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. Immediately, there are concerns the police will use Tasers as compliance tools. Just this past week, a Brooklyn man died after being shot with a Taser by a Long Island cop while trying to swallow a bag of cocaine.......

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. The report, started in January 2007, focuses on preventing incidents similar to the Bell shooting, where police officers fired 50 times. RAND identified what......

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......

Yesterday, the Daily News reported that one police officer was stripped of his badge and gun "for ordering the NYPD's highest-ranking uniformed black officer out of his auto while the three-star chief was off-duty and parked in Queens." Naturally, the incident has sparked outrage from both sides. Two plainclothes cops, both white, approached a parked police-issued SUV in Corona and asked the driver to roll down the tinted windows. Chief Douglas Zeigler, who is in......

The drownings that two retired NYPD detectives linked to a serial killing spree they claim has been underway for over a decade, is being questioned by both the FBI and police commish Ray Kelly. Newsday reports that yesterday Kelly stated there is "nothing to suggest" that the two men who drowned in New York were victims of a nationwide network of serial killers who are allegedly responsible for approximately 40 deaths since 1997. The network,......

It's not unusual for police officers to make side money by moonlighting with second jobs. Christian Torres is a rookie cop, however, who took that practice to a whole new level--allegedly robbing banks when off duty. On Thursday, Torres arrested in Pennsylvania less than a block from the bank he just robbed. Unaware the teller had tripped a silent alarm and that a police officer followed him, he showed his NYPD badge, thinking he was......

Untitled photo of rodeo clown, by Zodak at flickr According to WNBC's Jonathan Dienst, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wrote a letter to the MTA, MSG, Amtrak, and Vornado Realty expressing his dismay over the lack of Penn Station security. Three years after funding had been secured for the construction of a legitimately effective security barrier to protect Penn Station from a truck bomb attack, Kelly says little has been done to implement any plans.......

After outcry over the Justice Department's denial of benefits for the families of two auxiliary cops killed last year, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey will reportedly review the decision. Senator Chuck Schumer, who co-wrote legislation to give benefits to families of first-responders who die in the line of duty, said Mukasey "seemed sympathetic. He said he would review it personally. He's a legal eagle, and the fact that the law is on our side should......

Not only is the NYPD having trouble getting potential recruits to sit for the entrance exam to the Police Academy, but one in five who gain entrance wind up dropping out or disqualifying themselves before they graduate. The end result is that for the first time in years, fewer than 1,000 were officers were added to the force from a graduating class and the size of the NYPD has shrunk to its smallest number in......

The NYPD is going to be constructing a secure facility at police headquarters to house and gain access to classified anti-terrorism intelligence previously limited to national organizations like the FBI. The center is known as a Sensitive Compartmented Intelligence Facility (SCIF) and access to the facility will only be granted to NYPD personnel with proper security clearances. The SCIF was requested by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has NYPD personnel working abroad to combat terrorism......

Parades are generally times when politicians come out to march with and wave to constituents. (At last year's Gay Pride Parade, City Council Speaker Quinn and Senator Clinton marched, and Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer, and Senator Schumer were at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.) But Monday's St. Patrick's Day Parade may have few politicians, because Lieutenant Governor David Paterson is being sworn in that day, too. The Staten Island Advance points out the swearing-in is......

Photograph of damaged door by dhfdz on Flickr Around 3:45 a.m., a device exploded outside the military recruiting center in Times Square. No one was injured, but a glass entryway was shattered. The streets around Times Square were shut down (now traffic can pass through) and subway service passed through the Times Square station without stopping (it's back to normal now), as authorities investigated the scene. WNBC reports police were searching for a "suspect......

After the city was moved by the story of a baby abandoned in the backseat of a livery cab and how the driver dropped off the baby at a fire house, prompting the police and media to look for the baby's relatives, it turns out the livery cab driver was involved in the abandonment scheme. Driver Klever Sailema was arrested today, as were another man and woman. Oh, no. According to the police, "Sailema was......

Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg proclaiming a counterfeit foods store closed in a raid of counterfeit good sellers by Bebeto Matthews/AP Nothing says press conference like raiding a 32 stores in what the city dubs "Counterfeit Triangle" and hauling away over a $1 million worth of brand-name products. The raid, taking down stores in the area bounded by Canal Street, Walker Street and Centre Street, occurred in the early morning, with cops using bolt-cutters to......

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. Levitt notes that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly actually complained to Newsday editors about his coverage, not even complaining......

Miguel Matias called 911 yesterday morning to confess to police that he had strangled his daughter. He lied, however, about where he placed her body. The 34-year-old building superintendent told cops that he killed the 14-year-old girl because she wouldn't stop texting or instant messaging a boy, and that he then dumped her body in the woods. When police searched the Bronx building where he worked, however, they found the partially burned body of a......

