NYPD to disband plainclothes crime unit involved in high-profile shootings

The New York Police Department will disband its anti-crime unit, which consists of hundreds of plainclothes officers that target violent crime, commissioner Dermot Shea announced at a news conference Monday.

The big picture: The unit, which consists of some 600 officers, "was involved in some of the city’s most notorious police shootings," according to the New York Times. Officers in the unit will be given new assignments, including in the NYPD's neighborhood policing initiative.

What they're saying: "This is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city," Shea said at a press conference. "This is 21st-century policing. We must do it in a manner that builds trust between the officers and the community they serve.”

• “What we always struggle with, I believe, as police executives, is not keeping crime down. It’s keeping crime down and keeping the community with us and I think those two things, at times, have been at odds."

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