NYPD Sergeant John Hynes was suspended from the force and arrested on charges of of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and prohibited use of a weapon after using his police gun to unload on an Upper East Side ATM. After accompanying Police Commisioner Ray Kelly to NY Post writer Steve Dunleavy's retirement part, Hynes then took his status as a member of the NYPD's ceremonial unit to the next level and hit the bars uptown. At......

An unidentified female NYPD officer with HIV, named Jane Doe in court papers, is suing the city for denying her the tax-free "line-of-duty" disability benefits awarded to other male cops with HIV. Court papers obtained by the Daily News reveal that four male officers have been granted the full, tax-free benefits after contracting HIV in the line of duty: One who reached into a perp's underwear to retrieve drugs, another who was bitten on the......

Lieutenant Michael Pigott, who ordered the fatal Tasering of an emotionally disturbed person, killed himself this morning. WABC 7 reports "Pigott reported to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, where he took his life shortly after 6 a.m." and another officer "sustained a non-life threatening injury during the incident." Pigott had been stripped of his gun and badge after the Tasering, where Iman Morales fell to his death, and yesterday, the 21-year police force veteran had......

The latest NYPD statistics show a rise in crime. The Daily News reports that there were 46 murders through September 28, "compared with 26 through the same date in September 2007." The city has 390 homicides for 2008, compared to the 350 at the same time last year (2007 had 496 homicides--the lowest NYPD-recorded number). Police Commissioner Kelly said the murder rate, even if higher than last year's, would be on track to be the......

After an emotionally disturbed man fell to his death after being Tasered by the police, the NYPD's entire Emergency Service Unit will "undergo retraining" on using the stun gun. The NYPD admitted the fatal incident seemed to violate department rules, since the police didn't try to break the fall of Inman Morales who was on a building ledge (ESU did call for an airbag, but it hadn't arrived yet). A new commanding officer--Deputy Chief James......

Olga Negron, who called 911 over concerns about his 35-year-old son Inman Morales's behavior only for him to fall to his death after being Tasered by the police, spoke out against the police yesterday. She said, "They could have done something better to protect my son. He didn't have a gun, a knife or any weapon. He was just sick. I want them to be held accountable. I want justice." Yesterday afternoon, police admitted that......

The police released a statement saying that the Tasering of a Brooklyn man who then fatally fell from a ledge seemed to have broken NYPD guidelines. Chief department spokesman Paul J. Browne said an airbag had been called to catch the victim, Inman Morales, but the lieutenant who issued the order for another officer to stun the man did not wait. Morales, 35, who was apparently distraught as he stood naked on his fire escape......

An unidentified homeless man got sent on a Dickensian misadventure last December after he made the mistake of knocking on the door of NYPD counterterrorism czar Richard Falkenrath (pictured) to ask for a glass of water. Like other czars, Falkenrath is not known for his compassion, and he promptly alerted the local constabulary to the parched roustabout's presence in his Bronx neighborhood. Cops questioned the man and released him, but officers in the NYPD's intelligence......

Last week, the FBI released its Crime in the United States 2007 statistics, showing that violent crime fell in 2007. However, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly pointed out that NYC was almost entirely responsible for that downward trend. Bloomberg said, "Without the 17 percent decline in murders in New York City, murder nationwide would have been flat, not down" (murders in NYC dropped from 596 in 2006 to 496 in 2007). Also, NYC's drop......

The NYPD is stepping into a long-running feud between two rival Orthodox Jewish patrol groups in Crown Heights in order to unite them into a single police-supervised unit. Shmira and Shomrim are two bitterly-divided private crime-patrol organizations that split in the late '90s. (Here's one explanation of their complicated rivalry.) In an exclusive titled, "Jew Guys Need to Talk," the Post reports that Shmira has agreed to the merger, but Shomrim refuses to sit down......

Two NYPD police officers were suspended without pay after allegations they beat an off-duty Long Beach firefighter over the weekend. According to Newsday, Douglas Rome, 25, and Jason Ragoo, 26, plus a third man, allegedly assaulted 32-year-old Brian McNamara, after he "objected when the men made a rude remark to [his 22-year-old] sister." McNamara ran away after they punched and kicked him, but the men followed him and beat him again. McNamara's sister helped the......

As the MTA looks for any possible source of revenue, it has made a bold suggestion: The agency wants city departments to pay tolls over MTA bridge and tunnel crossings. As WCBS 2 puts it, that includes "firefighters and police responding to emergencies or calls to service." Currently, those city departments are using about 11,000 free E-ZPass tags, so if the MTA gets its way, then the city would need to pay for the approximate......

Staten Island's James Maniscalco allegedly spent the last couple years convincing his neighbors that he was an NYPD officer, outfitting his 2003 Impala with lights to look like an undercover car, wearing an authentic uniform, and flashing a gold shield at local delis to get free coffee and snacks. In reality, he was just a humble security guard who wanted a little respect. Neighbors say they became suspicious after they threw a going-away party for......

New York cops were less trigger happy in 2007 than 2006, according to the NYPD's annual firearms discharge report. In fact, last year police fired the fewest number of times since the department started keeping track in the '70s. In 2007 there were 111 incidents in which police discharged their firearms, including shots fired at animals, in suicide attempts, accidents and at suspects. (That number was down from 127 in 2006 and 253 in 1998.)......

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is blaming the uptick in robberies this year--265 through September 2, versus last year's 177 during the same period--on banks. A police source tells the Daily News, "The new thing with banks is to be 'friendly' to customers. Branches look like lounges - no glass partitions, no security guards. They are 'friendly,' all right - 'friendly' to thugs who 'withdraw' other people's money." Kelly wants banks to improve their security, a......

