Paul Browne

Deputy Chief Michael Marino in Stop and Frisk Trial: 'Do Your Job or Suffer the Consequences'

When then-NYPD Capt. Michael Marino arrived as a commander in the tough section of Brooklyn known as East New York, he was appalled at what the 400 officers in the command considered to be work. "They were doing five [summonses] a month, which was just not enough to address the problem," he testif ... More >>

UPDATE: There's a Dolphin Stranded in the Gowanus Canal

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. Update 4: Well, we've finally found out why no one's sending a team of divers jump into the canal and guide the dolphin to safety before it dies. They're not allowed. "Unfortunately, all we can do is watch and wait for the tide to rise, so the animal can ... More >>

A Man Was Shot In The Head Near Columbus Circle Yesterday. What The Hell Happened?

At around 2pm yesterday, Brandon Woodward, 31, was walking around Columbus Circle near 58th Street. Visiting the Big Apple from Los Angeles, he temporarily left behind a criminal record and a young girl but, according to his father, he was enrolled in law school to clean his act up. Except, in a hor ... More >>

Nobody Was Shot Or Stabbed In New York On Monday; Gangsters Dumbfounded

It may be one of those cliche "only in New York" stories, but the fact that nobody was shot, stabbed, or sliced in New York City on Monday is actually news here in the Big Apple -- and it has at least one gang member scratching his head."Yeah, I didn't hear about any shit poppin' off on Monday. Weir ... More >>

Robert Stolarik, NYT Freelance Photog, Roughed Up By Cops, His Lawyer Demands Return of Gear, Credentials

Lawyers for the National Press Photographers Association have asked the NYPD's top spokesman to return $18,000 worth of cameras and press credentials seized from a New York Times freelance photographer who was body slammed by police in the Bronx on Saturday night and arrested under spurious charges.

Paul Browne, NYPD Spokesman, Disses Bridge and Tunnel Cop in Bridge Rescue

In the rapacious competition for good press among government agencies, spokespeople sometimes are too effusive with praise for their own people at the expense of others involved. That's what happened this week following the dramatic July 23 police rescue of a despondent man threatening to jump to ... More >>

NYPD Officers Shoot and Kill Woman Driving Stolen Car in Brooklyn

Police officers shot and killed an unarmed woman driving a stolen car in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn last night, sparking tension in the neighborhood. Police spokesman Paul Browne said the woman was shot in the chest by an officer who was trying to shift the gears into park while holding ... More >>

Bronx Advocates Call for Alternatives to Arrests of Students Inside Public Schools (UPDATED)

This afternoon, parent advocates in the Bronx are organizing a march that will start at a transportation hub in the borough, move to a suspensions hearing center onward to an early care education site, and then to an elementary school and a middle school. The final destination of the rally is a juve ... More >>

NYPD, Mayor's Office Bizarrely Mum On NYPD Tapes Revelations

Well, so far, two days after the Voice disclosed the results of a secret NYPD investigation which vindicated Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft's allegations about the downgrading of crimes, the NYPD has been officially silent, but for one brief comment from its spokesman. The mayor's office hasn't s ... More >>

Will the NYPD's Muslim Spy Scheme Threaten Investigations?

No surprise here: Spying on Islamic communities might make Muslims mistrust police, creating difficulties in gathering intel, the FBI's top cop in New Jersey says. Religion News Service (via Washington Post) reports that Muslims are now wary of law enforcement after reports revealed that the NYPD ... More >>

Cyrus McGoldrick, CAIR Civil Rights Manager, on Ray Kelly's Apology

As Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne continue to deal with fallout from the use of the anti-Muslim film The Third Jihad in NYPD training, some Muslim groups are beginning to call for their resignations. A protest organized by the Council of American-Islamic Relations ... More >>

Mike Bloomberg: Police Commissioner Ray Kelly Should Not Step Down

Bombarded by questions about the controversies (yes, plural) developing around Ray Kelly, Mayor Mike Bloomberg told reporters this afternoon that the police commissioner should not step down. In case you missed it, news surfaced this week that the New York Police Department showed around 1,500 off ... More >>

Ray Kelly, Spokesman Browne On Hot Seat In Anti-Islam Movie Fallout

​In more fallout from "film gate"--the NYPD's decision to show a controversial anti-Islam film to cops at an anti-terror training center--Mayor Bloomberg says it showed "terrible judgment," and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly admitted he gave an interview to the filmmakers, and called it a mista ... More >>

Anti-Muslim Film Shown to 1,500 Police Officers, Far More Than NYPD Claimed

​In another example of the chickens coming home to roost, the NYPD has had to reveal that almost 1,500 police officers were shown a controversial film which the Voice described a year ago--in first breaking the story--as a "spectacularly offensive smear of American Muslims." Back in late 2010 ... More >>

Yes, You Can Pray on the Subway. Sort of.

