NYPD Shuts Down Open Access to Crime Reports

Directs everybody to public affairs office instead

NEW YORK — The NYPD has ordered the city's 77 police precincts to stop giving out any information to the media about crimes taking place in their neighborhoods, cutting off a long-standing source of information for New Yorkers.

According to a terse NYPD edict transmitted citywide, precinct commanders were instructed: "Any requests by media to view complaint reports be referred to the office of the Deputy Commissioner For Public Information."

The NYPD's public information office, known as DCPI, typically disemminates only select major crimes such as murders, sexual assaults and grand larcenies, but often does not include lower level neighborhood crimes. Those complaints could traditionally be found at the precinct, a reliable source for information of interest for residents.

According to sources, the latest media restriction was sent last week to the precinct supervisors from their borough commanders, who received the transmission from the NYPD's Chief of Patrol James Hall.