The NYCLU has filed a new lawsuit against the NYPD. This time around, the NYCLU wants information about the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which involves hundreds (up to thousands) of cameras filming activity downtown. The NYCLU is concerned because, per the group's associate legal director Christopher Dunn, "the police tracking millions of law-abiding New Yorkers...has profound privacy implications." The NYCLU wants information about the scope of information to be collected, how the police will use......

A security firm run by former New York City police detective Bo Dietl has been hired by KFC to move the fast food chain's secret "Original Recipe" of 11 herbs and spices, which has been not been moved from its safe in corporate headquarters for 68 years. The single sheet of notebook paper, yellowed by age, lays out the entire formula, and was written in pencil and signed by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1940. The......

Maybe it's time for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to give up on putting his police force on Segways once and for all. A 12-year NYPD vet is suing after he was forced into early retirement by a nasty injury that occurred while he was leading the department's Segway training sessions at Floyd Bennett Field last year. Officer Gary Schneider says a software glitch caused one of the wheels to seize and tossed him from the......

Reports from last night's Donut Social protest in the East Village say it ended in a mini-riot with several protesters arrested. During an impromptu acoustic concert in Tompkins Square following the scheduled demonstration, Leftover Crack singer Scott Sturgeon was first arrested (possibly for throwing donuts at police). More arrests followed when protesters sat in front of the police car containing Sturgeon blocking its exit from the park as the crowd called for police to "quit,......

Those self-described downtown "slacktivists" who previously called for yuppie scum to die at the Bowery Wine Company are focusing their contempt on the NYPD. They're planning a punk concert and protest Friday night against "police brutality, real estate developers, and the blatant selectively targeted harassment/discrimination toward our scene during the 20th Anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park Police Riots concert/political rally." The so-called "Donut Social" was originally planned for directly outside the 9th precinct on......

The AP reports that three residential co-ops are suing the NYPD over its plan to build a "high-tech command bunker" at 1 Police Plaza. The residents believe that the bunker "must undergo environmental and land use reviews," but the NYPD says no review is required, plus there's "no change to the exterior or its existing footprint." Another issue residents are concerned about it traffic that construction will bring--1 Police Plaza is just north of the......

The retired detective accused of being the "Bling Bandit" is awaiting a psychiatric evaluation, but Athelson Kelson's mother seems to confirm the "suicide-by-cop" hypothesis. Referring to her son's terminal liver cancer, she told the Daily News, "He just didn't want to live like that. He just wanted to die." Kelson allegedly held up banks in Queens and on Long Island, while making no attempt to disguise himself or to wear gloves--and wearing flashy jewelry, including......

The NYPD will have police officers stationed in Abu Dhabi to, per WNBC, "help in crime fighting as well as share intelligence in the war on terror. " Calling the United Arab Emirates the "crossroads of the Middle East," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said information will be exchanged between the NYPD and Abu Dhabi officials and that the NYPD will help train their personnel. Having NYPD officials overseas is nothing new, as they are in......

35-year-old Marlon Smith, who was allegedly beaten, pistol whipped and maced by two off-duty female cops during a road rage incident in the Bronx on August 15th, says he's suing the city for $25 million. According to a witness, the altercation was sparked when Kollen Robinson, 24, and Michelle Anglin, 37, yelled at Smith to close his car door so they could pass by in Robinson's SUV. An exchange of insults quickly became physical, with......

Today's allegation of police brutality comes from 20-year-old demolition worker Raphael Jefferson, who's planning to sue the city after police allegedly "slammed him down on a car hood, repeatedly struck him with a baton and Maced his eyes" while he was handcuffed on a Bronx street on June 20th. Like last month's videotaped police beating, this one also comes with video, recorded from a bystander's cell phone. The Post says the video shows police officers......

The five teenagers once accused of rape in the Central Park Jogger case are planning to sue the city for $50 million each. The five were released from prison in 2002 after the DNA of Matias Reyes was found at the scene of the crime and Reyes confessed. A 2003 NYPD report though still says that the five men "most likely" were involved with the crime. The teenagers had previously confessed to the 1989 rape......

The Patrolmen's Benevelont Association has negotiated a tentative deal with a 17% salary increase over four years. According to WNBC, the "deal running from 2006-2010 gives police officers a four percent raise in each of those four years and contains no substantial givebacks." The starting salary will now be about $42,000, a 68% jump from the $25,000 starting salary rookies had in recent years; current starting salaries are $36,000. Maximum pay will be $76,488, vs.......

Annette Mateo appears to have been one toke over the line last night when she allegedly carjacked an NYPD van and took it for a joyride that almost immediately became devoid of joy. According to the Post, Mateo had gone to file an unspecified complaint at a police station in Harlem and became frustrated with the lackadaisical response from officers there. Storming out of the building at 9:40 p.m., she came upon two rookie cops......

The two female police officers who are charged with assaulting a man while off-duty will be at Bronx Supreme Court's criminal division on Friday. Michelle Anglin and Kollen Robinson allegedly got into a verbal altercation in Williamsbridge with Marlon Smith, and it escalated to the point where Anglin allegedly sprayed Smith with mace and then both hit him when he tried to leave. A witness got the officers' license plate number and reported the incident.......

Two female NYPD cops did some serious damage to a Bronx man early Friday night, allegedly pistol whipping him during a road rage incident. Michelle Anglin, 37, and Koleen Robinson, 24, were off-duty when they became enraged at 35-year-old Marlon Smith for leaving the driver’s door of his Suburban open, almost scraping Robinson's SUV, the Daily News reports. F bombs and A bombs were promptly fired at Smith by the cops. When he responded with......