NYPD’s New Anti-Gun Unit Not only Getting Guns off the Streets, but Arresting Criminals with Long Rap Sheets

by Yehudit Garmaise

The NYPD’s new anti-gun unit, which launched on March 14, has arrested more than 100 perpetrators of gun violence: nearly 70% of whom have prior criminal records, Mayor Eric Adams said on Sunday.

Politicians have long reported that the greatest share of gun violence in the city is perpetrated by a small number of criminals, but now Mayor Adams’ insight also shows that most of those busted are the same ones who are pulling the triggers again and again.

Mayor Adams has several times lauded the progress made by his new anti-gun units, which are also called: Neighborhood Safety Teams (NSTs) that are comprised of five uniformed officers and a sergeant to oversee them.

The NST officers ride in unmarked cars to patrol neighborhoods undetected and ensure the possibility of surprising perpetrators when they are pursuing criminal activities.

Although the mayor recently presented his NSTs as a primary part of his broad-ranging plans to combat the rising violence in the city, throughout his mayoral campaign, Adams had spoken about his long-term plan to restructure, improve, and re-focus the plainclothes anti-crime unit that was disbanded in the summer of 2020 after many, including former NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, accused its officers of over-zealous policing tactics that Adams also called “abusive.”

Just 20 days ago, the first 28 NSTs hit the streets in the neighborhoods with highest crime rates to get the city’s ever-rising crime under control.

A week later, five more teams were deployed citywide, and NSTs will continue to be added to different neighborhoods as they complete their seven-day intensive training on de-escalation and criminals’ Constitutional rights.

While Mayor Adams often emphasized that NYC has to “stop the flow of guns” that are perpetually coming in from other cities, he also insists that the NYPD has to remove whatever guns are already on the city’s streets: which is the task of what he called “my anti-gun unit,” Mayor Adams said this morning on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “They’re doing that.”