Controversial Plainclothes NYPD Units Coming To Harlem

HARLEM, NY — Controversial plainclothes police units will be revived and deployed to Harlem under Mayor Eric Adams' sweeping plan to fight gun violence, the NYPD said Tuesday.

Four of Harlem's six police precincts are among the 30 New York City commands that will get the anti-crime units, which were previously disbanded under Mayor Bill de Blasio during a reckoning on police brutality in 2020.

Adams said Monday that the so-called "Neighborhood Safety Teams" will focus on 30 precincts that account for 80 percent of the city's gun violence. The list was first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by an NYPD spokesperson Tuesday afternoon.

Virtually all of Central and East Harlem will be covered by the new deployments, which will hit the 23rd, 25th, 28th and 32nd precincts — as well as Service Area 5, which patrols public housing developments in the same area. Only the 26th and 30th precincts, covering West Harlem and Hamilton Heights, are excluded.

The plan to revive the anti-crime units has already drawn criticism from advocates who point to its history of excessive force and shootings — specifically against Black and brown New Yorkers — which led to its 2020 disbandment. People of color are an overwhelming majority in the Harlem neighborhoods where the anti-crime units will be reinstated, according to census data.

Adams contended Monday that changes to the anti-crime units will help address issues from the past, including having them wear more identifiable clothing, though they will still be in unmarked police cars.

That did not sway a coalition of legal-aid groups, which released a joint statement saying Adams's announcement "gives the community members who live with the legacy of hyper-aggressive policing no comfort that Mayor Adams's Anti-Crime Unit will be different from its predecessors."

"The Mayor must focus on addressing long standing problems with NYPD's culture of impunity before he doubles down on strategies that will only perpetuate the harms of that culture," reads the statement, whose signers included The Legal Aid Society and The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.

The mayor also pointed to the importance of ensuring the "right" officers are chosen for the job and the use of body cameras.

"You must have the right training the right mindset, the right disposition and be...emotionally intelligent that you are getting ready to engage with someone on the street," he said.

Adams pledged during his campaign to bring back the anti-gun units in some form, but that timeline was sped up by Sunday's shooting of two NYPD officers in Harlem, which killed Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora. Their precinct, the 32nd, is included in the new deployment.

There are more than 400 cops "in the pipeline" to join the new teams, which Adams said will be put in place in about three weeks.

Here's a look at the list of precincts confirmed Tuesday by the NYPD:

• Manhattan North Precincts: 23, 25, 28, 32 and 34
• Bronx Precincts: 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49 and 52
• Brooklyn South Precincts: 67, 69 and 71
• Brooklyn North Precincts: 73, 75, 77, 79, 81 and 83
• Queens South Precincts: 101, 103, 105 and 113
• Queens North Precinct: 114
• Staten Island Precinct: 120
• Housing Patrol Service Areas: 2, 3, 5 and 7