The Anti-Crime units carry signs and protest outside crack houses
Actually, Anti-Crime is an undercover unit that concentrates on street level crime. The theory being that the can catch people in the act where uniformed officers respond to calls for service and act as a deterent. I am 50% sure they are a citywide unit vs. "Street Crime" which is a pct level unit. Maybe someone else can verify this.
TARU= Technical Assistance Response Unit which performs a lot of functions. Basically they are geeks with guns (although they have civilians in the unit also) They also evaluate technology to see if it has applications for Law Enforcement and then provide tactical advice on how to use those toys during actual incidencents. I know becuase my company makes some tech toys and we have sold to the TARU units.