Street Crimes Unit

The New York Police Department's Street Crime Unit (motto: "We Own The Night") was a plain clothes anti-crime unit. The SCU was formed in 1971 as the "City Wide Anti-Crime Unit" and operated for decades tasked with the apprehension of armed felons from the streets of New York City, however it was disbanded in 2002, following the controversial killing of Amadou Diallo.

On January 14th 1999 shortly before the Diallo incident, two officers from the Street Crimes Unit fired eight shots at Russell Jones, a rapper with The Wu-Tang Clan better known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, and accused him of firing at them after they stopped his car in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Mr. Jones was cleared by a grand jury and insists that the officers had been scared by his cellular phone. No weapons or shell casings besides those of the officers were found in the vehicle or near the scene.

Methods

From 1971-99, the unit was made up of 60 to 100 members. In 2000 it expanded to 300 members. It employed innovative methods, including possibly the earliest coordinated sting operations to elicit potential muggers. According to Criminal Justice Today: "The SCU disguised officers as potential mugging victims and put them in areas where they were most likely to be attacked."

Street crime

Street Crime is a loose term for any criminal offense in a public place. According to London's Metropolitan Police Force,

Other examples of street crime include pickpocketing, the open illegal drugs trade, prostitution in the form of soliciting outside the law, the creation of graffiti and vandalism of public property, and assaults. As a generic term, street crime may include all of these, as well as offenses against private properties such as the stealing of hub caps.

The majority of street crimes, as portrayed by various news media, are initiated by criminals seeking quick financial gains. However, they can also be carried out by organized individuals with a common goal of profiteering. On the other hand, not all of these instances are considered by the FBI to be "organized crimes" due to the random nature of the crimes themselves. The term "organized crime" does not often include organized street crimes.

An organized crime is often a major business, consisting of many individuals associated for the common goal of criminal profiteering. In contrast, street crimes are normally conducted by hastily and loosely formed groups of individuals with the common goal of gaining illicit money through immediate criminal acts.