Ailsa Chang

FBI labs in Virginia are examining a piece of cinderblock wall removed from a Soho building half a block from where  6-year-old Etan Patz had lived, federal officials close to the investigation confirmed to WNYC.

NYPD officers and FBI agents continue to search a Soho basement for remains of a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979.

Ailsa Chang, WNYC reporter, and Lisa Cohen, journalist and author of the book, After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive, discuss the latest in the renewed efforts to find out what happened to Etan Patz, who disappeared 33 years ago.

As many as 50 NYPD officers and FBI agents using jackhammers and saws began digging in a Soho basement Friday where a cadaver dog detected human remains in recent weeks, hoping to find evidence linked to the infamous 1979 disappearance of schoolboy Etan Patz.

Dozens of NYPD officers FBI agents began scouring the basement of a Soho building Thursday, hoping to find evidence linked to the infamous 1979 disappearance of schoolboy Etan Patz.

Police union leaders, who have accused the NYPD of penalizing officers whose tickets turn into acquittals at traffic court, are now waging a media campaign to drum up public support against such disciplinary tactics.

After two recent terrorism incidents against Jewish targets overseas, the New York City police department says it is approaching the Passover holiday this year with heightened awareness.

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. 

Public defenders in the Bronx said more than 40 percent of the marijuana arrests they investigated in their borough between May and October 2011 show violations of constitutional rights and problems with evidence.  Many of these unlawful arrests, defense lawyers said, were made after an internal NYPD order was issued directing all officers to follow the law when making marijuana arrests.

A former Yonkers Councilwoman and a former head of the Yonkers Republican Party were convicted on bribery charges Thursday when they failed to convince jurors that gifts and money they exchanged were motivated by romance and not a scheme to buy votes.

A federal class action was filed against New York City and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly on Wednesday for what plaintiffs allege are suspicionless stops within private residential buildings.

The first substantial hearing in the suit filed by a housekeeper last year against the disgraced former IMF chief is set for Wednesday — when defense lawyers will ask a Bronx County ...

Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi has launched a high profile media campaign this week following a conviction on 15 counts of privacy invasion, evidence tampering and bias intimidation. Ravi never testified at his own trial, and legal experts say making his case before the public now could be a savvy, but risky way to influence the sentencing judge.

The family of an unarmed man who was fatally shot in Inwood by a plainclothes police officer last year is demanding a federal investigation into the death after a Manhattan grand jury declined last Friday to bring charges against Detective James Connelly after he killed John Collado.

As the federal government joins the investigation into the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of a volunteer patrolman in Florida, the incident brings to light the New York City’s love-hate relationship with its own neighborhood watch groups and raises questions about the authority of self-appointed crime fighters.

Legal experts say the bias crime conviction of a former Rutgers University student who used a webcam to spy on his gay roommate's sexual encounter with another man has changed the landscape of hate crimes prosecution. 

The contractor hired by the city to oversee the scandal-tainted CityTime payroll project agreed Wednesday to pay more than half a billion dollars in restitution and penalties in an agreement that allows it to escape criminal prosecution.

A coalition of interfaith leaders joined the chorus of voices calling for an investigation into what they say is racial and religious profiling by the New York City police department. The protest comes just as a recent Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows a majority of New Yorkers believe the NYPD’s surveillance program has been effective in fighting terrorism and is treating Muslims fairly. 

New York City school principals say they are not surprised by the new data released by the federal Department of Education showing black and Hispanic public school students in the city have been disciplined more severely than other students.

See what criminal justice reporter Ailsa Chang has on her reading list this morning.