Former New York City Police Department commissioner Bernie Kerik says disbanding the NYPD's anti-crime unit will harm the minority communities that need it the most.
"The NYPD's anti-crime units had the ability to act as chameleons and get into communities undetected," Kerik, once a member of the elite plainclothes crew, told Newsmax Wednesday. "Their primary job was to look for guns, violence, and robberies in progress.
"For the past four or five decades, they were responsible for many of the guns seized in NYC, especially in communities of color.
"Unfortunately, they will be the communities that suffer most."
On Tuesday, police commissioner Dermot Shea announced the end of the anti-crime unit, saying it was a "seismic shift" for the NYPD.
The unit's 600 members — which included undercover and plainclothes cops — are now being reassigned within the department.
The change comes as police forces coast to coast struggle to respond to the national outrage over the death of George Floyd, an African American who was choked to death by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.
Shea said the NYPD unit had done an "exceptional job" in fighting crime.
"But I think it is time to move forward and change how we police in this city. We can move away from brute force" he said.
The anti-crime unit functioned at each precinct of the city's five boroughs, targeting robberies, burglaries, illegal weapons, and neighborhood crime waves.
Kerik called it "an end to an era … one of the most productive units in the history of the department."
The NYPD will continue operating undercover units that fight crime in the transit system and illegal drugs.
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