Quantcast
NYPD transit police are undercover, underground – Metro US

NYPD transit police are undercover, underground

Pickpockets beware: Transit police are planting decoy passengers along the rails.

Dressed like typical straphangers, the plainclothes officers even fake falling asleep like riders do, only to nab the thieves tempted to purloin their iPhones, BlackBerrys and other electronic devices.

Last week, the NYPD caught three men trying to pickpocket smartphones from undercover officers.

“We continue to have a problem with cell phones,” said NYPD Chief of Transit Raymond Diaz.

The “decoy operations,” as police call them, have even led cops to the shops that sell the stolen goods. Variety, grocery and discount stores are the major resellers of pilfered phones, Diaz affirmed.

At any given time, there are 50 to 200 undercover cops riding the rails, one police source said.

“They look like regular, normal people,” said Diaz. “You’d never know.”