Pressed Monday about the delay in their rollout, Mayor Eric Adams said the first group of officers in the NYPD’s hybrid plainclothes police squad will hit the streets “within the next week or so.”
During an appearance on Fox 5’s “Good Day New York,” Adams stressed the importance of sufficient training for the cops in the “Neighborhood Safety Teams” — created to combat soaring gun violence — so they don’t repeat past mistakes.
“We have to get this right. If you expeditiously have people in specialized units hit the streets without a very thorough, well-organized training, you’re really going to exaggerate the problem, and I’m not going to do that,” he told the morning show’s hosts.
“Within a week or so, the commissioner said, we have the first round of officers going through, they’re going to hit the streets.”
It was unclear how many cops would be part of the initial rollout.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell has not publicly disclosed the timetable for the rollout of the new squad. A police spokesman, Sgt. Edward Riley, confirmed the mayor’s timeline only as “the information currently available.”
A police official later told reporters about 490 Neighborhood Safety cops would hit the streets sometime next week.
An NYPD anti-gun unit with a man arrested for robbing the TD Bank at 314 Grand St. going into the 7th Precinct in Manhattan. William Farrington
Mayor Eric Adams stressed the importance of sufficient training for the cops in the “Neighborhood Safety Teams” — created to combat soaring gun violence. STEFAN JEREMIAH
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell has not publicly disclosed the timetable for the rollout of the new squads. STEFAN JEREMIAHAdams’ vague answer came after an NYPD memo obtained by The Post detailed the squad’s new uniforms — but failed to provide a clear timeline for when they’ll begin patrolling the five boroughs.
An earlier version of the NYPD’s 90-day crime plan detailed that seven of the 30 most violent precincts set to add the teams will be “able to start as early as February 22” after their training began Feb. 8.
However, the details on the start date were removed from a subsequent version of the crime plan obtained by The Post in February.
Mayor Eric Adams (right) has said the first squads should be on the street “sometime next week.” Gregory P. Mango 
Officers assigned to the Neighborhood Safety Teams will wear navy blue tactical pants, black boots or shoes with a polo shirt, quarter-zip sweatshirt or Neighborhood Safety vest.
Adams also wouldn’t give any specifics when probed by The Post Thursday.
“The unit is going to roll out — the [police] commissioner will give you the exact date, but let’s be clear, without the unit in place executing now, we are still removing hundreds of guns off the streets, because there is an operation that is in place and that will continue to be in place,” he answered during a press conference.
The mayor was pressed again during a Friday press event and did not provide an answer.
In 2020, then-NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea disbanded the 600-person prior iteration of the undercover anti-crime unit, because he said the officers assigned to it were responsible for a “disproportionate” share of misconduct complaints and shootings.
After announcing his anti-gun violence plan in January that included a reformed version of the units, Adams has promised that the new one won’t replicate the old one’s “abusive” tactics.
The cops in the teams will also have a new look.
Officers assigned to the Neighborhood Safety Teams will wear navy blue tactical pants, black boots or shoes with a polo shirt, quarter-zip sweatshirt or Neighborhood Safety vest that has NYPD emblazoned on the back and front, along with patches with the officer’s name, shield, rank and command, according to the memo, exclusively obtained by The Post Tuesday.
Officers assigned to the old anti-crime unit wore street clothes, and were only identified as police by the badge hanging around their necks or on their belts.
