New York
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.”
The new division, which Commissioner Tisch foreshadowed during her “State of the N.Y.P.D.” address in January, is an overhaul of the department’s approach to illegal street vending, homeless encampments, public urination and other low-level crimes.
Under the plan, the Police Department will appoint a chief to run the new division, who will report to the chief of department. Beginning on Monday, officers will be reassigned to the new teams and will respond to 311 reports and other low-level complaints in their precincts in conjunction with other city agencies. The officers have received specialized training to respond to the issues in their specific precincts, Commissioner Tisch said. The teams will each be supervised by a sergeant and guided by the precinct’s commanding officers.
After its pilot phase, the program will eventually expand to cover the entire city. That will require a reorganization of nearly 2,000 members of the Police Department, Commissioner Tisch said. The new division will oversee existing units, including teams that respond to homeless encampments.
It will also include “QStat,” a system to track quality-of-life complaints the same way that CompStat, the Police Department’s crime database, tracks criminal complaints.
“Today — and this may sound strange coming from the police commissioner — is not about crime,” Commissioner Tisch said during the news conference. “Today is about improving the quality of life for everyday New Yorkers in their neighborhoods, on their blocks and at their front doors.”
She added, “New Yorkers are frustrated and they’re pleading for help.”
In Inwood, at the northern tip of Upper Manhattan, residents who have long complained about issues like double parking and noisy nightlife greeted the news of the teams warily.
Raldy Montano, 43, said the police could be doing more to corral illegal mopeds. After his car was struck by an unregistered moped last year, he said, the police were unable to track down the driver. He said an increase in moped accidents had driven up the cost of owning a car.
“I pay $2,000 more for insurance,” he said. “It’s just crazy.”
John Higgins, 80, a lifelong resident, has watched Inwood’s quality of life ebb and flow over the decades.
Residents of Dyckman Street can’t sleep, Mr. Higgins said. “There’s too much noise coming from boomboxes.”
Since the pandemic, Mr. Higgins said he has observed more outdoor drug use and illegal dumping in the vegetated areas of Inwood’s parks, where homeless New Yorkers sometimes camp. But he believes homelessness is a nuanced issue.
“People are afraid,” Mr. Higgins said about some neighbors’ reactions to panhandlers. “But you’ve got to be desperate to do that,” he added, noting that older homeless people are less likely to pose a physical threat.
Commissioner’s Tisch’s announcement came a week after the Police Department announced that nearly every major felony crime declined in the first three months of 2025. But even as the rate of violent crime improves, the police say that 311 complaints about quality-of-life issues have nearly doubled over the past six years.
The new plan will augment the Community Response Team, a unit established in 2022 to respond to residents’ concerns about quality-of-life issues related to more serious crimes. That unit, which has expanded significantly, has been criticized for a lack of transparency. In November, the city’s Department of Investigation released a report that found that the unit lacked a clear mission statement or written policies for selecting and training members.
Commissioner Tisch has insisted that the new division will act with discretion, but the plan has been strongly criticized by New Yorkers who worry that it is a return to the “broken windows” theory of policing, which holds that the best way to lower major crimes is to crack down on minor ones. That approach, embraced by Mayor Giuliani, resulted in the disproportionate targeting of Black and Latino men.
“There’s never been a study that proves that broken windows policing or quality-of-life policing is effective in reducing crime,” said Robert Gangi, the founder of the Police Reform Organizing Project, an watchdog organization. “The quality-of-life policing, one way or another, ends up targeting low-income people of color.”
Mr. Gangi added that there were less aggressive ways to address residents’ dissatisfaction over homeless encampments, illegal street vendors and other low-level offenses than by “using threats.”
On Thursday, Commissioner Tisch addressed the criticism head-on, calling the comparison to zero-tolerance policing “a complete mischaracterization.” She called the plan “a different policy for a different purpose,” and said that the new units would not have quotas to meet and that officers would be free to decide how best to respond to complaints.
“In 2025, quality-of-life enforcement is not about reducing more serious crimes,” she said, adding, “It’s about being responsive to actual community complaints.”
Tyron Pope, an adjunct associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he thought the new teams could reduce crime, particularly as the city has been shaken by several shocking attacks in the subway and on the street, but only if they are deployed thoughtfully.
“Quality-of-life enforcement can be a force for good, but only if it’s done with care, humility and a deep commitment to justice itself,” said Mr. Pope, a former police sergeant who was part of an early community policing team in the 1990s.
He said the program should be paired with support from social workers and community services.
