in the lowest in recorded history of the city. We know that many of the seven major crimes have decreased substantially. Now subway system crime has decreased substantially. We know all of these wins, but if it does not translate into how people are feeling, then we're not reaching a target that is important to us. And that's what Q-Stat and quality of life pursuit is about. 

When you look at the vending, the substance abuse, abandoned vehicles, illegal mopeds, all of these items play into the feeling of being unsafe. We crushed last week thousands of illegal bikes and mopeds and four wheelers. Our goal is to continue to go after those quality of life issues. In the first 60 days of the pilot, it has been a resounding success. 

Hats off to the men and women who are part of the quality of life team. And when you look at it, the division, the quality of life division has answered the call from our communities more than 7,500 times. Handling thousands of 911 and 311 complaints for quality of life related offenses and made more than 350 arrests, 6,100 summonses and removed hundreds of illegal park vehicles. 

We are dealing with this on the ground level and we know how important it is. And so today the commissioner is going to be talking about the expansion. Once the pilot has proven successful, we're now going to expand and she'll go over to those areas that we're going to expand throughout the entire city. This is a winning solution, Q-Stat being built off the successful CompStat. It is a way to monitor and ensure the success that we're looking for on the ground. 

You know, you always say, if you don't inspect what we expect, it's all suspect. And that's why we're going to inspect every aspect of dealing with our quality of life issues. So I want to turn it over to the commissioner to go into details of what this expansion is going to look like. Job well done.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor Adams, for your leadership and for your ongoing commitment to making New York City safer for everyone. Two months ago, we launched the NYPD's Quality of Life Division to confront the daily problems that have plagued our communities for years. And that chip away at people's sense of safety.

The abandoned car that hasn't moved in a month, the scooters flying down the sidewalk, the noise that keeps them up at night, the tent that's been pitched outside their building. And when those issues go unaddressed day after day, they add up, which is exactly why on April 10th, we launched a pilot program in six commands across Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. The impact was immediate and undeniable. 

In just 60 days, our Q-teams have responded, as the mayor said, to more than 7,500 911 and 311 quality of life calls in just the six pilot commands. They've issued more than 2,700 parking summonses for things like blocked driveways, double parked cars and cars blocking bike lanes. They've towed nearly 3,500 abandoned vehicles, seized approximately 200 illegal e-bikes, mopeds and scooters, shut down problematic smoke shops, helped people in encampments connect with services, clearing the encampments and tackled the exact conditions that New Yorkers were calling about daily. 

Because those teams are positioned where the complaints are, they're getting there faster. They're cutting response times by an average of 16 minutes. And today, we are announcing that we are expanding our quality of life teams citywide. Thank you. The rollout will happen in two phases, beginning in July and continuing through August, and will be fully in place citywide by Labor Day. 

We are starting with all precincts in the borough of Manhattan on July 14th. The Bronx comes next on July 21st, followed by Brooklyn on July 28th. Queens joins on August 11th, Staten Island on August 18th, and our housing command citywide will launch on August 25th. And this can't happen soon enough. When you look at what these teams have already accomplished in just two months and all the problems that they've solved, it's clear why we are scaling it citywide on such an aggressive timeline. 

We saw it in the Flatiron, where a stretch of Broadway had become a hotspot for complaints. Pedicabs were blocking the bike lane, blasting music late into the night, and aggressively pressuring people for rides. Residents were fed up, and business owners said it was driving people away. So our Q teams got to work. Over the course of four weeks, they issued 22 summonses and seized seven unlicensed pedicabs. They gave that block the kind of attention it hadn't gotten in a long time. And as a result, it's gone from a magnet for chaos to a model of order. That's one kind of success. Solving a problem that people have been living with for months. 

Other times, it means stepping in when someone's been overlooked for years, and their presence has become part of a larger problem no one was addressing. On East 15th Street in Manhattan, officers were responding to a quality of life call about a homeless person loitering and drug use under scaffolding. They encountered a man who had been homeless for three years. His situation wasn't just unsafe for himself. It affected everyone around him. 

