The New York Department of Missing Birds were designed for the first edition of Sesame Street Live. This group of incompetent constables is a parody of Mack Sennett's silent film troupe of Keystone Kops.

In the original 1980-1981 touring cast, the constables were performed by Lionel Douglass, Chikae Ishikawa, Amy Lachinsky, Stan Nelson, Thomas Sanford, Lisa Stanley, Buz Suraci, and Judy Swartz.