A unit with about 600 New York Police Department officers will be disbanded and reassigned in a bid to emphasize community policing.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea made the announcement during a news conference on Monday.
“This is 21st-century policing,” Shea said. “We must do it in a manner that builds trust between the officers and the community they serve.”
The roughly 600 officers, who work out of the department’s 77 precincts, will be put into new roles, including joining the NYPD’s neighborhood policing initiative and the detective bureau. The move comes amid protests against systemic racism and police brutality continuing across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Shea noted that conversations about police reform have been at the forefront of discussion within the leadership of the nation’s largest police force.
“Thankfully, here in New York City, angry demonstrations have turned peaceful. Thoughtful discussions about reform have emerged,” he said. “We welcome reform, but we also believe that meaningful reform starts from within.”
Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch tore into the decision to abandon the plainclothes unit and noted that it worked to prevent violent crime in the city.
“Anti-Crime’s mission was to protect New Yorkers by proactively preventing crime, especially gun violence,” he said in a statement. “Shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city leaders have decided that proactive policing isn’t a priority anymore. They chose this strategy. They will have to reckon with the consequences.”
Pushes for reform have come from across the country and ranged from calls for reforming police tactics to disbanding or defunding police departments. The demonstrations began after Floyd, an unarmed black man, was filmed being pinned to the ground by a white police officer for nearly nine minutes. Floyd died in police custody, and all four officers involved in his arrest now face criminal charges.
