Results tagged “raykelly”

More than 85% of people stopped and frisked by the NYPD are released without an arrest or summons. But just because the police let you go, doesn't mean they forget all about you! The NYPD maintains a database of more than 500,000 people stopped, questioned, frisked, and released each year. And Councilman Peter Vallone wants the department to hit delete.

A sixteen-year-old Queens boy has confessed to firing the the shots that killed thirteen-year-old Kevin Miller just after the end of the school day at nearby Campus Magnet High School. Nnonso Ekwegbalu of Laurelton was arrested on Saturday night and admitted to being the one to pull a gun and fire the two shots that left Miller dead and injured a 17-year-old employee of the car wash where the fight that sparked the gunshots was taking place. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday that there was an arrest and that Ekwegbalu has "made statements" in regards to the Cambria Heights shooting. Reports did not mention if they found the orange shirt that Ekwegbalu was allegedly wearing that initially led them to arrest and quickly release a Campus Magnet football player soon after the shooting.

Yesterday Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that it will be "impossible" for prosecutors to determine how drunk an off-duty cop was when he fatally ran over a Brooklyn woman Saturday night. The family of Vionique Valnord is outraged that officer Andrew Kelly was able to successfully postpone having his blood tested for alcohol for over seven hours after the accident, and the Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating whether other officers helped him sober up. When finally tested, Kelly scored a perfect zero on the test, making the DWI charges against him problematic.

Threatening to kill people like President Obama and NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly isn't what made Crank Yankers a hit. On Sunday afternoon, police arrested 18-year-old Bronx teen Jonathan Avalos for calling 911 five times that morning and making the threats. Police sources tell the Daily News he's undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, because standing outside an Obama event with a gun is one thing, but crank calls will not be tolerated.

Looks like everyone's coming clean. Yesterday the WWF admitted that the controversial 9/11-themed ad was probably cleared by someone at the organization, and now AdAge is reporting that "after initially lying about it, DDB Brasil now admits it created a video version of the Brazilian print ad 'Tsunami,' and entered both ads in the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June."

In what is considered an unusual move in cases involving a shooting by the police, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly invited the family of Shem Walker down to his offices at police headquarters. Walker was the man fatally shot by an undercover cop last month after an altercation where Walker tried to chase the plainclothes officer away from his mother's stoop in Clinton Hill. Despite Kelly's attempt to reach out, Walker's family was not pleased with the results. A spokesman said, "This family has walked into this meeting with high hopes of getting some answers and walked out of this meeting highly disappointed...The story the commissioner was presented with has as many holes as Swiss cheese. It has not answered the fundamental question about why the police when asked to leave private property did not do so." The Brooklyn DA's office continues to investigate the shooting, but there has been no indication whether it will be submitted to a grand jury. Councilwoman Letitia James said, "We're dissatisfied with version of the facts as reported by Commissioner Kelly. They belie the truth as we know it. They belie common sense. And they belie the community."

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).

Former NYC Police Chief William Bratton announced yesterday that he will step down from his current post running the LAPD and return to New York to work in the private sector. Bratton has been chief of police in Los Angeles since 2002 and spoke of his tenure with a sense of "mission accomplished" yesterday, telling reporters, "We succeeded in making this city one of the safest in America."

The mother of the undercover police officer who was shot by a fellow officer in East Harlem in May has expressed how displeased she is with the handling of the case. Natalia Harding, mother of the late Officer Omar Edwards, has rekindled discussion over the incident in which her son, a black officer in plainclothes, was fatally shot by Officer Andrew Dunton, a white cop chasing on foot. Harding said, "If this was Omar Edwards who shot -- whatever his name is — Dunton, Omar Edwards would be sitting in jail right now waiting to be tried for murder. I would like to see him go to jail. He is going to go out and do the same thing again."

Just yesterday city officials were bitching about how the Justice Department wasn't giving NYC a dime from the $1 billion economic-stimulus money intended to help cities avoid laying off cops. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder explained that, "These officers will go to where they are needed most, based on crime rates, financial need and community policing activities." In other words, crime is relatively low here, and other places (like the mean streets of Caribou, Maine) need help more. Mayor Bloomberg fumed to reporters, "To punish our Police Department because they have driven down crime with fewer resources shows the backwards incentive system that is sometimes at work in Washington."

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.

