#De Blasio, NYPD unveil vague ‘End Gun Violence Plan’ amid NYC shooting surge

Mayor Bill de Blasio had the NYPD’s top cop at his daily press briefing for the first time in more than a month Friday to unveil a plan intended to combat the recent surge of shootings plaguing the Big Apple.

But neither official offered any specifics about how their “End Gun Violence Plan” will achieve its goals.

Under the vague plan, the NYPD will increase foot patrols and shift deployments to areas with high shootings, deploy community affairs officers to neighborhoods that have seen increased violence, organize gun buy-back events in areas with upticks in gun crime, and work more with the violence-prevention outreach organization Cure Violence.

De Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea — who before Friday was last present for one of the mayor’s press briefings on June 3, before the sudden spike in bloodshed on city streets — provided no details on the plan, or could even say, when pressed by The Post, how many officers will be redeployed to fight the rise in shootings.

“We will combine the presence of police, particularly foot patrols … with all those grassroots efforts and community efforts,” de Blasio told reporters.

Shea said the city has “seen a sharp uptick in gun violence” in certain areas like Harlem, South Jamaica in Queens with the “biggest problems” in The Bronx and in Brooklyn, adding, “We are moving all available resources to those areas.”

He said police will utilize more technology in those sections of the city like license plate readers and mobile cameras.

“All of this is being done to focus on that small number of people who, frankly, just don’t get it,” Shea said of the criminals.

The police commissioner insisted his department knows “exactly who is involved” in the “uptick in gang violence,” and that “hundreds” of cops will be redeployed.

“We know what the problems are, what our obstacles are and we know exactly where to put the cops,” he said. “And it is not a neighborhood. It is two square blocks in an area.”

Shea said that the NYPD is “absolutely committed to making New York City streets safer.”

“What’s important for the New York City residents to know is we’re incredibly focused on pushing back on the recent violence we’ve seen,” he said, noting, “We have no intention of giving back to gang members the blocks we’ve earned.”

Shea said that he’s “very confident we can turn this tide” and explained that since Monday the department has made 13 arrests in shootings this week.

“We have a lot of work to do, but I am confident with community affairs, with the community, with all the partners and stakeholders together…we can turn this tide,” said Shea.

Both Shea and de Blasio, once again, largely put the blame on the partial, coronavirus-induced shutdown of the city’s court system for why shootings have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

“We need the price of carrying an illegal firearm in New York City to be felt,” Shea said. “We don’t necessarily need more gun arrests — we need the people who are caught to be prosecuted fully.”

Shea said in the last year and a half, “we have about 2,000 open gun cases,” and “half of them are indicted already.”

“Probably the other half would be indicted if there was an ability to get them indicted,” said Shea.

De Blasio added, “The court system is not functioning. You can’t have the ability to get people off the streets if the court systems do not function.”

Shea also refused to attribute the shooting surge to his June decision to disband the NYPD’s undercover anti-crime unit.

A police source speculated to The Post, “It’s a matter of time before they put anti-crime back out under a new name.”

“They need those units out there,” the source said. “Between the policy of being able to arrest someone or how you try to detain someone when they fight and the anti-crime, that’s the biggest problems.”