“We have a generation of police officers that were pointed in one direction—we’re now trying to point them in a different direction and that’s the challenge.”
The extra gear is needed because regular NYPD patrol officers are expected to engage the shooter in an active shooter situation, rather that waiting for a SWAT team to arrive.
Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty Wednesday to evading banking laws in a hush-money scheme, averting a potentially lurid trial by agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that recommends the former House speaker serve no more than six months in prison.
A career criminal accused of killing a police officer had been released from jail into a drug diversion program and was wanted in a shooting last month.
NYPD Commissioner William Bratton stressed that American law enforcement, specifically the NYPD, have an unprecedented security challenge later this month.
As city officials work to soften the New York Police Department’s image and change how officers engage with citizens through reforms and training, part of the effort is happening online.
De Blasio’s characterization of New York City under his predecessor and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg’s tenure as a “Tale of Two Cities” won the progressive Democrat a landslide victory. The issue resonated, as did the candidate’s vision for a more equal city.
Police are assigning additional officers to patrol Times Square at Wednesday’s New Year’s Eve celebration, in anticipation of protesters who plan to demonstrate against police brutality there.
For many New Yorkers who viewed the video capturing Eric Garner getting restrained by police officers in Staten Island moments before he died, the initial reaction was shock—at the sheer amount of force the officers used to subdue the man, and at how Garner repeated 11 times, “I can’t breathe,” while an officer kept his arm tightly wound around Garner’s neck.
Recent tragic incidents involving the New York City Police Department (NYPD)—including the summer 2014 death of Eric Garner, who was being arrested on Staten Island, and the autumn 2014 death of Akai Gurley, shot accidentally by a young police officer in a housing project in Brooklyn—have reinvigorated police critics, especially in the context of a broader national discussion about crime and race prompted by events in Ferguson, Missouri.
Even as New York’s police department takes heat for its tactics in the outrage over the Eric Garner chokehold case, year-end crime statistics show two clear trends: low-level arrests are holding steady and overall crime continues to fall.