New York developed innovative techniques to cope with hostile crowds after civil disturbances in 1964 and, again, after confrontations with protesters at Columbia University in 1968 and with gay-rights demonstrators at the Stonewall Inn in 1969. Special Units Created
In this period, the department trained large forces of officers and supervisors who practiced crowd control together and were called up as a unit when unexpected demonstrations occurred.
Before the units were created, a small number of officers were summoned from many precincts, insuring that officers would serve with other officers they did not know, under supervisors they did not know.
One group, known as the Special Events Unit, was begun in 1968 to respond to daytime student demonstrations as well as parades and other peaceful events. A second citywide unit, the tactical patrol force, patrolled high-crime neighborhoods in the evening and could be mobilized for demonstrations as well.
These citywide units were gradually disbanded. Months after he took office in 1984, Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward eliminated the tactical patrol force and replaced it with six smaller units, permanently assigned to a patrol command covering all or large sections of a borough. #7 Units, 680 Officers These units, two in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn, and one each in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, have a total of 680 officers. But they work in shifts around the clock so that a few dozen officers are available to respond to emergencies in each area.