The Westhampton Beach Police Chief is looking for a raise—and Newsday says that if he gets one, he "would make more than New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who oversees the largest police department in the country." Kelly earn $189,700; Westhampton Beach Police Chief Raymond Dean makes $149,624/year for his base, and he also gets extra pay which makes his total pay "$188,709.60. He is also entitled to compensatory time - days for extra work." Dean explained, "The guy who cleans my cesspool makes more money than me." Newsday points out there were only 43 serious crimes in Westhampton Beach, whereas there were 116,824 in NYC. Westhampton Village Mayor—and former Southampton police chief—Conrad Teller said, "Commissioner Kelly made the mistake of staying in New York. He made his choice." Well, maybe Dean wants to move to Clarkstown, NY—over there, the chief made $332,529.88, one captain made "$335,676 while working two days a week because of a disability and spending three days a week undergoing physical therapy" and the other captain made over $311,000, according to this NY Times article about high police pay.

Earlier this morning, around 3:30 a.m., an explosion was reported outside of a building at Third Avenue and 92nd Street. The NYPD is conducting an investigation; according to WCBS 2, "Officials tell CBS 2HD it wasn't a bomb that went off, but an improvised explosive device. The device was planted on a bench outside the Starbucks."

Responding to questions about a dramatic increase in violent assaults downtown, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday that police are "aggressively investigating" the crime wave, while acknowledging that "there also has been a bit of a hate crimes element in some of those crimes, so our Hate Crimes Task Force is doing an investigation." But Kelly also stressed that "the rise in those assaults we believe emanated from clubs," and that insisted that overall crime is down in the Village. The remarks came after a City Council budget hearing, during which he warned that the impending $20 million in NYPD budget cuts could mean less cops on the street, because the department will have to fire 395 civilian administrative aides who type and file reports. At first they'll be replaced with cops on restricted duty, but Kelly predicts that officers will eventually be pulled off patrol to help with paperwork. The police force is already down to 35,571 cops, from 40,000 in 2001, and one source points out the obvious to the Daily News: "Anyone pulled in to type is a dead waste of people."

A trial challenging the NYPD's classification of group bicycle rides like Critical Mass as "parades" kicked off today in United States District Court in Manhattan. Two years ago, the NYPD began enforcing a controversial new rule that requires groups of 50 or more to apply for permits when taking to the streets for processions, races and protests. The new policy gave legal legitimacy to a police crackdown on the monthly Critical Mass bicycle rides, which have been a source of tension between cyclists and cops since the Republican convention in 2004.

Because of the NYPD's abiding commitment to self-transcendence in the fields of racial profiling and constitutional violation, the department has beat its own lofty record for the number of reported stop and frisk interrogations in three months. According to a data revealed today [pdf] at the NYCLU's insistence, the NYPD stopped and searched more innocent people during the first three months of 2009 than during any three-month period since police began collecting data on the program.

During a press conference to introduce the NYPD's new fleet of hybrid patrol cars, Commissioner Ray Kelly revealed a new addition to the department's controversial "stop and frisk" repertoire: Explaining. The new policy, which went into effect last week, requires any officer stopping a person in the street for a pat-down to divulge "the reason, or reasons, why it occurred." And in a pilot program being tested in Harlem, the South Bronx, and East New York, the subject of the search will also be given a 3-by-5-inch card explaining why the stop and frisk is so not racial profiling.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that there are about 70,000 hacking attempts to crack the NYPD's computer system every day. Luckily, the NYPD has a "robust protective system" that's prevented any of the attacks—mostly from China and the Netherlands—from being successful; the Daily News explains that according to sources, "It appears the hackers have devised a automated system in which computers around the world make up to 5,000 attempts a day at pinpointing unsecured portals into the NYPD's files." However, Kelly said in his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations that the foreign interest in NYPD data may be due to "the NYPD's reach into the international arena," adding, "As the memory of September 11th fades, we in the Police Department must never forget that New York remains the world's most enduring terrorist target." The Post offered some perspective: While 70K attacks/day is a lot, an agency like the Pentagon has about 10 times more attacks daily.

Sixteen-year-old John Katehis pleaded not guilty in a Brooklyn court last night to charges of second-degree murder and weapons possession after police say he confessed to the stabbing of WABC radio newsman George Weber earlier in the day. His lawyer said that details of the relationship between the two will emerge later and that he thinks Katehis "was used by an older gentleman." The teen apparently responded to Weber's Craiglist ad looking for rough sex.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wants TD Bank to increase its security: The Daily News reports that he sent the bank a letter criticizing the bank's "friendly" atmosphere (like robber-friendly) lack of bandit barriers, "It is simply unacceptable to put business decisions before public safety." The News adds, "As if to prove Kelly's point, a prolific thief successfully robbed $1,000 from a TD branch on Ninth Ave. Monday - after being rebuffed at three Chase branches" (the Chase branches do have barriers between the customer and tellers). Apparently 17% of this year's bank robberies occurred at TD Bank branches, but TD Bank says, "We don't believe saying that we have a disproportionate amount of robberies is a fair portrayal of us." The NYPD wants to see bandit barriers plus eye-level cameras and "countertops designed to leave clear fingerprints" at bank branches to help deter more bank robberies (which were up 57% last year).

