A police officer who shot herself in the hand at at Manhattan police precinct is taking a $325,000 settlement to end a lawsuit over pension discrimination. According to the Daily News, the deal came "on the eve of jury selection in Brooklyn Federal Court leaves unresolved the question of exactly who shot Officer Pamela Walker in the Midtown South stationhouse." more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a series of shootings near the Metro-North station in Poughkeepsie have left three people dead, including a police officer. The Poughkeepsie Journal reports, "Police said a man apparently shot and killed his wife in a car in a downtown parking lot, then was fatally wounded in a confrontation with police in which a 18-year veteran of the department was shot in the head." more ›

The fight between Mayor Bloomberg and the police and firefighter unions is getting nasty. Last week, it was revealed that Bloomberg was interested in eliminating a $12,000 bonus to current and future NYPD and FDNY retirees, leading heads of those unions to call him a liar. Steve Cassidy, head of the Uniformed Firefighters Associations, said, "As we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Mike Bloomberg wants to say to firefighters and police officers who were there that day and didn't die, 'I'm going to steal money from your pocket.'" more ›

Carmen Ojeda, who claims a police officer blocked her from going to the hospital when her daughter was suffering from an asthma attack in her back seat, wants the officer responsible to come forward and apologize for his actions. "Show your face and say you're sorry!" she told the Daily News. "I just want you to be a man. Let her rest in peace!" more ›

An off-duty officer was arrested Friday evening after allegedly punching a cab driver in the face. According to City Room, officer Sidney Garcia attempted to hail a cab for himself and four others in Murray Hill around 11:20 p.m. The cabbie refused, saying that having five passengers would violate TLC rules. Apparently too angry to even consider taking two cabs, Garcia allegedly hit the cab driver in the face. more ›

After hearing gunshots, an off-duty NYPD officer tried to chase down a group of men involved in the East Harlem shooting—leading to another barrage of bullets that left one man injured. When the cop started trailing a group of men reportedly involved in a shooting near Lexington Avenue and 103rd Street last night at around 10 p.m., there was a second exchange of gunfire and a man was hit in the leg, the Daily News reports. It's unclear if the off-duty officer fired any shots. more ›

Under Mayor Bloomberg's proposed city budget, the number of NYPD officers on the streets would fall to its lowest point in 20 years. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that if the Mayor's $46.5 billion budget is approved, the force would lose 892 officers due to attrition while welcoming aboard just 112 recruits—making the NYPD as small as it's been since 1990. With just 32,817 officers, Kelly told the Daily News the cuts would be felt. Because there will be so few rookie cops, the cuts might have a big effect on "Operation Impact"—a policing strategy that puts a large number of new officers in high-crime areas. more ›

The off-duty Jersey City cop who killed a woman and injured her boyfriend while driving drunk has been sentenced to 3.5 to 10.5 years in prison. "There's not a day that goes by that I wish I could trade my life for the victim's," said Martin Abreu, 26. "Everyday I live this. I'm going to live it for the rest of my life." more ›

Under a new plan, some cops accused of wrongdoing won't face internal NYPD reviews, but prosecution from outside attorneys who specialize in police misconduct. According to the Daily News, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the Civilian Complaint Review Board now has authority to charge and prosecute officers in some cases when civilians file complaints. The Times reports that the board currently investigates cases and refers them to police for prosecution, though the NYPD only prosecutes some cases. The New York Civil Liberties Union says the new policy isn't "real reform" and could be "an empty gesture" because civilian lawyers will only be able to "prosecute a small number of cases handpicked by the NYPD." more ›

The chef at a Staten Island steakhouse known for being a police hangout has been arrested for selling cocaine to an undercover detective. Thomas "TJ" Gleason, 34, a chef at Ruddy & Dean—which is located just one block from the 120 Precinct and the state Supreme Court building—was hit with felony drug dealing charges after purportedly selling $100 of coke at the bar. more ›

A day after a Brooklyn cop accused police officers in Bedford Stuyvesant's 81st Precinct of under-reporting crimes and turning away victims in an effort to improve crime statistics, a Queens politician says he's heard the same allegations from other officers—but they won't testify for fear of retribution. more ›

Three years before voting to rename a street in of honor an unarmed 23-year-old who was killed in a barrage of police bullets, a Queens Community Board rejected an application to rename a street in honor of a police officer killed in the line of duty. So following the board's controversial vote in favor of "Sean Bell Way," the family of deceased officer John Scarangella has again applied for a street renaming to memorialize the slain cop. But the chairwoman of Community Board 12, Adjoa Gzifa, opposes the renaming. "For every police officer that puts on a uniform and carries a gun, if they should perish in the line of duty, does that mean we have to rename a street for them?" more ›

Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo, who was shot in the face by a shooting suspect last week, is in "extremely critical condition." DiNardo, 37, is part of the Emergency Service Unit; he and other officers had been staking out the apartment of Hassian Hosendove (aka Hassian Shakur) and his wife Amanda Anderson. Hosendove and Anderson emerged from their apartment last Thursday, wearing hooded robes, and fired at police officers; the pair were eventually killed in the ensuing gunfight—an autopsy says Hosendove was shot 19 times and Anderson once. The other officer who had been in critical condition, Michael Camacho, was upgraded and able to leave the Intensive Care Unit. Camacho was shot in the neck and is now is "serious but guarded" condition. more ›

Almost two months after a 24-year-old man accused cops of beating him and sodomizing him on a subway platform, a grand jury has indicted three police officers involved. While the indictment has not been officially communicated to lawyers, reports say that Officer Richard Kern was indicted for assault, while two other cops face lesser charges. more ›

