NEW YORK — Daniel Higgins is one cop who knows a thing or two about sting operations.

Although the New York Police Department detective’s main job is working in a counterterrorism unit, he is also one of two official department beekeepers who don protective gear and head to the scene when buzzing swarms of the insects glom onto buildings, streetlights, or other pieces of the urban landscape.

The NYPD bee brigade responds to dozens of calls each spring and summer, including some recently where officers used vacuums to remove wiggling masses of tens of thousands of bees from a lamppost near Grand Central Terminal, the awning of a restaurant, and even a chained bicycle near Times Square.

Since 2010, when the city legalized beekeeping, the New York honeybee population has soared from just a few dozen illegal hives.

City officials welcome the bees — except when hives become overcrowded and about half the bees leave to form swarms that last a few days while an egg-laying queen and her ‘‘scouts’’ search for a new home.

Associated Press