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Once the issuance of parking permits is centralized, a police officer can check a database to determine whether the parking permit is being properly used, e.g. teacher parking permit used on Saturday night at Time Square.

I've always heard that the plan was to put in your time in the NYPD then apply for Nassau or Suffolk counties. Both are amongst the highest paid police forces in the nation.

Referring to the previous officer who called, I'm curious what the starting pay is for a rookie in the suburbs compared to the NYPD's $25k.

Has any academic compared crime activity during the recent drug trade from 1980s to now to Prohibition of alcohol?

Drew, the police union decided to give greater increases to cops senior cops at the expense of rookies... it how they decided to divvy up the pot -- the fire dept and other unions did not decide to do that.

What about University Heights, Morris Heights, Inwood?

I just watched Serpico last night and was struck by the thought that if these guys aren't making enough money to survive living in NYC it unfortunately would make it more likely that the officers would be susceptible to being on the take. Why not pay officers more?

Also, I feel like I see many more cops on the street these days and it also seems like they are always on their cell phones or texting and I wonder if they are missing anything happening on the streets. The streets do seem to be quieter, though. Lots and lots of texting. I see it all the time.

Brian,
You keep harping on the starting salaries of cops being the fault of the city; however if you recall that decision was a function of the police union, not the city -- you covered that yourself!

I don't know if this has been discussed, but what about this sort of dumping of rookie cops into the city's most violent neighborhoods? First of all, isn't this likely to dramatically increase the incidents of jumpy, poorly-trained recruits shooting first and asking questions later? And secondly, won't this deter future recruits if they think they're going to be sent into the most dangerous areas?

I'm so tired of seeing cops driving around talking on cell phones turning on their lights to go through intersections when there is no emergency and generally flaunting their power I could just scream. It starts with the small things and gets worse. How can we expect these people to care about the law if they are constantly breaking it?

I understand that the use of meth has contributed to crime increases in other cities. Any predictions about how NYC might respond to a meth epidemic?

I am in Rego Park and have lived here most of my 38 years

I have noticed a lot more police activity. We have also had a huge influx of Russian and ex-soviet republic immigrants. Is this presence for petty crimes or is there any Russian mob activities. How much of a presence does the Russian mob have in New York?

have we checked to see if the crime rates in outlying areas are up?

How much of the 100 murders from people who don't know each other is gang related?

"We are proud to have welcomed most would-be criminals into the business community."

"In the final days of the administration of David Dinkins, we had 36 consecutive months of decline in the crime statistics across the board, in the seven index crimes. Murder went down 14 percent. Those last 36 months under Dinkins reversed trends that were a decade old. Who should get the credit, the mayor who reversed the trend or the mayor who deepened the trend?

Obviously, we know who's gotten the credit. The New York Times has done, by my latest count, twelve front-page articles about the decline in the crime rate under Rudy Giuliani. It did one article about the decline in the crime rate under David Dinkins -- and in that 55-paragraph story, it never mentioned the name of David Dinkins. What Rudy Giuliani has managed to do is mug the media into accepting as fact that he is the man who caused it to happen."

- Wayne Barret, "Giuliani's Legacy: Taking Credit For Things He Didn't Do", Gotham Gazette