NYPD precinct commanders in south Brooklyn have been told they need to do a better job responding to 311 complaints — a directive issued after more than a dozen cops were cited for not documenting how scores of calls for help were handled, police sources said.
The actions followed an investigation triggered by a Daily News story last May about the 61st Precinct’s response time to 311 complaints.
Police brass were intrigued by the precinct’s fast response time to 311 calls — about 27 minutes, the best among the 13 precincts that make up the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
But when police dug deeper they realized there was good reason for the top time. The response times to 2,183, or 42% of the 5,163 311 complaints lodged through April 10 of last year, were never recorded because they were marked as open incidents requiring a delayed future response.
To be sure, some 311 complaints legitimately prompt a delayed response. Calls to 911 get top priority and a 311 call on a Friday night about cars parked at a school bus stop on weekday mornings won’t be dealt with until three days later when schools reopen.
But citywide through the same time frame last year, only 5% of 311 complaints required a delayed response, raising concerns there was an attempt to make the 61st Precinct’s response time appear better than it actually was by marking so many calls unresolved.
NYPD Capt. Derby St. Fort, the commanding officer of the 61st Precinct, which covers neighborhoods including Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend, said at the time that there was “not a concerted effort to avoid responding to the public.”
But the subsequent internal investigation failed to answer all the questions, sources said.
Investigators looked at 348 of the 61st Precinct ‘s 311 complaints marked as awaiting a delayed response and found only 52 instances in which it could be determined officers ever investigated and documented what happened. For the other 85%, investigators could not figure out…
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