Three hundred NYPD officers who are usually on desk duty will be deployed to parts of the city that are seeing increases in gun violence, police officials said Wednesday, courting praise from Democratic mayoral hopeful Eric Adams, who has long pushed for reducing the department’s administrative staff.
NYPD Chief of Department Rodney Harrison announced the shuffling of police resources while appearing with Mayor de Blasio at his daily press briefing.
The Bronx, which has bore the brunt of this year’s uptick in gun violence, will get the biggest deployment, with 150 officers heading to precincts in Tremont, Soundview, Morris Heights, University Heights and Eastchester, Harrison said.
The remaining 150 officers will spread out in other precincts across the city where shootings are up this year, he added.
“This is going to be the full-court press,” Harrison said.
Adams, a former NYPD captain and Brooklyn’s current borough president, hailed the desk duty shakeup as sound policy that dovetails with his push to as mayor reduce “bloat in the budget” and ensure “officers spend more time on patrol, rather than filing paperwork.”
“(The) announcement that 300 officers have been transferred from desk duty to crime hotspots is welcome news, especially as we continue to face an uptick in gun violence throughout the city,” he said. “I look forward to working with the administration to build on this progress.”
The NYPD’s focus on the Bronx comes after a recent spate of shootings in the borough.
A disproportionate 32% of all shootings this year have taken place in the Bronx, with gun violence incidents overall in the city up by nearly 20% as compared to 2020, according to NYPD data.
Adams, who’s on track to become mayor next year, centered his primary campaign on public safety and pledged to put more officers on patrol to curb gun and gang violence — positions that put him at odds with many of the city’s progressive Democrats.
Julie Won, a progressive who won her primary last month to represent parts of western Queens in the City Council, said the NYPD’s planned deployment of more officers is a poor substitute for investing in social services and derided the use of desk duty cops.
“This move is particularly troubling when you consider that the NYPD has long used desk duty to warehouse prejudiced and violent officers,” Won said. “We know that our communities are safest when their basic needs are met. If we want to reduce crime, we need to make sure New Yorkers have access to housing, education and opportunity.”
