In its latest ploy to keep some neighborhoods safe from crime the NYPD is taking its most seasoned veterans and putting them on foot detail to try to thwart crime.

NYPD detectives are being forced to trade in their suits for the department’s basic blue uniforms and stand at assigned posts, mostly overnight, the Detectives’ Endowment Association told reporters.

“We are down hundreds of detectives city-wide,” fumed DEA President Paul DiGiacomo.

“Caseloads are as high as 500 per detective in some precinct squads,’’ he said. “Now we are being put into uniform to stand on fixed posts while crime continues to rise.

“Narcotics detectives, Special Victims detectives, homicide detectives, organized-crime detectives are being used as scarecrows instead of being allowed to make the cases that keep criminals off our streets,’’ he said.

“This is just plain dangerous,” fumed DiGiacomo citing that the move puts 36 detectives a day on the street, or 252 per week, which means that many more investigations into high volume crimes are not being probed because the detectives are not following up.

A fellow detective with more than 15 years on the force said it is just like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

“If they’re putting [detectives] out in the street, how are they going to investigate their cases and make arrests, all these burglaries and robberies and shootings?” the NYPD veteran said.

“How are they supposed to do their work?” he added.

The NYPD said in a statement Tuesday, “This is part of our enhanced supplemental deployment which has been in effect since February 11, 2022.

“Detectives are a part of this deployment.”

It really is a very thin blue line that separates us from anarchy here in New York.