After being struck by one car, a man was dragged by a second vehicle through 17 miles of highway from Queens into Brooklyn early this morning. Police have not been able to identify the man who was originally struck by the SUV at 6 a.m. in Corona, not far from Shea Stadium and would not be discovered until the van's driver arrived in Coney Island an hour later. Along the way, the body was dragged from the Grand Central Parkway to the Van Wyck Expressway and then onto the Belt Parkway before other motorists flagged the driver down.

With the city in the midst of a bank robbery renaissance, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday implored bank officials to increase security. According to Newsday, bank robberies were up 57 percent in NYC last year, to 444 from 283 in 2007. More branches like TD Bank (formerly Commerce) have adopted "friendly," open interior designs in recent years, and Kelly says that's part of the problem; he wants banks to go back to using bullet-resistant glass, or "bandit barriers." Some police officials believe another factor in the crime wave to be the cratering economy, which may be contributing to a rise in bank robberies nationwide—the number of bank jobs rose 6.4 percent in the first six months of 2008. But Gotham clearly deserves a better class of criminal.

Ray Kelly is telling Congress that the NYPD is looking for ways to interfere with cell phone service in the event of another terrorist attack. It's reported that while testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security today, Kelly will say that disrupting communications as a defense against terror is one of the biggest lessons taken from the Mumbai attacks this past November. Those coordinating the attacks in Mumbai had kept in touch with each other throughout the course of the events. The Post says that it is uncertain whether Kelly means finding a way to infiltrate a network used by terrorists or has something in mind of a grander scale, such as shutting down service for a large area of Manhattan during an attack. Another change in policy carried out by Kelly since a three-member NYPD counterterrorism team that visited Mumbai three days after the attack in India is the decision last month to train rookie officers in how to use machine guns.

A report is linking the man suspected of robbing 16 banks throughout the city this year to over 50 other hits across the country throughout the last two decades. Eric Manson has been pegged as the man who has robbed a number of banks in fancy east side neighborhoods around Manhattan as well as ones in Brooklyn and Queens starting in March. Manson was just let out of federal prison in 2007 after serving time for other robberies, including a dozen here in town he confessed to in 1998. He also committed 40 more in California in the '90s where he was known as the "change-maker bandit," asking tellers for change before demanding thousands in cash. Nowadays he simply passes cashiers a threatening note saying to give him hundreds of dollars. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly recently noted that banks have made themselves more vulnerable over the years by being open more hours and not having tellers behind glass.

Hundreds of officers from the NYPD and elsewhere came out to pay their respects to Lieutenant Michael Pigott yesterday at the first day of his wake in Islip. Pigott died Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a week after being embroiled in a media frenzy following the Taser-induced death of an emotionally disturbed man. Friends and family paid tribute to Pigott yesterday with one lifelong friend telling Newsday, "He was a gentle-hearted person, big heart, generous, friendly, sweet. Everyone loved him." There were also definite feelings of bitterness in the air due to the circumstances surrounding Pigott's death. Some colleagues were upset at Commissioner Ray Kelly's denial of an antique truck from Piggott's unit to be used during his funeral. And one guest lashed out at reporters saying, “You people are half of what caused this, O.K.? The media and the pressure you put on this man that did nothing wrong, you are responsible.”

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 his third bar, Brady's on 2nd Avenue, he was staggering around with his gun visible, an NYPD no-no. A Brady's bartender told the Daily News, "I was freaking out. I wasn't going to serve the guy, but I didn't want to have to say no to a drunk with a gun." After leaving, police say Hynes fired his 9 mm on an ATM at 2nd and 83rd St., then found a nearby stoop where he was sitting alone where he was arrested. Maybe he had been inspired by the celebration of the notoriously hard-drinking Dunleavy.

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.

Following the release of the Rand Corp. report commissioned by the NYPD, much attention has been given to Tasers, the ballistic electrode-firing weapons meant as a less violent alternative than gunfire when dealing with life-threatening situations.

The RAND Corporation issued the findings of a report that commissioned by the NYPD in the wake of the Sean Bell shooting. Among the recommendations were that the NYPD should incorporate more realistic scenarios into its firearm training and increase the number of non-lethal weapons carried by personnel on the street.

Yesterday, police scoured Soho for clues after a 19-year-old was sexually assaulted in her apartment building on Prince Street near Sullivan. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly confirmed the victim was followed home from the subway station by the attacker:

"She was followed by an individual who asked her for a cigarette. She did give him a cigarette. She went into her residence; he followed her upstairs. He then accosted her, dragged her downstairs, and sexually assaulted her."