Apollo Robbins, who plays pickpocket "Fingers" is a sleight of hand master and has given talks on pickpocketing.
Captain Holt refers to 'legendary Dutch flautist Frans Brüggen'. Brüggen was born on October 30, 1934 and is mostly known for playing the recorder and as a conductor, though he also played the flute. He died in August 2014, a few months before this episode aired.
The character of Eric "Fingers" Martin is referred to as Dan McCreary on more than one occasion, but never Eric Martin. This is likely due to a last minute change to the script.