The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "New York City Police Department" ...
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Alleged Illegal Drug Searches and Unlawful Marijuana Arrests by NYPD
A two-part investigative series on marijuana arrests and illegal searches by the New York City Police Department and a look into the city's "Stop and Frisk" policy.
Tags: Marijuana; New York City Police Department; NYPD; Stop and Frisk
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NYPD: Fighting Crime at All Costs
WABC closely examined the aggressive policing policies of the NY Police Department. A tip from an officer regarding the use of quotas had turned into "a relentless pursuit of arrests and summonses in the city's minority communities that he claimed led to the write up of innocent people."
Tags: police; law enforcement; wrongful arrest; arrest; criminal statistics; crime statistics; crime; New York; NYPD; New York Police Department
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Police Illegally Buying Machine Guns
"An ongoing, in-depth investigation, coupled with ongoing Freedom of Information litigation, of the secret, illegal purchase of dozens of machine guns by officers of the Albany, NY Police Department who used their agency's authority to buy automatic weapons for official use only as a means to acquire restricted firearms for personal sport and amusement. Eventually, the guns began turning up for sale in at least two gun stores. To this day, several machine guns remain missing and unaccounted for while the department refuses to comply with New York's FOI Laws and has fought disclosure of the truth at every turn."
Tags: police; weapons; fireams; FOI; city government; law enforcement; gun control
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Private Security in a Post-9/11 World
As the focal point of a study of the private guard industry in New York state, WNYC looks at Tristar Patrol Services, "which had seen a dramatic expansion after the September 11 attack in NYC, getting more than $80 million in contract work with the City of New York." The company had more than a thousand employees, mostly young minority males, and they had the task of protecting all of the city's office space, infrastructure and Fire Department facilities. The investigation found that Tristar's owner, Gary Zimmer, had been convicted of assault and had to resign as a police officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, yet attained the right to hold a security guard company license when a judge, believing the owner's misrepresentation of his criminal case, granted him an exemption from state law. In addition, there were other issues as Tristar "had been disqualified from doing state work for misrepresenting it had properly credentialed guards, but went on to win a multi-million dollar, multi-year City contract." The company failed to properly compensate guards, including not paying for vacation or advanced state security credentials, and Tristar also did not pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars it was required to pay the union representing the guards to cover union dues and health and welfare benefits required by the contract." But because of the New York Secretary of State's lack of investigators, regulations were not enforced. Also, there is no uniform requirement across the country for the training and qualifications for security guards and companies.
Tags: Private security; Sept. 11, 2001; Tristar Patrol Services; Gary Zimmer; New York City security
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Your Right to Know
A team of 52 Journal News reporters gathered evidence through a FOI audit of 121 agencies in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam. The audit revealed that school districts and counties generally received an A for their compliance of FOI law. But police departments failed miserably, with a mere 37 percent of them giving out arrest data. Worse, New York's toothless Sunshine Law stifled access to public information and provided little incentive for government agencies to comply.
Tags: FOIA audit; Freedom of Information Act; data negotiation; open records; state government; city government; watchdog journalism
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The Color Of Suspicion
New York Times Magazine goes in-depth and behind the scenes of the issues of racial profiling in America's police departments. By riding along with cops in major cities across America, a picture slowly builds up of how cops really think, what cops really do and what the job requires of them. Central to the issue is the question about if and when race can be used to pull over motorists, whether in certain areas, groups of people of a certain race, driving particular types of vehicles are more likely to be committing certain types of crime. Beat cops seem to be speaking a different language from administrators.
Tags: racial profiling; racism; police
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Never say Never
"Police Commissioner Ed Norris didn't want to be a cop, and many Baltimoreans sure didn't want him to be a cop here. One year after his tumultuous promotion, why is Norris still fighting to lower one of America's highest murder rates." Baltimore Magazine takes a look at Police Commissioner Ed Norris, who became the Baltimore Police Department's "Top Cop" in 2000 after being brought to the city as deputy commissioner from New York City. In New York, Norris, the son of veteran from the NYC Police Department, quickly rose from the ranks of captain to deputy commissioner when the city began to lower its crime rate in 1995. But when Norris decided to go to Baltimore he was met by resistance from community groups as well as some elected officials, who were concerned he was bringing a "New York" style of policing to Baltimore. Now Norris has managed to quiet most of his skeptics and is focusing on lowering the city's high murder rate.
Tags: Law enforcement; police; Baltimore
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Vanished Teens Case Solved
This weekly newspaper investigated "the oldest missing teens case in the United States." Bonnie Bickwit,15, and Mitchel Weiser, 16, vanished in 1973. The two teens from Brooklyn disappeared on their way home after a large outdoor rock event held in Watkins Glen. The newspaper revealed an eyewitness account that the teenagers "drowned accidentally on July 28, 1973, in an upstate New York river..." The investigation exposed "decades of deception, negligence and incompetence by the New York City Police Department and the upstate New York Sullivan County Sheriff's Department." The reporter found that "both law enforcement agencies had lost the original case files, and failed to conduct the most basic interviews 27 years ago...They had been lying to the families of both teens for decades."
Tags: FOIA; law enforcement; detectives; investigation
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NYPD Strip Searches
WNYC-AM/FM reports that "Despite a court ruling outlawing the practice, there is evidence that the New York City Police Department is continuing to illegally strip search New Yorkers who are arrested for misdemeanors. ... Four Fordham University students who were strip searched after jumping a subway turnstile, and ... dozens of lawsuits for illegal strip searches. "
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Diallo shooting
The Daily News reports about "the circumstances of the (Diallo) shooting itself, the special police unit involved and how blacks and other minorities are treated day-to-day on city streets by members of the NYPD. Taken collectively, the stories demonstrate an ongoing problem with treatment of minorities in New York City by certain members of the Police Department. ... The News' stories raised serious questions about police actions on the night in question, exposed mistreatment of minorities as a matter of course and highlighted questionable trends as documented in records pertaining to the Street Crime Unit."
Tags: Amadou Diallo Police brutality shooting murder immigrants