The New York Police Department will immediately reassign some 600 plainclothes officers in its anti-crime unit to other duties, including its detective bureau and community policing, Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday.
The move, which follows a number of policing overhauls signed into law last week by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, is designed to modernize the country’s largest police force and build trust with communities amid heightened racial tension, Shea said.
“Make no mistake, this is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city,” he told a news briefing. “It will be felt immediately throughout the five district attorney’s offices, it will be felt immediately in the communities that we protect.”
(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Leslie Adler and Chizu Nomiyama)