Just a week after Queens officially welcomed the NYPD’s Quality of Life Teams, Queens Shmira was invited to an exclusive meeting at Dmos Manor on Northern Boulevard in Flushing to hear more about how these units will impact our neighborhoods. The gathering, held on Tuesday evening, August 19, brought community leaders face to face with the Commanding Officers leading this division in Queens North and the officer now leading the Q-Teams citywide.
Deputy Chief James Glynn, a 21-year NYPD veteran who once spearheaded multi-agency projects like Community Link and Roosevelt Avenue enhancements, now leads the Quality of Life Division. Alongside him, Deputy Inspector Maurice W. Williams has been tasked as a Commanding Officer within the division, helping to ensure tighter borough-level coordination as the rollout expands.
It was an opportunity to move past the headlines and listen directly to the vision behind this new division. We heard how the Q-Teams are not a passing initiative, but a structured operation embedded into each precinct, with dedicated officers whose only focus is neighborhood livability—abandoned cars, illegal scooters, encampments, and noise conditions that erode everyday quality of life. The officers explained the Q-Stat system, modeled after CompStat, which holds each precinct accountable for how quickly and effectively these complaints are resolved.
“We see a problem, we fix it, and we move on. That’s the goal,” Chief Glynn stressed.
Since their April launch, the Q-Teams have already answered more than 41,000 calls across the city. Average non-emergency response times have been cut by nearly an hour, and officers have seized 322 illegal scooters and e-bikes while towing over 700 abandoned vehicles. In Queens alone, the new units have taken on more than 2,200 calls, removed 106 abandoned vehicles, and pulled dangerous scooters from local streets.
For Queens Shmira, the evening offered more than just data—it was a chance to strengthen the working relationship with local precinct commanders. In a borough where Jewish life is dense and active, from Kew Gardens Hills to Forest Hills to Jamaica Estates, the coordination between Shmira volunteers and NYPD officers will be essential. Illegal mopeds, unsafe vehicles, and disorderly activity around the community are exactly the kinds of conditions these Q-Teams are built to confront.
“These aren’t small inconveniences,” noted Queens Shmira coordinator Avraham Pinkhasov in conversation after the discussion. “They impact dignity, safety, and daily peace of mind. What we heard tonight gives us confidence that we now have partners inside the NYPD focused on those same concerns.”
With Staten Island now joining the rollout, Q-Teams are officially citywide. But for Queens, the takeaway from Tuesday night was clear: the program is more than a press release—it’s a direct line of partnership between community and police. And that partnership is what will determine whether neighborhoods really feel the change block by block.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
Queens Shmira Joins NYPD Quality of Life Teams Briefing
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