“It’s not about abandoning it; it’s about reimagining it,” Mr. Pope said.
Eryn Davis contributed reporting.
A starry season on Broadway means a starry list of Tony nominees: John Lithgow, Daniel Radcliffe, Lesley Manville and Rose Byrne all picked up nods on Tuesday morning as the first groups of nominees were announced on CBS.
Among the other nominees for performances in leading roles are two longtime Broadway favorites: Nathan Lane and Kelli O’Hara. This is O’Hara’s ninth Tony nomination (she has won once).
The race for best new musical — traditionally the category with the greatest financial impact — came down to four shows, all of which could use a box-office boost: “The Lost Boys,” “Titaníque,” “Schmigadoon!” and “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).”
For best new play, the nominees include Bess Wohl’s “Liberation,” which on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as “The Balusters,” by David Lindsay-Abaire; “Giant,” by Mark Rosenblatt; and “Little Bear Ridge Road,” by Samuel D. Hunter.
Lane (“Death of a Salesman”), Lithgow (“Giant”) and Radcliffe (“Every Brilliant Thing”) were all nominated as best actor in a play, alongside Will Harrison (“Punch”) and Mark Strong (“Oedipus”). Byrne and O’Hara, co-starring in a revival of “Fallen Angels,” will face Carrie Coon (“Bug”), Susannah Flood (“Liberation”) and Manville (“Oedipus”), in the race for best leading actress in a play.
The nominees for best leading actress in a musical are all first-time nominees: Sara Chase (“Schmigadoon!”), Stephanie Hsu (“The Rocky Horror Show”), Caissie Levy (“Ragtime”), Marla Mindelle (“Titaníque”) and Christiani Pitts (“Two Strangers”). The race for best leading actor in a musical, dominated throughout the season by Joshua Henry of “Ragtime,” also features Nicholas Christopher (“Chess”), Luke Evans (“The Rocky Horror Show”), Sam Tutty (“Two Strangers”) and Brandon Uranowitz (“Ragtime”).
The nominations are being announced in New York by the actors Uzo Aduba and Darren Criss. A half-dozen top categories were first made public on “CBS Mornings,” and the full slate is set to be read at 9 a.m. on the Tony Awards YouTube channel.
The nominations announcement begins a monthlong award period as the 857 Tony voters — mostly people who work in theater or who help finance Broadway shows — finish seeing the latest productions, while the productions, constrained by newly restrictive rules limiting campaigning and promotion, look for ways to remind voters about the strengths of their nominees. The awards ceremony will take place on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall, hosted by the musician Pink and broadcast on CBS.
The season has been a mixed bag for Broadway. Overall attendance and grosses are up over last season, but profitability rates are low because of skyrocketing production costs, and there is rising consumer concern about ticket prices. Only six new musicals opened this season, down from 14 last season.
The Tony Awards, which honor plays and musicals performed in the 41 Manhattan theaters that make up Broadway, are presented by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing. This year, 19 plays and 11 musicals are eligible for awards because they opened on Broadway between April 28, 2025, and April 26, 2026.
The nominees were chosen by a committee of 55 people with theater expertise or experience, but who do not work on, or have a financial interest in, the season’s shows.
Some noncompetitive awards have already been announced.
Lifetime achievement awards will go to André Bishop, who last year stepped down after leading Lincoln Center Theater for 33 years; Jules Fisher, a lighting designer; and James Lapine, the playwright and director. Mary-Mitchell Campbell, a music director, will receive the Isabelle Stevenson Award, which honors volunteerism.
This year’s Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater will go to the 1/52 Project, which supports early career designers, as well as to Jake Bell, a production manager; Kenn Lubin, a signage designer; and Loren Plotkin, an entertainment lawyer.
Seated before an array of New York State senators on Monday, Lara Blume McGee was asked by one lawmaker why it had taken her so long to go public with the details of how Jeffrey Epstein had abused her.
She paused for a moment, another victim of Mr. Epstein’s by her side, and leaned forward to speak into the microphone in the State Capitol.
“Fear,” said Ms. Blume McGee, who had been 17 and an aspiring model when Mr. Epstein abused her. It took her about 20 years to come forward.
“Jeffrey Epstein was a great manipulator,” she added, explaining that she feared being sued and having her life ruined by his capacity for retribution.
Ms. Blume McGee was among four women who testified in the State Capitol about the trauma Mr. Epstein inflicted upon them and the lasting damage he did to their lives. The appearance of two of the women — Ms. Blume McGee and Carine Silva De Deus — had been expected, but two other women — Glendys Espinal and Alexandra Golematis — also came forward. Both said they were speaking publicly for the first time about their experiences with Mr. Epstein.
