NYPD orders cops to improve response to 311 complaints after scores of calls unresolved in some precincts

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 what police did.

“It’s unknown who was assigned or who handled it — or if it even was handled,” one source said. “None of that could be determined.”

All but 3% of the 311 complaints in the 61st Precinct were for noise or for cars illegally parked, blocking a driveway or abandoned.

Concerned the problem was not limited to the 61st Precinct, investigators looked at other Brooklyn South commands and issued letters of instruction to more than a dozen cops working in the 61st and other precincts. A letter of instruction is a personnel file entry that memorializes wrongdoing.

No officer, including St. Fort, was formally disciplined, sources said.

A source close to St. Fort said the investigation proved what he previously contended: “There’s no proof or suggestion he did anything wrong,” the source said.

St. Fort is expected to be transferred soon, sources said, though it’s not clear whether the 311 investigation was a factor.

The city’s 311 system, launched in March 2003 by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has become an integral part of how the NYPD says it responds to and enforces quality-of-life offenses, like public urination and loud music.

Complaints to 311 were a big part of the Eric Garner case. The spot where Garner, accused of selling loose cigarettes, was killed by a police officer applying a chokehold on Staten Island’s Bay St. in July 2014 had been the source of nine 311 complaints that year.

The NYPD wouldn’t answer specific questions about the 311 investigation that started with the 61st Precinct but a spokesperson said the letters of instruction were needed to address a “training deficiency.”

“Quality of life complaints remain a real concern to neighborhood residents,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The NYPD has an obligation to be responsive.”