As recently sighted by Alex Aizenberg on the R train between the Atlantic and Union Street stops in Brooklyn, the above, added in magic marker to a posted sign, is an exhortation to pray on the subway. (But don't smoke, litter, or blast your annoying boombox, please.) Also, don't put your feet on th ... More >>

Occupy Wall Street Pre Dawn Raid: A Photojournalist's Account

​Photographer C.S. Muncy, a regular contributor to the Voice, offers this account of his experiences during the NYPD pre-dawn raid Tuesday to clear Zuccotti Park. Muncy says, notably, that he was able to slip past the police cordon and get into the park, and that he was detained by police and ... More >>

Ray Kelly Versus the First Amendment--On My Street

This Is What the Occupy Wall Street Arrest Pattern Looks Like

C.S. MuncyCops faced off against protesters this morning in the Financial District.​A number of Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested this morning during confrontations with the police on various streets in the Financial District. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne puts the number at 14. One man ... More >>

Spinning Out of Control

Paul Browne's mouth finally starts getting him into trouble

Helicopter Has Crashed in the East River Bearing Five Passengers [Updated]

According to reports, a helicopter has gone down in the East River. NYPD divers have rescued four people and one is reportedly unconscious -- we haven't heard reports of the fifth person's status. Police spokesman Paul Browne told the AP that the private Bell 206 helicopter plunged into the river of ... More >>

Are Cops Telling Women Not to Wear Skirts Because of the Brooklyn Rapist?

According to this piece in the Wall Street Journal, cops have been telling women in the areas affected by the Slope Sex Fiend (or whatever it is we're calling him/them) to avoid wearing skirts and shorts because it's "easy access." A young woman named Lauren is quoted saying that she and two friends ... More >>

150-Year-Old Law Against Wearing Masks Used to Arrest Wall Street Demonstrators

​Yesterday we reported that seven people had been arrested for participating in Occupy Wall Street, the vaguely defined, relatively disorganized financial-district protest that's been going on (and dwindling down) for the past few days. Amid accusations of excessive police force, there was als ... More >>

Jumaane Williams, Brooklyn Councilman, Detained for Walking on Sidewalk

Yesterday afternoon during the West Indian Day Parade, in the midst of various incidences of gun violence, there was another incident involving the NYPD. Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, along with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio's aide Kirsten John Foy, was handcuffed and briefly detained by ... More >>

Hey Ray Kelly, NYPD Commish, Norwood News Wants to Know Why You Won't Release Crime Stats

​While much of the local media accept the NYPD's resistance to providing public information, the stalwart editors of the tiny Norwood News weekly in the Bronx are at least trying to do something about it. Editor in Chief Jordan Moss and Managing Editor Alex Kratz have taken to posting a cloc ... More >>

Union Square Park Not Completely Clean After All

Esther Zuckerman​The New York Post reported Monday that "law and order" has returned to Union Square Park by way of tough love from the NYPD. Because the claim seemed a little hyperbolic, we went to the park around 7 p.m. Tuesday to check things out. Although the park's stretch known as "Metha ... More >>

Tompkins Square Park Chess Table Arrest Was for Another Crime Entirely

Wikipedia​Yesterday, Gothamist brought us the story posted on the blog Neither More Nor Less of Lisa, a woman who claimed she was arrested for sitting at a Tompkins Square Park chess table without playing chess, allegedly in violation of a sign that states, "These tables are for chess and chec ... More >>

Yes, Ladies, You Can Walk Around the City Topless

via @olidub​Yesterday, we reported that a woman was spotted strolling the Bowery topless. Yes, full-on topless, no bra, no shirt, just boob. Two of them. One photo suggests that the woman was getting a ticket from two cops, but some of you commenters pointed out that this lady had every right ... More >>

1 in 4 Parking Permits Are Phony, Says Report

Transportation AlternativesMore than half of those thousands of precious parking permits in the city are either legal permits used illegally or simply illegitimate permits in the first place. And nearly one in four official parking permits are "illicitly photocopied, fraudulent or otherwise invalid. ... More >>

The Rumbler Vibration Siren Coming to New York City

​The NYPD has announced "the Rumbler," a new siren for cop cars designed to alert "even the most distracted cellphone-yakking, text-messaging or headphone-addled pedestrian or motorist," according to the New York Post. That is what we need! Louder streets. It can supposedly cut through the ubi ... More >>

