The Shack is back.
Reporters who cover the nation’s largest police force are moving back inside the department’s headquarters after being exiled more than a year ago to an outside facility.
New NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch personally broke the news to reporters during a rare visit to the once-controversial satellite office suite.
After decades of reporting about the biggest crime stories from a row of offices affectionately called “The Shack,” in December 2023 reporters were relocated to a modular unit behind NYPD headquarters in a move billed as an effort to make room for the city’s ethnic media outlets.
But news outlets complained that the move outside the building limited access, and impeded reporters’ ability to effectively cover the department.
Reporters had worked inside the NYPD’s current headquarters since it opened at 1 Police Plaza in 1973.
The nickname for the offices comes from the Mulberry St. apartments, known as shacks, where they long worked prior to the establishment of the current headquarters.
The NYPD backed down from plans to kick out reporters in 2009, following an outcry during the Bloomberg administration.
After the move outside, reporters were subject to the same security restrictions as the general public.
The move back inside comes with a new plan to put dedicated police reporters on an accelerated security line.
The new first-floor digs were previously used by a grand larceny unit.
