Governor Cuomo says the NYPD hasn't done enough to break up large "super-spreader" gatherings in hot spot areas—so he's putting city police under state authority.
Though the details have yet to be worked out, a detachment of local officers will be assigned to a state-led task force. Cuomo compared it to an earlier, joint crackdown on bars and restaurants that violated COVID-19 restrictions, but retired NYPD Captain Jim Dooley, who teaches at John Jay College, says policing large religious gatherings will be more difficult.
"It's kind of apples and oranges," he said. "This is on a much broader scale. And this not a business. This is an amorphous crowd."
Dooley said there's often friction between local and state law enforcement agencies and for the joint effort to succeed, they'd need to narrowly target specific neighborhoods and institutions for a brief period.