Anti-crime unit returns

Officers in uniform in drive to tamp down gun violence

It’s back to the future for crime-fighting.

The NYPD believes it has hit on a new strategy for tamping down gun violence: Many cops from the recently disbanded Anti-Crime Unit are now in uniform, working closely with other officers to help get weapons off the street.

For August at least, the results were promising, with 494 gun arrests citywide, 10 more than last August.

The city for months has faced what Chief of Department Terence Monahan on Thursday called a “tidal wave of violence” with “a hell of a lot of guns on the street right now.”

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea in June disbanded the anti-crime units assigned to the NYPD’s 77 precincts and nine housing commands. The commissioner said the units were too often adversarial with the people they served, and that anti-crime officers were involved in a disproportionate number of shootings and incidents that generated civilian complaints.

The move comes came at a time of soaring gun violence, which continued unabated throughout the summer, and fed the narrative that Shea’s decision helped fuel the surge.

At a news conference to talk about police deployment over the Labor Day weekend, Monahan said the new initiative has the same goal: to get guns off the street. The difference is that anti-crime cops who used to work in plainclothes are now in uniform and though in unmarked cars, there’ll be no mistaking who they are when they approach a suspect, he said.

The officers, he added, will work closely with precinct field-intelligence officers, whose job is to glean from informants and social media who’s carrying or selling guns.

“For the month of August, it worked,” Monahan said. “We’re hoping that this continues, this trend.”

Labor Day weekend is typically one of the NYPD’s biggest, with the main focus on the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

The parade will happen virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic

And while there’s no official J’Ouvert — the preparade celebration that typically turns Crown Heights and other neighborhoods into one massive party — police believe there’ll still be scores of house parties and other large gatherings.

Previous NYPD attempts at enforcing social distancing were a public relations disaster, but Monahan said the hundreds of cops assigned to the area will try to get large groups to disperse, to both prevent the spread of COVID-19 and violence.

“We’re not looking to arrest people,” he said. “They’re out to celebrate.

“But we can’t have the violence.”

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said celebrating J’Ouvert is important for the community — as is safety.

“We want to make sure that while we partake of a commemoration of Caribbean culture and Caribbean contribution to our city and its rich legacy to the Caribbean community, that we want also safety,” she said Thursday, adding: “We want families to be safe. We want the community to be safe. We want to leave the space for law enforcement to continue to keep us safe by not congregating, not creating these spaces where unscrupulous shooters could harm life and limb.”

Mayor de Blasio agreed the pandemic won’t stop the festivities.

“What you can do is celebrate those amazing events and all the celebrities and stars who are part of them,” he said. “You can celebrate that virtually. And then know that next year, God willing we’ll be back on Eastern Parkway, but not this year.”