The NYPD's recruiting woes appear to be continuing through 2008, with a sharp drop-off in the number of candidates applying to sit for the Police Officer Exam, which is the first step to qualifying to enter the Police Academy. According to the New York Post, the number of test takers is down 20% from number of people who took the exam at the same time last year. "Slightly fewer than 20,000 have applied for the Feb. 23 test, down from the roughly 25,000 who filed last year. In October 2004, more than 35,000 registered for the test." more ›

The story of Philadelphia anchorwoman Alycia Lane gets stranger and stranger. Her first call upon release from custody after punching a NYPD officer was, according to the Philadelphia Daily News, to Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell. A spokesman for the Pennsylvania governor told the paper, she did it to "make sure he knew her side of the story because he is an opinion-maker and runs around in influential circles." And "I think she knew better than to ask him to intervene." He also stressed that the office was not going intervene in the matter. To us it seemed like a bit more bad judgment on the part of Lane. more ›

The police department has launched a citywide dragnet to find suspects who fired at two police officers during a Brooklyn traffic stop early yesterday morning. 23-year-old police officer Russel Timoshenko was shot twice in the head while 26-year-old police officer Herman Yan was shot in the arm and chest. A surveillance video showed that the cops were shot before they had reached the driver and passengers in the car. The Daily News' Michael Daly describes:

Footage from the surveillance camera mounted outside the Little Red Riding Hood preschool shows the green BMW SUV pulling over. more ›

A three year old German Shepherd dog on the NYPD's K-9 unit was seriously injured when he was literally sniffing out a suspect. Ranger and his handler, Police Officer Neal Campbell, were looking for Ivan Boston, a felon who was suspected of violating his parole. They entered Boston's apartment, and the floor was filled with broken dishes and glass. Boston refused to appear, so Ranger went into a bedroom by himself. Boston had been hiding under a mattress and Ranger found him, but cut his left foreleg on a mirror in the process. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "[The police dogs] go by themselves into dangerous situations. That's why we use them - to protect our other officers." more ›

An ugly tale from this weekend unfolded from the Queens District Attorney's office. Two white men were charged with beating two Chinese-Americans in Douglaston, and then tried to get away from police later on by crashing into the police cruiser and hurting the officers. From the DA's press release:

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, four Asian males – Reynold Liang, 19, John Lu, 19, David Wu, 19, and Wing Chung Poon – were in a white Lexus at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2006, when the defendants [19 year old Kevin] Brown and [20 year old Paul] Heavey pulled up alongside of them in a 1998 Toyota and began cursing and shouting racial slurs. At one point, the defendants allegedly drove behind Liang’s Lexus and intentionally rammed it. Fearful, Liang drove away in an attempt to escape from the two defendants. Believing he had eluded the defendants, he pulled over at the intersection of 44th Avenue and Douglaston Parkway, where victim Lu got out of the car to inspect the damage to the rear of the Lexus. As he did so, the defendants reappeared. Exiting their vehicle and approaching Lu, the defendants allegedly punched him about the head and body, causing him to suffer lacerations requiring multiple stitches and substantial pain, including several loose teeth. During the attack the defendants are alleged to have uttered more racial slurs. In coming to his friend’s aid, victim Liang was also allegedly punched and kicked about the head and body by the defendants. Crawling back to his car, Liang picked up “The Club” which was then allegedly grabbed from him by the defendants who used it to hit him numerous times about the head and body, causing him to sustain a possible fractured skull and substantial pain to his chest. more ›

The defense attorney of one of the men accused of beating up an off-duty police officer says his client will be cleared. Police Officer Eric Hernandez so badly injured when a group of men beat him at a White Castle that he was seemingly unable to hear an on-duty police officer's request for him to lower his gun, only the other officer to shoot him. The Bronx DA released footage of an interview with the three men who were allegedly harrassing a White Castle employee, only for Hernandez to intervene and a fight to start. Edwin Rivera said that Hernandez never identified himself as a police officer, and then showed he had a gun:

“He’s looking around, and he’s eating his french fries, looking around like he’s about to do something. So that’s when I came and I hit him, and then I threw him to the side — and I didn’t think that all my friends was going to jump in and start kicking.”

Police Officer Eric Hernandez, the star of the NYPD football team, had part of his right leg amputated as his injured leg's condition worsened. Hernandez's right and left legs, as well as stomach, were shot when a fellow police officer, Alfredo Toro, appeared on the scene of a brawl at a Bronx White Castle. Hernandez had been beaten by a group inside the fast food joint, and was trying to leave when Toro came. It seems that Hernandez thought that Toro might be another attacker, and Toro shot when Hernandez did not put down his gun, not knowing he was a cop. A fourth member of the gang turned himself in as the lawyer for another man, Edwin Rivera, claimed his client was a hero for beating up Hernandez, saying the client thought Hernandez was a robber and might kill people at the White Castle; Commissioner Kelly said, "It was plain for anyone who saw the tape that Rivera initiated this cowardly attack." more ›

While the start of the year means hope and promise for good things to come, it got to a rocky start in NYC: more ›

- Some of L.A. gets a blackout; so far, it doesn't seem to be Al Qaeda but rather some "overzealous cable cutting"... however, it's unlikely that blackout babies will be conceived, since power should be going up soon more ›

The only bright thing to come from the City Hall shooting, and it's only bright because of a tragedy, is the promotion of Police Officer Richard Burt to Detective, after his quick thinking and actions on Wednesday, killing Othniel Askew who had shot Councilman James E. Davis. Mayor Bloomberg praised, "Thankfully, we will never know what would have happened had Officer Burt not been there, been so quick on his feet and been so accurate with his gun," during the swearing in ceremony (pictures). Officer Burt had been 40 feet away, and gun experts tell Newsday that shots with that kind of accuracy, under those circumstances, are very impressive. Detective Burt plans to stay at City Hall. more ›