First wave of NYPD’s new anti-gun units hits the streets

The first wave of the NYPD’s new anti-gun items hit the streets Monday — starting their patrols in a number of neighborhoods closely suffering from gun violence. 

About 168 cops from the division’s Neighborhood Safety Teams — a key pillar of Mayor Eric Adams’ crime-fighting plan — are stepping out into 28 areas the place shootings have elevated in the course of the pandemic.

The remaining roughly 300 officers might be added on a rolling foundation as they full their seven-day coaching, police officers mentioned.

“They’re intensively trained in minimal force techniques, advanced tactics, car stops,” Chief of Department Ken Corey mentioned Friday. “De-escalation is essential to all of it, communication skills is a big part of it, courtroom training and as the police commissioner indicated, constitutional policing.”

The officers deployed throughout section one — which was delayed just a few weeks from the earlier begin date — are patrolling the next areas: 

• Manhattan’s twenty third, twenty fifth, thirty second and thirty fourth Precincts
• Bronx’s fortieth, forty first, forty second, forty third, forty fourth, forty sixth, forty seventh, forty eighth and 52nd Precincts
• Brooklyn 67th, 71st, 73rd, seventy fifth, 77th, 79th, 81st and 83rd Precincts
• Queens’ 103rd, one hundred and fifth and 113th Precincts
• Housing’s PSA 2, 3, 5 and seven

Each unit may have one sergeant for each 5 officers, police sources mentioned. If multiple unit is assigned to a precinct, a lieutenant will oversee them.

The new groups are one thing of a reboot to the division’s controversial anti-crime unit, which was disbanded in 2020, beneath the final administration.

But in stark distinction to the plainclothes anti-crime officers, the cops within the new items might be clearly marked as NYPD officers.

They will put on navy blue tactical pants, black boots or sneakers with a polo shirt, quarter-zip sweatshirt or Neighborhood Safety vest that has NYPD clearly written on the front and back, together with patches bearing the officer’s title, defend, rank and command, based on a police memo obtained by The Post.

Neighborhood Safety cops even have the choice of carrying a baseball cap or knit hat with NYPD stitched in white, the memo provides.

The officers will patrol in undercover automobiles, which can finally all be outfitted with dashboard cameras.

Officers assigned to the outdated anti-crime unit wore road garments and have been solely identifiable as police by the badge hanging round their necks or on their belts.

That unit had a historical past of high-profile police-involved shootings and deaths — together with the 2014 incident through which a plainclothes cop killed Eric Garner with a chokehold.

Some locals had blended emotions concerning the new patrols. 

“What happened to the term ‘undercover?’” mentioned Joseph Burachio, 58, proprietor of Clearview Cleaners on Hillside Avenue in Hollis, Queens — coated by the 103rd Precinct. “Why are old terms being replaced with new terms that have twice as many syllables?”

“I don’t know if this new team will be a good thing but something has to be done,” he added. “Crime rates are elevated. Crazy is elevated. Something needs to change. Juveniles are getting away with murder and people don’t feel safe. Go on the subway and you’re taking your life in your own hands.”

Jeff. Ok, proprietor of Pawn and Sell on Hillside Avenue, mentioned he’s not a “big fan of overreach” but in addition famous that crime is on the rise.

“I’m torn,” he mentioned. “You don’t want to see people harassed but law enforcement has a very tough job. I don’t envy those guys. It’s all about how they implement it. It’s going to be each individual officer’s behavior.”

But Sumiya Nigar, 23, of Hollis, mentioned that she thinks the unit will show helpful in stopping criminals. 

“That’s kinda cool, that they are starting. They are trying to figure out who’s involved with gun crimes. They need to be stopped. It’s very important,” Nigar mentioned. “The criminals hide the stuff when they see a cop car. And they get caught when they don’t know they’re being followed. I’m glad they are starting to do this here.”

A 71-year-old lady who lives in Jamaica and declined to provide her title known as the transfer “a good plan.”  

“These kids are crazy!” she mentioned. “They are shooting people. Crazy kids here. Don’t shoot them but take them off the streets. They need counseling. But take them out of here. They are killing folks.”