Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

The NYPD Tapes

A reader pointed me to this story in New York’s Village Voice. In the 81st Precinct in New York City, a cop, Schoolcraft, secretly recorded roll call and other happenings over the course of the year. Bold. Though all he seems to show is something we all should already know. In the NYPD, everybody is…
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Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and taser!

Damn Yankees. The Orioles lost. It was kind of a mismatch. But the O’s did at least make things interesting by getting the tying runs on base in the 9th. There was some minor scuffle near me that resulted in many crying children. Oh, nothing like the bleachers in Yankee Stadium to make me want…
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Crowd stampede at Netherlands WWII ceremony

I’m not a big fan of crowds. Mobs do stupid things–both intentionally and through panic. I always like having an out. Interestingly, I’ve always felt a little more claustrophobic in Dutch crowds. I think they’re used to less personal space so they get tighter together (which is also a sign of their general civility). The…
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Good Use of Taser

I don’t think I’ve ever used that headline before. I don’t like Tasers, generally. But if you run from police and can’t be easily caught? I got no problem. It’s tasing in situations of unarmed passive non-compliance that I strongly object to. I’m going to the Yankee game tomorrow. Go O’s!

Arrest made in Times Square bomb

A US citizen from Pakistan. The story in the New York Times.

This one is just our crumbling infustruction

From the Times: New York authorities are investigating a manhole fire that startled passers-by just a few blocks from where a Times Square car bomb failed to detonate over the weekend. A spokesman for the Con Edison utility says smoking underground electrical cables caused the fire Monday afternoon.

Eyes on the Street Help Defuse Times Square Car Bomb

Kudos to the NYPD and the bomb squad for doing their job well. That work is no joke. In her wonderful The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs wrote, “It does not take many incidents of violence to make people fear the streets. And as they fear them, they use them less,…
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Enlightening and Authoritative

It’s not too late to read my book. Don’t take my word for it. Take Sean O’Donnell’s of the Baltimore Republican Examiner: For anyone interested is what being a police officer in Baltimore City is really like, Peter Moskos’ in-depth, academic, and realist account inCop in the Hood is a must-read…. Whether one agrees or…
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Deaths in Mexico Drug War Pass 22,000

Not the government wants you to know. Immediately after Calderon came to office in late 2006, he deployed up to 50,000 troops in a frontal battle with narcotics cartels, a move that drew widespread praise for its courage. More than three years later, the pace of killings is soaring and public security worries are beginning…
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Ex-police officer Pogan convicted

This is the guy who pushed over the bicyclist in Times Square. Pogan was convicted of filing false statements (saying that he was assaulted by the victim). Pogan was also convicted of a misdemeanor for attesting to the complaint’s truthfulness. Patrick Pogan, who was only on the job for 11 days, was acquitted on assault…
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