A plan to beef up street patrols around the city on Fridays by making NYPD desk jockeys walk the beat has been dropped, and the police chief who ordered the summertime reassignments has been essentially demoted, the Post has learned. A source tells the tabloid that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pulled the plug because he "was annoyed that he wasn't told about it. It wasn't going to work anyway, because the cops involved weren't for it. It was just window dressing." When it was announced last month, an NYPD spokesman insisted, "This is not a new program, and the NYPD has been using this for years." But today's news seems to contradict that assertion, and Kelly has stripped Chief of Patrol Robert Gianelli, his former radio-car partner, of command of the Special Operations Division over the flap. Today would have been the third Friday that administrative cops—as many as 10 from each of the 76 police precincts—were reassigned to foot patrols. According to the Post, precinct commanders were grumbling because the officers are needed to perform the day-to-day administrative tasks to keep office operations running. more ›

Hundreds of NYPD officers accustomed to pushing papers, not thugs, are being ordered out from behind their desks to walk a beat in New York's toughest and busiest neighborhoods. Starting tomorrow in each of the 76 police precincts, roughly six to 10 administrative cops must report every Friday to their borough commander for reassignment to a patrol in need. That could mean walking a beat anywhere from Times Square to high-crime Brownsville. An NYPD spokesman tells the Post, "This is not a new program, and the NYPD has been using this for years" during the summer, when crime traditionally spikes. Sources say the desk jockeys won't be required to meet the same summons and arrest quotas as their beat-cop counterparts, but their mere presence is expected to both deter crime and be a boon to local purveyors of fried, jelly-filled confections. more ›