Talk about an awkward business relationship. Former police reporter and Newsday columnist Leonard Levitt continues to visit Police Headquarters every week to gain sources and get tips — even though he was once banned from the building and had to rely on civil rights lawyers to regain his press pass. Levitt, who currently runs the website NYPD Confidential, isn't well liked by the brass at One Police Plaza. “His self-absorbed bitterness and inaccuracy remind me of the old biddy, an aging malicious gossip I knew growing up in the Bronx,'" Paul Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, told the Times in an e-mail. more ›

Leonard Levitt, a veteran journalist who spent 10 years covering the NYPD for Newsday and now writes at his own website, NYPD Confidential, is suing the NYPD over its refusal to grant him a press pass. In this video, Levitt explains how the NYPD's action are "strictly retaliatory," because of his past writing exposing NYPD issues. more ›

It was finally Mayor Bloomberg, however, that gave him the boot this April. Only recently was he allowed back inside the press room, but as an uncredentialed observer. Martinez Alequin's publication has slimmed down to an online-only format and operates from Blogspot.com as "Your Free Press." He has been questioning––some might say heckling––public officials for 20 years. This spurs a broader look by the Times at what it takes to be a credentialed press member. more ›

Rikers inmate David Brown who engaged a hit man to behead Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and blow up police headquarters was arraigned on charges of criminal solicitation yesterday. Brown, with a long rap sheet - 14 felonies out of 30 convictions - mentioned that he wanted to kill Kelly to another inmate, who called in a tip to the Crimestoppers tipline. When an NYPD detective posed as a hit man and spoke to Brown, the inmate indicated he'd pay $15,000 to behead Kelly and between $50,000 and $150,000 to put bomb outside 1 Police Plaza. Brown said he wanted to kill Kelly because he was frustrated with the Commissioner's inaction during the Sean Bell shooting aftermath. more ›

There's nothing like a State Comptroller -using- state- employees- to- chauffeur- his- wife scandal to make our own Police Commissioner stop having the po-po drive his wife around. Oh, yes: NYPD Confidential spoke with a few detectives about "Driving Mrs. Kelly", a practice that ended right when State Comptroller Alan Hevesi came under fire:

One detective said the detail drove Mrs. Kelly as many as three or four times a week. more ›

Police captain Eric Adams, who had been reprimanded by the police department for speaking out against last fall's terror alert and implying that Mayor Bloomberg used the alert to draw attention from a mayoral debate he was not participating in, was found not guilty of two charges the NYPD brought against him in a trial. Adams, who is retiring to enter politics, had said the NYPD waited three days before telling the public about a terror threat; he would have been stripped of his pension otherwise. However, he was found guilty of appearing on TV, representing the NYPD without permission. Overall, Adams will be able to retire with his full pension, giving up 15 vacation days for speaking without permission. But his lawyer, Norman Siegel, says Adams will appeal the decision, saying, "If government employees - including police officers - are afraid to speak out and they don't speak out, then we, the citizens, we, the public, lose in the long run. Because the government employees know better than anyone else what's actually happening inside their government agencies." more ›