Thinking about lobbies and public housing and policing…. Take the Jackie Robinson Homes, “an 8-story building with 189 apartments housing some 440 residents.” Last year there was an issue with kids raising hell. Residents were scared. So lets say there are 600 people living there in the Jackie Robinson Home (since many live off lease).…
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One cop I worked with would constantly get into foot pursuits. For the rest of us, it was kind of annoying, especially for those of us who hated running. What frustrated me was that these pursuits were entirely preventable. The problem was this officer would see a kid he wanted to stop and say, “Come…
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I got this query and and would be curious to learn the answer: I’m working on a story on the history of police riding bikes in New York City…. I’m looking to explore when the NYPD used bikes as transportation, why they did, and how their utilization has changed over time as policing strategies/ideologies have…
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The usual. State and federal tax cuts. Local budget cuts. Union workers get screwed. The full story is here. Because of the city’s ongoing budget woes, no police academy classes are scheduled for next year, which means that instead of the 1,861 sworn officers who were working for the department in July 2010, retirements and…
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I’m not a horsey boy. I don’t like horses. They scare me a bit. Plus, I’ve very allergic to horses and try and stay far away (though I do like biking by the horses on Central Park South on my to work). Regardless of my dislike for horses, I think every big police department needs…
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I’ve always wondered and never been able to figure out exactly how much police cars cost to operate. Somebody in motor-pool must know, but nobody has told me. Here’s an article in the New York Times about a fleet for OTB. No doubt cheaper than cop cars. The vehicles cost an average of $6,700 each…
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Peter Hermann reports in the Baltimore Sun. Top brass always says patrol is the backbone of the police department. They lie. Roughly half of the police department is assigned to the patrol. When you need officers, you take them from patrol. Backbone my ass! What kind of organization knocks out its own vertebrae? When officers…
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Two good posts by Pepper Spray Me. Talking Yourself to Jail. And Hire a Lawyer, Please.
This great historical tidbit is from the Edinburgh Review of July 1852. The original article, in pdf form, is here. The whole journal can be found on google books. I discovered this through Marjie Bloy’s excellent website on English history. She has a lot on Sir Robert Peel and early police (that’s how I found…
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There’s a good discussion I’ve been contributing to in the comments section from a post in marginal revolution.