#NYPD disbands anti-crime unit after ‘disproportionate’ number of shootings

“#NYPD disbands anti-crime unit after ‘disproportionate’ number of shootings”

June 15, 2020 | 4:14pm | Updated June 15, 2020 | 4:25pm

The NYPD is disbanding its undercover anti-crime unit — after being involved in a “disproportionate” number of shootings, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday.

The roughly 600 cops, spread out at precincts and police service areas across the city, will be reassigned into other posts, including the detective bureau and neighborhood police, the city’s top cop said.

“When you look at the number of anti-crime officers that operate within New York City, and you look at a disproportionate, quite frankly, percentage of complaints and shootings — and they are doing exactly what was asked of them,” Shea said.

The department will still deploy plainclothes cops in Gotham, but Shea described the move as a “seismic” shift culturally in the NYPD.

“It will be felt immediately throughout the five district attorneys’ offices, it will be felt immediately in the communities that we protect,” he said.

“I would consider this in the realm of closing on one of the last chapters on stop, question and frisk.”

The city’s top cop praised the officers in the unit as he ended the plainclothes patrol.

“This is a policy shift coming from me, personally, in men and women in the police department, we’re doing what I asked, before me asked, they have done an exceptional job, but again I think it’s time to move forward and change how we police in this city.”

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