That day, our officers met with him, and he accepted services at a shelter. And for the first time in a long time, the problem was addressed, and the space was restored. These are just a few of the types of outcomes that matter to people, and they're why we are expanding. But I know that some have questioned what this approach really means. I've heard the critics, and I've read the headlines. Some have called this a return to zero tolerance policing. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of what we're doing here. Yes, we are addressing quality of life issues, but we are doing it for different reasons than we did a generation ago. 

Back then, this kind of enforcement was often used as a pretext to prevent more serious crime. And it was during a time when major crime was 75 percent higher than it is today. In 2025, this is not about preventing something worse. It's about improving daily life. It's about responding to real complaints from real people and fixing the issues they're dealing with every day. That is why we're doing this. 

Because the vast majority of New Yorkers haven't been the victim of crime. Most haven't even witnessed one. But what they've lived with is something harder to measure. The gradual breakdown of the things that make a neighborhood feel like home. So this isn't about making arrests. It's about making a difference. And let me be clear, our commitment doesn't end here. 

We'll keep listening, and we'll keep adapting. And we'll work closely with communities to build neighborhoods where everyone feels safe and at home. I want to thank Mayor Adams again for his unwavering support of the men and women of the NYPD, and for advancing our commitment to improving quality of life across every neighborhood in this city. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Daughtry: And now I'd like to invite Mr. Mohammad Razvi.

Mohammad Razvi, CEO, Council of Peoples Organization: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, deputy mayor, for introducing me. And I just first want to thank our mayor and commissioner for doing what was needed. And they have kept those promises, keeping us all New Yorkers safe. I remember the time where a few months back, a dear friend of mine, Rabbi Michael Miller, was mowed down by one of these vehicles. And this e-bike, the person hit him, he fell to the ground. 

He looked at him and took off. And for the next few weeks, Michael Miller was in the hospital, and he had a broken leg, and he had to get titanium rods put into his leg. And then he has to go therapy. But what you have done, what your administration has done, is giving us hope for that safety that we want, the safety that we need here in New York City, for the people of New York City. 

I remember the days when, prior to your administration, Mr. Mayor, where, I mean, hundreds of mopeds and quads were running up Ocean Parkway, Coney Island Avenue, you know, just especially during the hot summers. And I just look forward to the day that it's not going to happen again. 

I'm so happy about it, that my kids, our families can walk the streets safe, whether they're going to school, whether they're going to a prayer. Rabbi Michael Miller was actually, I think he was going for prayer services, and that's what happened. It doesn't matter. Anywhere we were walking, we were always fearful. And it is so great that what you have done and this administration, that we look forward, Mr. Mayor, and thank you again, Commissioner Tisch, for keeping us all New Yorkers safe. Thank you.

Question: Well, the topic today, according to the sign, is reckless driving. And as you know, Mr. Mayor, you put out a tweet over the weekend that said you're going to remove three blocks of a protected bike lane in Williamsburg in the name of safety. I wanted to mention that since January 2024, on this roadway, Rockaway Parkway, between here and Belt Parkway, 155 people have been injured in 218 reported crashes, all of them by car drivers, including one 66-year-old pedestrian, Claude Blair, crossing Seaview. 

Just a few blocks from here, pedestrian Esther Seeley, age 87, was struck and killed by a car driver. So other Vision Zero cities, have pedestrianized commercial strips to make roadways safer. Would you consider taking a road like that or other roads away from car drivers who are doing 99.9 percent of the injuries in the city, according to your own statistics, away from car drivers and give it to pedestrians for safety?

Mayor Adams: What I would do is sit down with my electeds that are here. I will sit down with my civic organizations and groups. I will sit down with the advocates who speak and together we will sit in a room and determine what's the best way to continue the success that we have been doing in the city. You gave me some important stats. You missed a stat, though. What are the fatality numbers in the city since this administration has been in place?

Question: About 200 people a year are killed by car drivers.

Mayor Adams: Is it a decrease?

