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Former Mayor Ed Koch is, in his typical outspoken style, upfront about his choice for mayor in 2013. He sized up the potential field — focusing on who he thinks can keep the city on track.

Many politicians, from Mayor Bloomberg to President Obama, want to have it both ways on civil liberties: Loosening restrictions on same-sex marriage, while pushing the limits of constitutionality on crime and terrorism.

Under increasing heat for the New York City police department’s stop-and-frisk practices, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly sent a letter to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn outlining changes, as WNYC first reported last week, to the policy. But law enforcement experts say Kelly’s changes do not go far enough.

Law enforcers say luxury car owners in New York City were "stalked" by thieves who were filling orders for buyers in Africa.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board unanimously ratified an agreement with the City Council, mayor and police department on Monday to allow it to prosecute all cases of police misconduct that its investigators substantiate. 

The NYPD officer who fired first in the Sean Bell case back in 2006 has been dismissed from the NYPD following an internal departmental trial decision approved by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Detective Gescard Isnora had been criminally charged and acquitted in the November 2006 case but lost his bid to stay on the force.

Mayor Bloomberg needs to defend corporate abuses one day, and police actions the next, making him the best recruiter Occupy Wall Street could ask for.

A ritual City Council hearing on next year's NYPD budget turned into a heated two hour back and forth between NYPD Commissioner Ray  Kelly and his council critics on everything from the department's stop-and-frisk strategy to its covert surveillance of Muslim-Americans. Kelly was quick to dismiss calls from members of the council for an Inspector General to provide independent oversight of the NYPD.

A police officer narrowly escaped serious injury during a gun battle in the Lower East Side overnight when the suspect's bullet was deflected by the officer's gun belt, according to the NYPD.

The fallout continues after reports this week that the NYPD launched a massive surveillance program targeting Muslim students on college campuses across throughout the Northeast. The story was first broken earlier this week by the Associated Press which reported that the NYPD has kept a close watch on Muslim student groups — including tracking which websites they visited, monitoring speakers at events, and sending an undercover officer on a whitewater rafting trip attended by Muslim students. 

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has ordered a citywide audit of all street-level narcotics teams after investigators discovered the cop who shot an unarmed Bronx man was not qualified for the detail he was assigned to the day of the incident.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly scores high for job performance despite recent flare-ups in the press over surveillance efforts targeting Muslim communities and his role in a controversial anti-Muslim film, according to a poll of New York City voters.

Last year, New York City police officers made the greatest number of marijuana arrests in more than a decade, according to new state records.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg continued to defend NYPD spokesman Paul Browne Monday — days after the top police aide was forced to backpedal on remarks when it was revealed that nearly 1,500 officers were shown an anti-Muslim film.

Police commissioner Ray Kelly said Friday he has no plans to resign following calls for him to step down after it was revealed that nearly 1,500 officers were shown an anti-Muslim film in which the city’s top cop appears as an interviewee.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is focusing on the positive as the year comes to a close. With the police and fire commissioners at his side, Bloomberg announced the city is on track to record just over 500 murders for 2011.

Marijuana arrests in New York City are still high, but slowing down slightly. Still, the dip in such arrests hasn’t stopped allegations that police officers are still making improper arrests by illegally searching and mischarging people.

Sean Bell's family expressed gratitude at an administrative judge's recommendation Wednesday, calling for officer Gescard Isnora to be fired by the New York Police Department. Isnora was one of several officers involved in the 2006 shooting that killed Bell. Now it's up to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to make the final decision on whether Isnora is fired.

The city is on track to have the lowest number of traffic fatalities in a century. But cycling advocates say the NYPD can crackdown even harder.

A Manhattan man who was described by city officials as an al-Qaida sympathizer was arrested on charges that he was plotting to bomb police patrol cars, postal facilities and target members of the armed forces returning home, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Sunday.