Update: Police have arrested David Tarloff, a Queens resident and former patient of Shinbach's, for Faughey's murder. The Post reports Tarloff, described as overweight with a bald spot by neighbors, has a history of violent crime. Apparently fingerprints found on suitcases left at the crime scene led the police to Tarloff. Earlier: As the family and friends prepare to say good-bye at a funeral for psychologist Kathryn Faughey today, the police have been questioning a......

The Queens DA's office and NYPD revealed new details about the killing of a Queens dentist. and why his estranged wife was arrested for murder and conspiracy. Daniel Malakov, who had been fighting with wife Dr. Mazultov Borukhova over custody of their young daughter, was gunned down at a playground last October when taking the 4-year-old to his wife for visitation. Borukhova was arrested Thursday night, months after her uncle by marriage, Mikahil Mallayev, was......

Sixty-two men associated with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno crime families were arrested yesterday in a federal, state and local coordinated sweep in the New York region. A number of Gambino-related arrests were also made in Italy, and authorities have described this as the biggest mob bust in decades. Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said, "Our goal is and always has been simple: to dismantle the Gambino organized-crime family in a coordinated and consistent......

Sad use of our flag. [cropped], by S.D. at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 104th Ave. and Remington St. in Queens, a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. and 45th St. in Manhattan, and a gas main break on Van Siclen Ave. in Brooklyn.Midtown Lunch considers why it was left off the positive press clippings wall of the new Goodburger.New York Shitty wonders about these Bed-Stuy guard dogs - they only......

Photograph of MTA police K9 team by Diane Bondareff/AP Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced New York City will receive $153 million - up from last year's $61 million - in transit security grants. Wow - all we can do is remember Chertoff's 2005 remark, when trying discussing how security funding would be allocated, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the......

The hits keep coming for the NYPD. Yesterday, federal prosecutors accused a Brooklyn detective of drug trafficking. The indictment (you can read it here) claims Batista would leak law enforcement information to a cocaine ring that also engaged in violence. Another cop, Sergeant Henry Conde in internal affairs (!), was indicted for telling Batista that he was being probed. Batista, who worked out of the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn, pleaded "absolutely not guilty" and his......

When you're found to be making pipe bombs amidst an apartment arsenal of weapons and then confess to painting swastikas in your Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, expect the book to be thrown at you repeatedly. Ivaylo Ivanov was charged with over 100 criminal counts for his activities. Found in the Remsen Street apartment he shared with AIDS researcher Dr. Michael Clatts (they had their own living spaces in the duplex) were a "sniper rifle, machine gun,......

After intense speculation about why the masseuse who discovered Heath Ledger's body last Tuesday called actress Mary-Kate Olsen multiple times, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to reporters yesterday to clear the air. Kelly said, "We believe that of the three phone calls by the masseuse to Mary-Kate Olsen, only one got through. That call was 99 seconds long." Commissioner Kelly further emphasized, "There is absolutely no indication that investigators were going to speak to Mary-Kate......

Early this morning, a 30-year-old man was shot dead outside a bar-restaurant in Long Island City. Joseph Prince, who was found with two gun shots in his head, had been attending a friend's prison release party. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a fight that started at La Familia Bar and Restaurant on 44th Drive and moved to the street, where people started to throw bottles at each other. The Daily News reports that shell casings......

Rose Morat, the 101-year-old victim of a vicious mugging caught on surveillance tape last year, testified at a special videotaped hearing in a Queens courtroom yesterday. Morat will turn 102 next month and Queens prosecutors thought it would be prudent to make sure her testimony was recorded, as the actual case probably won't go to trial for another year. Morat didn't seem to take the precaution personally. Upon taking the stand, Morat described the events......

No arrests have been made, but a violent incident in Times Square originating at karaoke nightclub early Monday Spotlight LiveSpotlight Live resulted in the death of one man and the injury or hospitalization six others last night. A coat-check dispute, led to the ejection of a number of patrons and resulted in a deadly brawl. The restaurant's spokesman said that patrons who had been arguing and then got into a shoving match were asked to......

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has ordered a revision to the NYPD's appearance guidelines and facial hair on cops is for the most part forbidden. No full beards, no goatees, no chinstrap beards, and no highly sculpted facial hair patterns. Mustaches, of course, are still acceptable. Undercover cops are allowed to retain whatever facial hair they choose. Uniformed officers found to be insufficiently clean shaven could face a formal infraction report or the loss of a......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a possible abduction on Warwick St. and Livonia Ave. in Brooklyn, a police involved shooting on West Kingsbridge Rd. in the Bronx, and an abduction on 33rd St. and 5th Ave. in Manhattan. A contestant on Deal or No Deal from Bayonne, NJ tells host Howie Mandel that the godawful smell around there is from the dump on Staten Island. Residents of Richmond County are not amused. Two pitbulls,......

Staten Island's Ninja Burglar struck again late last week, slipping furtively and unseen into a doctor's home on Melbourn Rd. in the Castleton Corners section of the borough. No one was home at the time and he scored big in his 19th break-in since May of last year, making off with $20,000 in jewelry. The theft comes just a little over a month after the man in black struck twice in quick succession in......