Police will step up their dual war on drugs and the crime rate today, reassigning more than 600 cops to nine key precincts around the city, The Post has learned.
Sources say that under the new phase of the initiative, eight-member buy-and-bust teams will hit the ground in:
*The 23rd and 25th precincts in Harlem and East Harlem in Manhattan.
*The 60th Precinct in Sunset Park and the 72nd Precinct in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
*The 110th Precinct in Corona and Elmhurst, the 114th Precinct in Astoria and the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst, Queens.
*The 42nd Precinct in the Claremont section of The Bronx and the 48th Precinct in the Tremont section.
About half the cops in the initiative will be part of the narcotics teams composed of a sergeant, five or six investigators and two undercover cops who do the dangerous buy part of the buy and bust.
Another 300 uniformed cops will begin to patrol the targeted precincts to add a visible presence, discourage drug users and dealers on the street, and keep an eye out for so-called lifestyle crimes associated with drug use.
The latest assignment represents a ratcheting up of the city’s ongoing drug initiative, which has already had success in several neighborhoods – under the theory that drugs breed other types of crime and combating dealers will bring down crime in general.
Police Commissioner Howard Safir has repeatedly said about 80 percent of crime in the city is related to drugs.
Police have been the victims of their own success in battling drugs – since the crackdown has pushed many dealers indoors and off the streets, where they become harder to spot.
Sources said some of the precincts chosen for this new wave were picked because there is still enough drug activity going on out in the open for the cops to have an effect.
Another factor in choosing these areas was the department’s constant monitoring of crime stats – with police brass feeling either that these precincts are lagging behind other areas in the drop in crime or that the crime rates there could be pushed still lower by this type of initiative.
Official statistics through the second week in February show that crime is down 14.8 percent compared with the first six weeks of last year.
A source said the new push was originally planned to start late last year with more than 1,000 officers – but precinct commanders in areas outside the crackdown complained that too many patrolmen were being pulled off the beat to join the initiative.
Other precincts that are already part of the citywide drug crackdown include: the 7th and 9th on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and the 30th, 32nd and 33rd in Harlem and Washington Heights; the 67th in East Flatbush, the 70th in Flatbush, and the 71st in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; the 103rd and 113th in Jamaica, Queens; and in The Bronx, the 44th around Yankee Stadium and the 46th in the Fordham section.