The New York Police Department is disbanding its aggressive anti-crime unit, a move aimed at turning alienated residents into crime-stopping allies, part of a nationwide push for policing reforms following the killing of George Floyd. In a major redeployment, the country's largest police force will reassign some 600 plainclothes officers in the anti-crime unit, the target of numerous complaints, to other duties, effective immediately, Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday. "Make no mistake, this is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city," Shea told a news briefing. "It will be felt immediately throughout the five district attorney's offices, it will be felt immediately in the communities that we protect."  Floyd's, a black man, death has triggered national soul-searching over racial prejudice in American society and prompted calls for new ways of policing.

Source: Reuters