Their testimony comes as State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat from Brooklyn, seeks support for legislation intended to update state sex-trafficking laws. The goal, Mr. Myrie said, was to better equip the state to handle the kinds of crimes that Mr. Epstein was accused of committing by criminalizing the actions of people who helped perpetuate his behavior.
If passed, the laws would also allow Mr. Epstein’s victims to sue his associates and his estate in state court for punitive damages. State law prevents people from seeking punitive damages from the estate of someone who has died.
“Trafficking is not sustained by one single actor. It is not just Jeffrey Epstein,” said Kathryn Robb, a lawyer who has been pushing for these sorts of legislative changes across the country.
“It is a network that includes financial backers, businesses and other intermediaries, who often escape accountability,” she added. “This bill will disrupt that.”
Ms. Espinal, a Bronx native, said she first met Mr. Epstein during her sophomore year of high school, when she was brought in to give him massages. The demands from the financier quickly escalated, and she said she still has post-traumatic stress disorder from these interactions, which occurred between 2005 and 2008.
“What was going through my head at the time was just pure shame and intimidation,” she said.
Mr. Myrie’s bill, which has no companion legislation in the Assembly as of yet, is not state lawmakers’ only effort to reckon with Mr. Epstein’s legacy and the pain he caused hundreds of women.
Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter, a Democrat from the Syracuse area, and Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan, have introduced a bill that would close what they call the “Epstein loophole.” In the state’s laws relating to prostitution, the buyers of a sex worker’s services, or those facilitating them, are excluded from punishment under the statute relating to people being punished for “advancing prostitution.”
“New York should act quickly and close the Epstein loophole, which would have prevented men like Jeffrey Epstein and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs from being charged with trafficking at the state level,” Ms. Hunter said in a statement last month.
“This bill is necessary to ensure that traffickers and sex buyers are held accountable, while survivors of sexual exploitation are given the care and support they need,” she added, explaining that the law would also reduce punishments for those who perform sex work.
Mr. Epstein and his estate have settled several lawsuits with victims in recent years. The New York Times reported in February that a recent court filing showed that his estate was valued at $120 million, though the estimate might be an undercount.
Nathan Werksman, a lawyer for the women who testified on Monday, said that time was of the essence to change the law and give Ms. Blume McGee and others the chance to seek financial damages from Mr. Epstein’s estate.
Mr. Myrie’s bill, which the Senate Codes Committee passed on Monday, creates a one-year look-back period so that people can sue for actions that fall outside the statute of limitations. In this manner, it resembles the Adult Survivors Act, which in 2022 opened a one-time window in New York permitting people to file sex-abuse lawsuits after the statute of limitations had expired.
“The Epstein Estate is a finite amount of money that is dwindling every day, every week, and every month,” Mr. Werksman said.
“Jeffrey Epstein was able to escape criminal accountability, and his estate can escape civil liability if the estate dwindles down to nothing,” he added.
Lawyers for Mr. Epstein’s estate did not respond to emails seeking comment.
How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
For almost 32 years, Gerald DeCock’s life in New York City has revolved around his apartment in the Hotel Chelsea. His 750-square-foot studio is where he paints, does yoga every morning, meets clients for haircuts and never, ever cooks — all for $2,700 a month, a steal for the prime Manhattan location. Rooms in the recently renovated hotel typically start at about $500 a night.
That may all be about to change. After a yearslong legal battle, the hotel’s owners may evict Mr. DeCock, who believes he has the only unit that is not rent-stabilized in the residential side of the building.
He isn’t ready to think about starting over. He knows it will be difficult to find a place he can afford downtown, near his friends and his favorite restaurants.
Now, Mr. DeCock is hoping for a miracle — or at least a check from the building’s owners that can help him land on his feet. (The hotel’s press representatives did not reply to requests for comment.)
Between cutting hair and selling paintings, Mr. DeCock, who is 67, made $70,000 last year.
No ConEd Bills
Mr. DeCock arrived in New York in the early 1990s after a stint in Paris, doing hair for photo shoots. He bounced around apartments in Chelsea before a friend told him about a newly available unit in the hotel, where she lived at the time.
The $2,000 per month studio was small, but had high ceilings. It looked like the somewhat sterile hotel room it had been, with white walls and not much else to it, except for an old stove that never got especially hot.
He moved in on Oct. 1, 1994, and has been there ever since.
