The New York City Police Department has backed out of a two-year arrangement with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in which department legal staff appeared as the prosecution in certain low-level cases.

The practice of using police staffers as prosecutors in Summons Court had drawn criticism from activists, elected officials and members of the legal community, but Lawrence Byrne, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said that preparing for trials and appeals was taxing the NYPD Legal Bureau’s resources.