A pretty fabulous op-ed from a retired NYPD Captain on ticket fixing and police culture. Like any other profession, police work is subject to evolution. This situation is just the latest in a never-ending world of transition. I accept that. But let’s not pretend we’ve suddenly discovered some major moral rot deep in the heart…
Read more
Here’s the very first new rule, just a few months into London’s experiment with the New Police (and London perhaps was beaten by Edinburgh). Apparently, back in the good old days, officers were drinking, had a bit of a temper, carried umbrellas and other weapons, engaging in idle chit chat, and hide their identification numbers:…
Read more
Come on, walking up to somebody you’ve penned up (for not moving?!), macing them, and walking away? Of course it’s indefensible. And it’s not fair to the officers trying to deal with the situation… the officers who weredealing with the situation, acting professionally in a stressful situation. This guy had a very bad day at…
Read more
…And then we’ll take it higher. I was in Brixton, London, today and stumbled across… Electric Avenue. There’s a market there. I had no idea Electric Avenue was a real place. Nor that the song was even “set” in London. As a fan of 80’s hip hop, I felt the same way I felt in…
Read more
It turns out the Peel’s famous “Principles of Policing” are a fraud. I kind of always suspected that… but not so much that I didn’t quote them at length in the afterward to the paperback edition of Cop in the Hood. I should have known better because Susan Lentz and Robert Chaires had already published…
Read more
It’s September 5th, 2011. Today happens to be my 40th birthday. But unrelated, my wife will soon be boarding the Queen Mary 2 in Brooklyn for an Atlantic Ocean crossing. We are packing our steamer trunks and hat boxes. Here’s our view and where we are. I just learned that when my mother came to…
Read more
There’s an interesting chart in New York Magazine that shows what the Patriot Act is used for. Delayed-notice search warrants issued under the expanded powers of the Patriot Act, 2006–2009: For drugs: 1,618 For fraud: 122 For Terrorism: 15
One last bit on crime in New York City during Irene: There were about 30 arrests citywide for crimes committed between midnight and 7:30 a.m. during a police tour of duty that roughly matched the duration of the storm’s approach and arrival. (An earlier estimate of 45 arrests — described by the mayor as proving…
Read more
You might think that headline is a joke, but it’s not. Good for Bonn, I say!
To round up wandering kids in an effort to combat mobs of roving teens. From the Sun: Baltimore’s curfew center began four years ago — a collaborative effort among police, the school system and social services — to get kids off the street and away from potential harm. Their work has taken on a new…
Read more