Courtesy, professionalism, respect . . . and now, telemarketing.
The NYPD is robocalling city homes to gauge its progress in repairing “damaged” relationships with residents, Commissioner Bill Bratton told development leaders in Jamaica Wednesday.
“You know, like Ed Koch — ‘How’m I doin?’ — it’s going to be the NYPD’s ‘How are we doin?’ ” Bratton said at the 47th annual membership meeting of the Greater Jamaica Development Corp.
The 10-question poll will go out to randomly selected landlines throughout the city’s 77 precincts to assess which policing tactics are “successful,” the city’s top cop said.
The survey will be administered every six months, said Bratton, who served as the keynote speaker at the meeting.
Last week’s trial yielded a higher-than-expected 65% return rate, the police commissioner said, though he would not specify which precincts were called or what feedback they received.
The tactic is part of the NYPD’s effort to “build a new partnership” between police and the minority communities that were alienated during the previous administration’s expansion of stop-and-frisk street interrogations.
“That is the paramount goal,” Bratton said. “To reduce the tension, to repair damage and relationships between the communities and city.”
Greater Jamaica Development Corp. chairman Daniel Greene applauded the effort.
“The community here is a strong one, and public safety is a huge concern for us,” he said. “The community benefits from having the support of the police commissioner.”
Sounds great, but vocal critics of the NYPD remain skeptical about fences being mended in heavily policed areas like south Jamaica.
“If you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. I think it’s going to take a while for police officers to learn new behaviors,” said Glenn Martin, president of Just Leadership USA, who strongly opposed stop and frisk.
“We have to give them time to turn things around, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he added. “We’ve been asking for this for a decade.”
Others said flat out that the pilot polling tactic wouldn’t work.
“Police are using the most annoying tactic imaginable — that is universally loathed across New York City — to find out how they’re doing,” said Ron Kuby, a Manhattan-based civil rights lawyer. “The NYPD needs a deputy commissioner of irony.”
