The Legal Aid Society is calling for accountability as Mayor Eric Adams’ rebranded Anti-Crime Units, now called Neighborhood Safety Teams, are deployed throughout New York City, as reported by Patch.

Legal Aid warns that reinstating these units without also addressing the culture and policies that drove a decades-long pattern of harassment and violence targeting Black and Latinx New Yorkers is a mistake. The organization urges the Mayor to be vigilant in addressing complaints of misconduct against New York Police Department officers from all units.

“No matter whether these units are uniformed or in plain clothes, or whether they are called Anti-Crime or ‘Neighborhood Safety Teams,’ what matters most is that Mayor Adams ensures that these officers conduct themselves lawfully to respect the constitutional rights of the people they are policing,” a statement from Legal Aid reads in part. “When NST officers commit acts of misconduct, City Hall must swiftly hold them to account. Otherwise, these teams will run roughshod through the city – likely in our clients’ neighborhoods – with impunity, employing the same hyper-aggressive policing tactics of their troubled past.”