Digitally Inclined Hookers Choose Facebook

​Just because you're a prostitute doesn't mean you're on Facebook, and just because you're on Facebook doesn't mean you're a prostitute (it doesn't!), but there does seem to be a link between the two, at least according to a sociology professor at Columbia. Sudhir Venkatesh says that 25 percen ... More >>

NYPD's Muslim Horror Flick Sparks Outcry

Morgan Schweitzer​A major city Islamic organization is putting a few tough questions to the NYPD about how a loony Muslim-bashing movie came to be shown to city cops, as reported in this week's Voice. "Our nation's battle against terrorism is only made more difficult whenever security officers ... More >>

NYPD Cops' Training Included an Anti-Muslim Horror Flick

Experiments in Terror

Ray Kelly's Harvard Club Membership Fees, Food Paid by Non-Profit Police Foundation (Updated)

​Police Commissioner Ray Kelly gets his annual $1,500 membership dues at the fancy Harvard Club paid for by the non-profit Police Foundation, Leonard Levitt's blog One Police Plaza Confidential is reporting. That alone is fairly controversial because regular street cops, as Levitt notes, aren ... More >>

Ray Kelly's Spokesman Paul Browne Denies "Quotas," Union Boss and Crime Commission Chief Beg To Differ

​Citizens Crime Commission President Richard Aborn and police union president Patrick Lynch offered their takes this afternoon on the newest of the "NYPD Tapes," which reveal precinct commanders threatening to penalize officers who don't hit their quotas. "My belief is that quotas are not go ... More >>

Ray Kelly's Top Spokesman Paul Browne Present When NYPD Whistleblower Hauled to Psych Ward, Lawsuit Says

​Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly's top aide Paul Browne, the department spokesman, was present when cops forcibly hauled NYPD whistleblower Adrian Schoolcraft to the Jamaica Hospital psychiatric ward, a lawsuit to be filed this week alleges. If proven true, Browne's presence at Schoolcraft ... More >>

Ray Kelly's Crime Stats Are Suspect: Two New Polls

Can we trust your data, commissioner?​Well, the results are in. Amid lingering questions about the NYPD's crime statistics, a new poll of 1,000 New Yorkers gives Police Commissioner Ray Kelly a 70 percent approval rating. But just 54 percent of New Yorkers said they trust the city's crime stat ... More >>

Cushy NYPD Gang Deployment Apparently Lost in Bermuda Triangle

​More on Mayor's Bloomberg's curious offer to send veteran police detectives to help out the police in the resort island of Bermuda, where he just happens to own a $10.5 million mansion: Bermuda Public Safety Minister David Burch said on Tuesday that his government "had accepted the offer" fr ... More >>

NYPD Gang Cops Get Serious About Gangs -- In Bermuda

​Talk about a cushy assignment! It would appear that the NYPD has agreed to send gang intelligence investigators to the lavish resort island of Bermuda to help out the cops there. Who arranged this posh retreat? Why, according to Bermuda's paper of record, it was Mayor Michael Bloomberg h ... More >>

NYPD Still Mum On Logo Crackdown, Retirees Not so Mum

It's now been 24 hours since the Voice asked Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's spokesman Paul Browne for a comment on the NYPD's campaign to stop its own retirees from using the department logo. (See our story here.) No response. Not even an acknowledgement that the emails were received. We've now as ... More >>

Ray Kelly Feels the Obama Love

While bold-faced names toasted the Obama inauguration in Washington, star-struck police commissioner Ray Kelly held a little fete of his own today on city time at police headquarters.    Kelly invited members of the bloated headquarters staff down to the room where he gives press conf ... More >>

Cops Seek Man Who Fatally Slashed Upper East Side Shrink

'Weekend at Bernie's' Check Scam Foiled

Exposing Sexual Harassment on the Subways

Cop Killers

What a week: Badge-wearers who kill get indicted; and a nut job blows away two aspiring flatfoots

Day of Rage

Behind the scenes of the NYPD crackdown at the GOP convention

Suspects as Usual

After the Sean Bell shooting, the NYPD opened a surprising investigation—into the victims

Guns Gone Wild

NYPD gunfire goes up while crime goes down. What gives?

Chelsea Mourning

Nightclubs get the whip, but the cabaret law is still kicking

Critical Mass: NYPD Carries Smaller Stick This Week

Protection Racket

Questions about Albany's cut of New York's homeland security money