Question: A slight decrease.

Mayor Adams: A slight decrease? I think we are at record levels. So if you're going to give us the stats, give us all the stats. We have been successful in building our bike lanes. We have been successful in bringing down the fatalities of those who are injured. And we have been successful at going after the speeders. 

And we've been successful in making sure not only do we look at cars, we look at those who are using two wheels, we brought down the speed limit of our mopeds, and many who are talking about safe streets were upset with us for doing that. We have been a holistic approach. But I'm not going to do it without speaking to my leaders and my communities. I'm not going to dictate to them. I'm going to work with them so we can have safer streets.

Question: So the Q teams, the officers, how are we picking them? Are they coming specifically from the areas that they're covering? Are they new officers? Are they seasoned officers? Have we hired more cops to fill up these Q teams?

Police Commissioner Tisch: So the officers are coming from generally in the Q teams from within the command. They're just being reorganized inside of the command and refocused on being responsive to 311 complaints and quality of life complaints. 

Generally, sometimes they do come in through 911. You know, the New York City Police Department has long been extraordinary at responding to 911 calls for service. This initiative is designed to make the commands responsive to 311 calls for service in much the same way they've been responsive for a long time to 911 calls for service.

Mayor Adams: Just want to make sure I don't know if anyone got that we have amazing Senator Persaud has joined us as well. This is a senatorial district.

Question: I have a question. I wanted to ask you about the Canarsie Ferry. I know as a borough president, you promised to bring the ferry. Someone asked me outside now. That's what I do. He had a similar question.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: Canarsie Ferry, you promised it as a borough president. It hasn't come to fruition. Obviously some residents of Canarsie would love to see a ferry. So they don't just have the L train. Wanted to see if there was an update. 

And I wanted to ask you, speaking of quality of life, Gracie Mansion is in a park. But on Saturday night, you hosted a man named Sneako and a live streamer who shared his views repeatedly. But I'm curious, you were smoking, that's a quality of life issue. Are you allowed to smoke, whatever you're allowed to smoke in Gracie Mansion because it is a park?

Mayor Adams: First let's deal with the ferry. Andrew Kimball, an entire team, there are several locations. Everything from Rockaways, which is a transportation desert. We want to look at that route. We want to look at the Staten Island route to come into Brooklyn. We want to look at the Canarsie route. We are opening our waterways and no one has done a better job in opening our waterways than this administration. 

We have renewed our ports. You know the amazing initiative we're doing over in the Brooklyn Army Terminal. What Andrew has done, who's in charge of EDC, of now utilizing our waterways in a manner that has never been used before. In Canarsie, as well as Rockaway, as well as Staten Island. All of these issues. Our ferry service has been extremely successful and all of these issues are underway. 

We want to see a ferry out in this area and I'm sure we're going to accomplish that task. I know we're going to accomplish this when this community re-elects me to be the mayor again to make sure it's done and get it finished. So we'd like to do that. 

Now let's talk about the, because I saw a lot of reports on this. Gracie Mansion is my house. You know, I live there. And from time to time I enjoy smoking a cigar. I like doing it with my son. It was a pre-Father's Day smoke on Saturday where people came over to see me. They came over and they sat down. They joined us on the back porch of my home. Gracie Mansion. And one of the people invited a streamer in. I don't know the young man. I'm not familiar with his name at all. And he says I would like to interview you and talk about some of the issues of the day. And that's what we did. 

His stance on Jews and other issues. Everyone knows my position. I've been extremely strong on hate in the city of any kind, not only for Jewish residents. I fought against Islamophobia, anti-Sikhism, anti-LGBTQ+, criticism. And so I wish I would have known his stances because I would love to have engaged in a conversation with him on that. But I'm open to sit down and be interviewed by anyone because I'm clear on my message about fighting hate. 

We just signed the agreement, the IHRA agreement. People know my position on what happened in Gaza. Those who are Jewish and other dissents in this city, they know where I stand. And so I wish I would have known his positions because I would love to have engaged in a conversation on those positions. But I didn't know. I didn't know him. 

