NYC mayor says he will reinstitute modified plainclothes police anti-gun unit

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Sunday said he is planning to reinstitute a modified plainclothes anti-gun unit after a police officer was fatally shot while responding to a 911 call in Harlem.

Asked by co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” about steps Adams is taking to make the city “more safe immediately,” the mayor said the Big Apple is going to restore a “newer version” of a modified plainclothes anti-gun unit.

“I talked about this on the campaign trail. Our team has done the proper analysis. And now we’re going to deploy that,” he added.

Plainclothes police units dissolved in the city in 2020, after some criticized the system for initiating use of force against Black and Latino individuals, according to The New York Times. Anti-crime units have been denounced by progressive organizations, the newspaper noted.

Adams also said the city is planning to deploy mental health professions in the subway system as a strategy to prevent crime.

He said the city plans to “flood our system with mental health professionals and law enforcement working as a team to move out the disorder that’s clearly in the subway system in our city.”

“We should not wait for someone to carry out a dangerous action, when we know they are on this station in the first place. Immediately, when you see a dangerous person there, mental health professionals will be deployed, and that person will receive the proper care and removed from our subway system,” he later added.