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The city’s narcotics cops are being told to stop arresting suspects over the age of 40 — a major strategy shift designed to target younger dealers, who are more likely to carry guns and use them, The Post has learned.Top brass issued a directive that makes it all but impossible for cops to bust older drug suspects, in order to combat a spike in shootings — which are up 7 percent in 2015 compared with the same period last year and 12 percent over the last four weeks, police sources said.The new policy was laid out in a May 14 memo obtained by The Post that scolded police bosses for busting people outside the 18-40 demographic — and demanded written explanations for arrests of midlife perps.Division commanders who got that memo immediately ordered the rank and file to stop making collars in that age group and threatened officers with transfers and other discipline if they did not comply, according to multiple police sources.The memo was signed by Assistant Chief Brian McCarthy, head of the Narcotics Division, who admitted at a meeting last week the directive came from higher up, said a source who was in attendance.“A previous topic of discussion has been the need to target violent offenders who are 18 to 40 years of age. It has been well established that the individuals in this age demographic are responsible for the majority of violent crime,” McCarthy wrote. But, he added, a review of arrest records made by narcotics cops “revealed a lack of commitment to this effort.”As a result, commanders will have to file weekly reports to McCarthy listing every arrest of a person over 40, and supervisors in the field will have to immediately notify their captain and get permission to bust any drug suspect that age.
