The announcement came a week after Mayor Eric Adams ordered billions in citywide budget cuts.
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.A team of NYPD officers trained to respond quickly to the most organized and heavily armed attacks is set to have its personnel slashed by up to 75%, according to a memo reviewed by Gothamist.
The NYPD Critical Response Command – a key component of the department’s $219.5 million Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureaus – is one of its “first lines of defense against a terrorist-related attack,”“I am devastated by the news I have to give to you, as you all are family to me,” read an email from Scott Shanley, deputy chief of the NYPD Counterterrorism Critical Response Command, which three current and former NYPD employees shared with Gothamist.
“Today, I was informed that our unit will be downsized significantly, by up to 75%. Though we are still in efforts to reduce this number, whatever the outcome, many home/personal lives will be affected nonetheless,” Shanley wrote.The email came just nine days after Mayor Eric Adams announced following public statements about how the migrant crisis would “destroy” New York City without federal and state assistance.The unit's budget for the 2024 fiscal year was just over $63 million,. The NYPD allocated roughly $55 million to the command’s full-time staff. The department is weighing moving some officers from the unit to street-level patrols to address shortages there, according to one current and one former NYPD employee with knowledge of the decision.
The team's members are trained in “special weapons and long-range guns, explosive trace detection, radiological and nuclear awareness, biological and chemical weapons awareness, and are equipped with the skills to detect an impending attack and utilize the best possible response to an emerging situation,”
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