Apparently last month's bust of City Island's drug-dealing barber wasn't exactly a "wake-up call" for authorities. Residents of the Laurels apartment complex were convinced that drug dealers were using their residence as a home base, despite the fact that six NYPD cops lived there. Three policemen who recently moved in, saw "cars pulling in at 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning," and cameras the drug dealers set up to monitor their surroundings. They took notes on license plates, makes and models and even the dealers' names. Civic Association president, former cop and onetime partner of the man who created Compstat, Bill Stanton, took the information to the 45 precinct captain. But that's where the investigation was stymied. "Nothing" happened, Stanton tells the Post, "It's like a free pass to drug dealers." more ›

Now that former NYPD commissioner William Bratton is leaving his post as LAPD commissioner to be CEO of a NYC security company, there's plenty of speculation that he could return to the public sector—even back as NYPD commissioner. Bratton told the Daily News, "Oh sure. I'm only 61. That's a possibility down the line. Those that know me know I never close any doors. Well with some exceptions: I've closed the door on politics to show my sanity. I'm not crazy." The News explains why another Bratton era might happen, "A source familiar with Mayor Bloomberg's thinking said Bratton would be on the short list for commissioner if Kelly moved on to another post, most likely a federal one." Bratton left the NYPD in 1996, apparently because then Mayor Rudy Giuliani was jealous of the credit that Bratton was getting for NYC's efforts fighting crime (example: this 1996 Time cover). Of course, credit for NYC's plummeting crime rates also goes to Jack Maple, the NYPD deputy commissioner behind CompStat (Maple died in 2001). more ›