CONDOR' FLIES OVER HIGH-CRIME PRECINCTS

The NYPD has quietly retooled the focus of the anti-drug initiative
Operation Condor away from narcotics and toward beefed-up patrol in
higher-crime precincts, The Post has learned.

Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik made the move two weeks ago, picking
15 precincts around the five boroughs where the crime level has gone
down but is still higher than elsewhere in the city, sources said.

Most of the precincts are in The Bronx, a swath of Brooklyn, including
Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville, and upper Manhattan.

Under the revamped Condor, the NYPD has cut the number of cops
focusing on drug crimes, and is putting more uniformed officers on the
streets to deal with shootings, stabbings, murders and domestic violence.

The decision means the department will use the controversial
initiative, which has roughly 4,000 cops work overtime on their off
days and costs about $1.5 million a week, until Mayor Giuliani's term
is up at the end of the year.

Kerik has credited Condor with playing a major role in the
still-falling crime rates, which are down 13 percent overall so far
this year. Murders alone are down 12 percent, shooting incidents are
down 21 percent and the number of shooting victims is down 26 percent.

Former Police Commissioner Howard Safir first started Condor in
January 2000, primarily to staunch the heavy traffic of narcotics on
streets - using plainclothes cops.