The NYPD has deployed a business improvement team in Manhattan to tackle surging homelessness and crime in response to complaints from Midtown merchants.
The new unit of over 30 cops has been out on the streets addressing quality of life issues since March 1 to make the areas “clean, safe and accessible for shoppers, tourists and people going to work,” a police source said.
It was formed after officials from Madison Square Garden, 34th Street, Soho and Times Square businesses complained about the deteriorating conditions in the area.
The cops have partnered with the city’s Department of Health, Department of Homeless Services, Sanitation, Parks and Recreation, MTA and Consumer Affairs who all respond to complaints with the police.
The unit will attempt to tackle the issues plaguing the area, including soaring homelessness and crimes such as shoplifting, property damage, drug use in the street, assaults, panhandling, illegal vending of counterfeit merchandise, obstructing sidewalks, pedestrian pathways, bike lanes, sources said.
The business improvement districts, community boards and local politicians can directly contact the unit, which will be working seven days a week handling 311 and 911 calls. The officers have been trained in crisis intervention and enforcing vendor rules.
The unit has visited over 100 homeless encampments, collaborating with other agencies to remove them as Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to clear the encampments across the Big Apple.
They have spoken with over 300 homeless people individually to offer them services, again collaborating with other agencies, the source said. Several went to the hospitals for medical treatment.
On Wednesday, seven people were arrested when NYPD officers and city sanitation workers broke up a homeless encampment in the East Village.
Many of the complaints from businesses have been for people urinating in the street, shoplifting and using drugs and drinking in public. So far, they have given out over 150 summonses for urinating and drinking, a police source said.
They have also made over a dozen arrests for shoplifting.
“A lot of the shoplifters are the same people we see doing drugs in the street,” said a Manhattan cop. “When the stores tell us about shoplifters we get their picture and hand it out to the cops so when they see them they can a make an arrest”
The cops have visited over 100 vendors selling counterfeit goods with the Department of Consumer Affairs and confiscated over 40 stations, the source said.
Similar police units — the homeless services and peddler’s unit — were disbanded in July 2020 amid the momentum of the Defund the Police movement.
Midtown businesses penned a letter in late March to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul demanding state help with the rampant homelessness and crime in Manhattan’s Midtown South district — the 14-block stretch from 30th to 44th streets between Ninth and Madison avenues — which has seen a dramatic spike in crime of over 55% year to date, according to police data.
Murders in the neighborhood are up more than 33%, rapes are up more than 34% and robberies are up a staggering 60% according to the latest figures.