Now they’ll be tasked with trying to clean up the city.

The NYPD is dispatching its plant managers — who usually spend their days doing upkeep at police precincts — back on the streets as the department battles a staffing shortage and rising crime, The Post has learned.

The change, which goes into effect immediately, is part of the NYPD’s “effort to maximize the number of uniformed members assigned to perform patrol duties,” according to an internal memo reviewed by The Post.

The uniformed members of the force assigned as plant managers in patrol, transit and housing bureaus will now have to potentially mop up bigger messes across the city, while civilian maintenance workers take over their duties, the NYPD said.

The memo told the cops they would be returning to “operational duties” like daily patrol and transit-train runs, and the department said its plant-manager role would be discontinued. 

It was not immediately clear when the memo was sent. It noted that civilian maintenance workers would be filling the roles of plant managers within 60 days.

The switch-up is sure to be a startling shift to the plant managers, whose tasks usually include emptying garbage bins and making sure cops have a comfortable lounge, a police source said.

Each of the 77 precincts had a plant manager prior to the memo, the source added, and the position was in high demand among New York’s Finest.

“Cops would kill their mothers for the plant manager spot,” said a retired NYPD officer who used to have the plum gig.

The memo said that while current plant managers can be reassigned to “alternative administration functions within the command . . . another administratively assigned UMOS [uniformed member of service] must then be returned to operation duties.”

It was unclear exactly how many cops are expected to be impacted by the memo.

The NYPD didn’t return a request for comment Sunday.

The decision comes amid a massive cop exodus from the NYPD, with 2,465 police officers filing to leave the department this year — 42% more than the 1,731 who exited at the same time last year.

More cops have also been hanging up their holsters before reaching the 20 years required for a full pension. That number has grown 71% this year from the year before (1,098 from 641), The Post previously reported.

“This exodus is the result of cops in the prime of their careers deciding they have had enough . . . The NYPD should stop trying to explain this staffing crisis away. Admit there’s a problem and help us fix it,” NYPD Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch told The Post earlier this month.

Meanwhile, ticked-off members are taking other civil service tests and heading to police departments in Long Island and other suburbs or out of state, or joining the better-paying Port Authority Police Department.