A Review of NYPD's Community Response Team
Department of Investigation · report
DOI's Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD reviewed the NYPD Community Response Team (CRT), a specialized unit created in July 2022 to respond to quality-of-life complaints. The review found that CRT, which had grown to about 165 members across every Patrol Borough, lacked a written mission statement, written policies and procedures, required trainings, and any system to track community complaints or measure its effectiveness. DOI made seven recommendations, including publishing CRT information and data on the NYPD website and memorializing policies in the Patrol Guide. DOI stated this was the first phase of its review.
- Released
- 2024-11-26
- Kind
- Investigation
Key findings
- Unlike other NYPD specialized units, CRT is not mentioned on the NYPD website, despite being frequently featured on NYPD social media pages. p. 7
- There is no written mission statement to guide CRT, despite NYPD leadership stating that CRT's mission is to enforce quality-of-life issues and respond to community complaints. p. 7
- There are no policies, procedures, or operations guides specifically applicable to CRT, and no policies specifically related to training for CRT officers. p. 7
- No trainings have been created specifically for CRT officers, and officers are not required to complete any specific training before beginning CRT work. p. 7
- There are no written procedures for recruitment of officers or supervisors in CRT. p. 8
- Although CRT leadership asserts it personally tracks 311 calls, leadership has no mechanism or system to track community complaints and does not save or maintain the complaint data it tracks, so it cannot evaluate whether complaints are decreasing where CRT is active. p. 8
What DOI recommended
- Update the NYPD website to include information on CRT under the Patrol Services Bureau. p. 8
- Memorialize a mission statement in writing that includes CRT's aims, goals, and crime/offense focus, and publish it on the NYPD website. p. 8
- Memorialize in the Patrol Guide and/or Administrative Guide policies and procedures specific to CRT covering uniform requirements, statistics to be maintained, recruitment guidelines, requirements for supervisory roles, and required training. p. 8
- Collect, analyze, and publish 311-related data pertaining to quality-of-life categories under the Department's official definition and CRT's mandate, and use it to inform deployment and enforcement decisions. p. 8
- Conduct at least two inclusive and accessible meetings a year per Patrol Borough Command to gather community sentiment about CRT, with detailed agenda and minutes for each. p. 8
- Track and maintain a database for all CRT deployment on a weekly basis. p. 8
- Publish the CRT-specific data NYPD already collects (arrests, summonses, mopeds, etc.) on the NYPD website. p. 8
Entities in this report
- Police Department Subject
- Neighborhood Safety Team
- Strategic Response Group
- Public Safety Team
- Civilian Complaint Review Board
- National Policing Institute
- Office of Community Oriented Policing Services
In the council record
Council meetings after the report date where its subject came up.
- Committee on Public Safety The NYPD Community Response Team is the report's exact subject and was directly discussed here: Commissioner Tisch and a deputy commissioner gave the CRT's headcount (173 officers) and its deployment and uniform, though 2026-03-18