He was one of the people that came and sat on my back porch and enjoyed the cigar with my son and I. And Amber Rose was there. Scott was there, a noted promoter. Another business person was there. Jordan was there. We were engaged in a conversation. And for anyone to take that in conversation and think that it was anything more than that, there's not much I could do about that. 

But the Jewish residents of this city know where I am. They know where my voice is. And they know that there has not been a stronger voice in politics on fighting against antisemitism. No one has done what I've done as the mayor of this city. 

Question: Given the heightened political climate we have, you're running for re-election. Do you think you should vet people better when you're coming to Gracie Mansion? The stuff he's said about both Jewish people he's refused to denounce the Holocaust. He's been critical of Israel. It seems really to be counter to how you feel and especially the standard you have for many other people whether it's in your administration or even other people who cover you. So do you wish you had vetted him more?

Mayor Adams: And I'm glad you said that. You said that he is counter to how I feel. So we're clear on that. And yes, hindsight is 20-20. One of the downsides of my style of mayoralty, I engage with everyone. My team criticize me all the time. They criticize me when I give my phone number to high school students to text me when there's a problem. They criticize that I'm willing to sit in a room with anyone and everyone. Maybe I'm just too optimistic that I believe there's something good in everyone and we should try to find that. 

Yes, maybe I should have reached out to the team late at night and said, hey, can you vet this person? But it's a challenge for me because everyone comes to me and just about everyone I know puts a phone in my face, like you. And they don't vet you before you put that phone in my face. We are in a universe now that everyone is a reporter, everyone is a streamer. You don't even know who comes up to you nowadays. 

People stop me on the street, they ask me a question and I answer it and next thing you know they were recording me and I'm hearing it later on social media. And so I just try to be authentic and true to who I am so no matter where I'm recorded or who records me, they're going to see the authentic Eric. 

You look through that entire conversation I had with that young man, you didn't hear anything antisemitic, you didn't hear anything that I haven't said before about my life. I'm transparent and I think that's the difference from others who want this job. They're trying to pretend there's something that they're not. I'm transparent. 

Who I've been all my life is who I am right now and I'm not going to change. If someone likes him, comes up to me and wants to ask me a series of questions and put a phone in my face, I'm going to answer it. I'm going to always answer it. Not everyone can go through the extensive vetting that we do. 

This was not a planned interview. I was on my back porch with Jordan smoking a cigar. Other people came and joined me and they brought people with them and they started engaging in the conversation and he was one of the people that engaged in that conversation. I didn't know his history. I don't support anything that is criticizing any group in this city.

Police Commissioner Tisch: I would, sorry, I'd just like to add something. Less as police commissioner and more as a Jewish New Yorker, the mayor's record on antisemitism, particularly in the past 20 months since October 7th has been extraordinary. 

Deeply meaning to me, not just what he says publicly, but what he has said privately, from the very beginning in a world where so many people who have public voices have abandoned the Jewish people have allowed the rhetoric around Jews in the state of Israel to shift from outrage to incitement in a world where we've seen hate crimes against Jews go up 80 percent in the last 20 months Mayor Eric Adams has been unwavering and strong and true to his commitments from day one.

Question: So I'm sure you've seen the president mentioned that he's going to flood dem run cities, our city, with large waves of ICE agents for single largest mass deportation What input do you guys have? What do you know about it? Have you had meetings? What can you tell people about what's coming up?

Mayor Adams: The commissioner and Deputy Mayor Daughtry will be communicating with the federal government and find out exactly what initiatives are going to take place. We're clear we do not in any way collaborate with civil enforcement. 

We're going to always collaborate with criminal actions like we did when we partnered to take down 27 gang members who were doing harmful things to undocumented people, as well as documented people. And so we will dig into exactly what the next steps are but I can't be clearer. The federal government is in charge of immigration enforcement. They are in charge of that and we are not going to collaborate with civil enforcement and we're going to encourage people to not live in fear and go on with their lives. 

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