Tales Of "The Shack" At One Police Plaza

With the NYPD's decision to close offices that daily newspapers and other media outlets have at police headquarters, the NY Times offers a mini-history of crime reporting: "Collegial, masculine in spirit, if not gender, and challenged in all matters of hygiene, the shack crew has for 146 years lived in the midst of the police, sometimes in the basement, sometimes across the street in a set of very grimy offices that inspired the name 'the shack.'" There are lots of anecdotes: When 1 Police Plaza opened in 1973, one reporter broke in the new offices "by using the drawers of his desk as an ashtray for his cigars"; rival reporters watched out for each other—"If a reporter’s telephone rang while he was at the bar, someone would invariably answer, 'Oh, he’s across the street.'" The Shack will be closed on July 31 while 1PP undergoes renovations; reporters can file stories from a conference room, but there won't be desks (or doors where amusing things are displayed). A former Shack reporter for the News, David J. Krajicek, told the Times, "If you’re there every day, you’re keeping an eye on the institution. Proximity does not necessarily translate to access, but it does translate to focus."