Watch out, Elmo and Cookie Monster — Commissioner Bill Bratton is finally ready to tan your fuzzy hides.
After reading a Post report on Times Square’s chaos of mangy and sometimes law-breaking cartoon characters, the NYPD’s top cop personally toured the costumed-character-cluttered Crossroads of the World on Wednesday.
In what sources said was a direct response to The Post’s story, Bratton spent 45 minutes — from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. — watching aggressive, tip-scrounging scourges like Minnie Mouse and her assorted attendant “Naked” cowhands.
On Thursday, the commissioner will share his observations, and any plans for reform, at a lunch with The Broadway Association, a business group that promotes the Theater District and has urged the City Council to regulate the site.
“There was an article in The Post about how the mascots are all over Times Square like menaces, and nothing is being done and how the business owners are complaining. So he came out because to see [because] legally we can’t do anything unless they commit a crime,” a law-enforcement source said.
The Times Square Alliance wants to get the City Council to pass stricter laws to regulate the characters, the source added.
A few strollers recognized the commissioner — who pointedly did not interact with any of the characters — and snapped his photo, a source said.
“There was always Elmo and the Naked Cowboy and stuff, but now there is the Naked Cowgirl, Naked Indians. It has exploded the last couple of years,” a second source said.
Some of the overly aggressive characters have even been arrested for groping tourists or clobbering them for not coughing up cash after having their photos taken.
The Post reported Sunday that the situation has grown so bad that Broadway officials blame the chaos for slumping ticket sales.
Others claimed that many of the characters — along with the assorted Naked Cowgirls, superheroes, bus tour touts and CD hawkers — are bad for tourism and local businesses.
The chaos has spread from 42nd Street all the way up to 48th, and even spills over onto side streets.
That prompted the Alliance to push for a law that would require costumed characters to register with the city to ply their trade, with group president Tim Tompkins saying complaints about their sordid activities have been rising.
“[Bratton] said there are some issues that could be worked on. Lots of tourists go through Time Square, so we have to make sure it’s not perceived that way,” the second source said.
Additional reporting by Bob Fredericks