Police Commissioner Ray Kelly: NYPD Will Double Gang Division

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is expected to announce Tuesday that the NYPD is doubling the size of its Gang Division to stop the violent teen crews that are responsible for about 30 percent of all city shootings, according to the New York Daily News.

“Operation Crew Cut” will soon comprise of 300 detectives, as well as the assignment of up to a dozen cops in certain precincts who will deal solely with gangs.

“We'll focus those resources not on large, established gangs such as the Bloods and Crips, but on the looser associations of younger men who identify themselves by the block they live on, or on which side of a housing development they reside,” Kelly plans to announce at a speech held Tuesday in San Diego.

“Their loyalty is to their friends ... and their rivalries are based not on narcotics trafficking or some other entrepreneurial interest, but simply on local turf.

Kelly’s speech also says that social media often fuels rivalries, like if a gang member posts a photo of himself on Facebook in front of a rival’s building.

Facebook, in fact, led to the arrest of 14 members of Crown Heights' Brower Boys gang after Michael Rorigues, of the 77th Precinct, friended them and then watched the site until the gang announced it was "break-in day on the avenue," according to the New York Post.  

The Crips are also well established in Crown Heights.