Jessie Tisch has made a lot of smart moves since becoming police commissioner two months ago and now letting the press physically move back into NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza is another one.
The exiling of the reporters from the Daily News and their competitors and colleagues from the Post, the Times, Newsday, the AP, CBS and WNYC from their admittedly run down and cramped second floor offices called the Shack to a supposedly modern, spacious trailer outside the building happened about a year ago under then-Commissioner Eddie Caban. But Caban is gone now and so is the exile.
Tuesday, Tisch came to the trailer and said that everyone was welcome back into 1PP, the 1973 brutalist structure where the press had been resident since it opened. The new Shack is now on the first floor, which was vacated by the grand larceny unit.
As for the Shack’s name, it comes from the ramshackle space used by the newsmen (there were no female police reporters back then) that was across the street from the prior NYPD HQs at 240 Centre St., the 1909 Baroque and Beaux-Arts building that is now fancy apartments. When the NYPD moved into 1PP during the Lindsay administration, so did the press.
Having the working press onsite is important as it affords access to the agency by the people whose task it is to cover the agency. Sometimes that coverage will be laudatory, like when Tisch shook up the old boy’s network, ordering the ending of the abuse of overtime, the use of official vehicles and the dangerous policy of high speed chases. And, of course, her permitting the press back into the building.
But there will be headlines and stories in The News and elsewhere that she and her successors won’t like. Tough cookies. They can freely express their displeasure, but kicking out the press is wrong.
The excuse offered a year ago during the forced move out from the Shack was to allow for ethnic media outlets. That’s a fine goal, but it was no reason to boot out the established journalists. And it was a hollow excuse at that, as everyone is now being accommodated inside; there are no reporters left stuck out in the trailer.
Openness and transparency is good for the Police Department, from the brass inside 1PP to the thousands of cops doing the hard work on the streets and in the subways keeping 8 million New Yorkers safe.
Tisch should keep going and extend that same sentiment to public records requests. Unless the material is barred by law from being released, like juvenile arrest records, it should be turned over when being sought.
The same for body cam video that is standard equipment for every officer. The unblinking eye of the camera serves to document exactly what happened during an encounter when human memories sometimes get hazy.
And don’t forget about finding a way to mitigate the NYPD’s encryption of the police band radios that the press would long tune into to be alerted to emergencies and crime scenes.
Tisch understands that the press is not the foe of the police, the criminals are. As she focuses on fighting crime, the press will report on her progress, and do it once again from the Shack.
