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Precinct Establishes ‘Quality of Life’ Unit
Focus on Noise, Public Drinking and More

By ALEX KRATZ

Go to any community meeting and, no matter what its purpose, you’ll hear residents complain about noise, graffiti, dog poop, or outdoor drinking and carousing. So-called “quality of life” issues are at the center of how people gauge the health of their neighborhoods.

Murder and overall crime may be way down citywide, but if people can’t get a good night’s sleep because of noisy neighbors, or their sense of order is disturbed by the prevalence of graffiti, they won’t consider their neighborhood safer.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani credited New York City’s plummeting crime rate during his tenure, to the Broken Windows theory — which holds that if you focus on the smaller problems in the community, such as broken windows, public intoxication and rampant graffiti, it will create an environment where major crime goes down as well.

But, considering the prevalence of local quality of life concerns, many area residents would probably say that they haven’t seen much evidence that laws covering these lesser infractions are being enforced.

Now, however, the 52nd Precinct’s new commanding officer, Deputy Inspector James Alles (pronounced like bowling “alleys” he told his audience at a community precinct meeting) is installing a new patrol dedicated exclusively to addressing issues like noise and public drinking.

It’s called the Quality of Life Unit and will consist of two officers and one patrol car. The unit will patrol the precinct area – at various hours of the day so as not to give offenders a pattern to set their watch to – looking for people drinking in public, scrawling graffiti, or blaring loud music, among other quality of life issues.

They will also respond to calls made by shop owners or fed-up residents who witness the offenses occurring. Making its purpose even more singular, the Quality of Life unit will not respond to radio calls announcing other major crimes in progress, such as shootings, burglaries or rapes.

Alles’ new Director of Special Operations, Lt. Steve Phalen, said the impetus for the unit stemmed from a sharp increase in felony assaults in the Charlie, or “C” sector, which is in the southern end of the Five-Two. Most of the assaults there were the result of drunk guys on the street looking to smash bottles and start fights, Phalen said.

“If we can end the drinking problem [through the Quality of Life unit], then we can hopefully eliminate the felony assaults before they happen,” said Phalen, who Alles brought to the Five-Two after working with him in the same capacity in the 45th Precinct.

Bill McDonald, an ex-cop who now heads Monroe College’s criminal justice department, said if police don’t take care of the quality of life issues, it could have a devastating trickle-down effect on the community. “If an old lady can’t return from the supermarket without being harassed by a group of guys drinking beer and smoking weed on the street, she won’t keep going to the supermarket,” he said. “Then the supermarket won’t stay in business.”

Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner said he hasn’t yet been briefed about the Quality of Life patrol, but that he gets a lot of noise complaints at his monthly meetings.

“On the face of it, quality of life sounds good,” Faulkner said. “I just don’t want it to be a situation where we’re just harassing people.” He added that police during the Giuliani era often used quality of life as an excuse to harass kids just hanging out on the street, even when they weren’t engaged in criminal behavior.

Faulkner said he would like to discuss the new patrol with Alles at one of the Board’s public meetings.

Phalen said he doesn’t know of other Quality of Life units around the city, but that it’s similar to the “Tracer” units that were installed citywide in 1998 to strictly enforce narcotics complaints. Tracer units often respond to calls reporting marijuana smoking or blatant hand-to-hand drug dealing.

Phalen said residents can get their complaints to the Quality of Life Unit by calling the precinct’s front desk, (718) 220-5811; community affairs, (718) 220-5824; or 311.

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