Adams relaunches controversial gun crime task force eliminated under De Blasio

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) reimplemented a controversial New York Police Department (NYPD) task force this week, a previous version of which was scrapped under former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D). 

The gun crime task force, known as neighborhood safety teams, will be utilized in about 30 precincts throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, Bloomberg reported. Adams said the officers will be uniformed but will not use police vehicles. 

Training for the neighborhood safety team program took place in February, and the teams will start patrolling Monday, according to Bloomberg. 

The former version of the program was disbanded by former NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea in June 2020 amid protests calling for racial justice and police reform following George Floyd’s death. Shea described the decision at the time as a move to end “one of the last chapters of stop-question-and-frisk.”

Adams emphasized at a press briefing Wednesday that the new teams were constructed with community input and with the context of past mistakes. 

“I made the promise to New Yorkers on the campaign trail that we would put in place a specialized unit that would focus on gun crimes,” Adams said, Bloomberg reported. “I also made the promise we would not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Adams, who made decreasing crime rates a central point in his campaign for mayor, kept funding levels for the NYPD flat in his first proposed budget last month.