The NYPD’s new patrol chief has ordered that special overtime money earmarked for cops in violence-prone precincts be given to “aggressive” officers rather than “do-nothings,” The Post has learned.

Chief Robert Giannelli issued that edict last week during a meeting with his borough chiefs, who then relayed it to their precinct commanders, sources said.

His order affects a pool of funds known as Impact Overtime.

In some boroughs, that money has gone only to veteran cops permanently assigned to precincts that have high incidences of shooting and other violence.

In other boroughs, the funds have been made available to veteran patrol officers who work overtime in such precincts on special duty, without being permanently assigned to them.

But Giannelli, a 40-year department veteran who took the top patrol job last month, now has said the system should reward cops who use their overtime shifts to make a lot of arrests involving higher-profile crimes such as gun possession, shootings and robberies.

Sources said Giannelli also wants to reward cops who use their overtime shifts to issue a lot of summonses and who do numerous “stop-and-frisks” of people who match the descriptions of criminal suspects.

“The chief wants to give the overtime to aggressive cops and not to do-nothings,” one source said.

“Do-nothing” cops are considered those who never leave their patrol cars or ones who primarily work inside a precinct house.

Another source said Giannelli wants the OT to go to “intelligently aggressive” cops, such as ones who manage to avert civilian complaints by adequately explaining to people why they are being stopped and frisked.

In response to the new policy, some precincts already have compiled lists of their top-performing officers – when it comes to arrests – and forwarded the lists to the borough commanders.

Sources also said bosses have been told not to worry in the future about their officers’ names appearing on lists of cops who have received large amounts of overtime.

In the past, such bosses have been told to cut down on those officers’ overtime.

Giannelli’s overtime order comes amid an ongoing decline in the kinds of crimes considered a top priority by the NYPD.

As of Aug. 5, there had been 289 murders in New York City since the beginning of 2007. That is a 13.2 percent drop from last year, when there were 333 murders as of Aug. 5, according to the NYPD.

Shooting incidents have declined slightly, by 1 percent, with 842 so far in 2007 compared to 853 last year. The number of people shot in those cases dropped 3 percent, to 994 from 1,025 in 2006.

Overall, reported crime is down 6.8 percent in 2007 compared to 2006.

larry.celona@nypost.com