There is no sign that any corner of the walls was ever bare. The apartment is a riot of color, with every inch, including the floors and one side of the oven, painted in bursts of hot pink and gold and purple. His paintings line the walls, and there is always incense burning. All the other doors on the floor are painted a muted black. He has papered his with overlapping triangles of fuchsia, silver and bright blue.
Over the years, as Mr. DeCock has decorated and redecorated, he has made his apartment the hub of his social life and his workplace.
He sees clients for haircuts at his home, or sometimes meets them in their own homes, so he does not have to rent space at a salon. He charges $150 to $200 per haircut and has been seeing some of the same clients for decades. Last month, he made about $6,000 on haircuts alone.
The apartment is warm and well-insulated in the winter, because it’s on a high floor. Though the studio tends to get stuffy in the summer, the air conditioning bill has always been covered by the hotel, because it’s impossible to sort out whether the residents or hotel guests who share the hotel’s floors are using the energy.
Mr. DeCock doesn’t think he’s ever seen a ConEd bill for this apartment.
Home Is Where the Fumes Are
The walls are covered in a patchwork of paintings he has created on his kitchen table or on the floor, largely motifs of moons, suns, crosses and other “spiritual” symbols.
Most of his paintings are done on 16 inch by 20 inch canvases and sell for $500, though he has one 10 foot by 10 foot piece he is hoping to sell for $20,000.
He sold a package of 21 paintings to the hotel, at a 20 percent discount, for about $8,680 total. He sees the sale as a good reason for the hotel’s owners to keep him in his home, even though they could turn his apartment into a large hotel room. “I’m your brand, man,” he said, referring to the owners. “What are you doing?”
As Mr. DeCock has started to face the likelihood that he’ll soon have to move, he hosted a sale to empty out dozens of paintings. He made about $6,000 over a few days, as friends, neighbors and at least one local celebrity streamed in and out of his apartment, toting paintings under their arms as they left.
Mr. DeCock tries to keep the cost of his painting materials low. He sticks to inexpensive canvasses from Michaels or Blick Art Materials right across the street, where a pack of twenty 16 x 20 inch canvasses sells for $51.49. And he uses only acrylic paint, which is less expensive than oil-based paint. It also gives off fewer fumes, which is helpful, since he paints a few feet away from his lofted bed.
“I call this place the vortex,” Mr. DeCock said of his apartment. “It brings out the creative juices.”
In My Neighborhood
Mr. DeCock hasn’t left New York in as long as he can remember. He barely even goes to Brooklyn.
“Everything I do is in the neighborhood,” he said. It’s where he meets friends, eats his meals and takes long walks on the piers by the Hudson River.
What Mr. DeCock doesn’t do, he said, is buy clothes or shop for much of anything, including groceries. He does not drink coffee at home. His fridge is empty save for a bag of grapes recently brought over by a friend, and he stores his paint bottles above the freezer. There is a sole bottle of vinegar in the pantry.
Mr. DeCock, who is a vegetarian, stopped cooking after the pandemic, when he admitted to himself that he was terrible at it.
Now, he goes out for almost every meal — although he often skips lunch or dinner without noticing. He might run across the street for an order of the $27 seitan scaloppine at his favorite vegan restaurant, or walk a few blocks to a Mexican restaurant, where he’ll order the vegetarian enchiladas for $24.50.
When Mr. DeCock is home and not working or sleeping, he’s often watching television. His big splurge is cable, his Spectrum bill is $250 a month. He also pays for Netflix, $19.99 a month, and Hulu, $18.99 a month. A Colorado native, Mr. DeCock sometimes misses nature, so he compensates by watching reality television shows about people who have to survive in the wilderness.
It reminds him that he’s happy to live in New York and really happy to be in his apartment at the Chelsea.
“I’ve had a life here,” he said. “It’s defined me.”
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
-
New York59 minutes agoDaniel Radcliffe, John Lithgow and Lesley Manville Pick Up Tony Nominations
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoA New Day for Detroit’s Dakota Inn – Hour Detroit Magazine
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoContributor: May we never grow inured to homelessness
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoOur Least Favorite Dallas Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft Pick
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoPhotographer Brings Measuring Tape to Miami GP to Get Cameras Past Security
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoWorld Cup 2026 stadium guides: Welcome to Boston Stadium, which… isn’t really in Boston at all
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDenver welcomes national Democrats for 2028 convention site visit, starting with a trip on the A-Line
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoRitchie's homecoming spoiled with 5-run 6th inning