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Lower East Side BID Looking to Hire Extra Police to Patrol Bar Scene

By Patrick Hedlund | November 8, 2010 5:24pm | Updated on November 9, 2010 6:31am
Ludlow Street between Houston and Delancey streets on the Lower East Side counts 21 current liquor licenses over the three-block stretch, according to Community Board 3.
Ludlow Street between Houston and Delancey streets on the Lower East Side counts 21 current liquor licenses over the three-block stretch, according to Community Board 3.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

LOWER EAST SIDE — Call them cocktail cops.

The booze-soaked streets of the Lower East Side could see an increase in police patrolling the nightlife-rich area under a new proposal by a neighborhood business association.

The Lower East Side Business Improvement District is pushing to hire additional police officers to work the bar beat between Houston and Delancey streets on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in an area that has become ground zero for late-night partying.

The BID would hire officers from the NYPD's paid-detail unit — which provides off-duty cops opportunities to moonlight, in uniform, on other security jobs — to help with issues of noise, vehicle traffic and other quality-of-life issues stemming from nightlife.

The Lower East Side BID is looking to hire additional police to patrol the nightlife-rich neighborhood.
The Lower East Side BID is looking to hire additional police to patrol the nightlife-rich neighborhood.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

"This is sort of a cop-on-the-beat kind of thing," said Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the LES BID, adding the increase would be "supplemental" and not a redistribution of current officers in the local police precinct.

"We think it could be a good thing for the neighborhood."  

Zuckerman explained that the BID would initially pay for the additional detail, noting that individual officers can cost anywhere from $26 to $40 an hour, but that the organization could not afford to pay for the program indefinitely. They are not yet sure how many officers they would hire.

The new nightlife patrols, pending approval from the community board and NYPD, could begin as early as spring or summer, he said.

"We think we have the ability to do this, the right to do this, and we'd like to try this," Zuckerman said, explaining that the officers would not work inside individual bars or clubs but instead on the streets.

The BID's boundaries are Allen Street to the west and Essex Street to the east.

In the past, paid-detail officers have been brought in to provide security at specific high-traffic locations, like Madison Square Garden during large events or department stores during the holidays, Zuckerman said.

However, he stressed that the action would seek only to "keep the peace" between residents and Lower East Side night owls, and not limit the flow of patrons into the neighborhood.

"We want these businesses to thrive. A lot of them are in our BID, and we want a successful nightlife industry here," Zuckeman said. "But we are also cognizant of the fact that some of them do not have great operators… and that there are residents that feel it's too loud and there's too much traffic. We're responding to that."

The BID will present its plan to Community Board 3 on Wednesday and then make formal a request to the NYPD, he added.