Drones ready to fly (photo: Caroline Rubinstein-Willis/Mayoral Photography Office)

A new proposed rule by the NYPD could pave the way for private drone flights over much of New York City, opening a new frontier for anything from high-altitude advertising to spying.

Today, private drone flights are allowed in only a handful of areas on the outskirts of the city, tightly regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NYPD to ensure safe and unfettered airspace in the nation's

Mayor Adams and NYPD officials (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

This week'sreport from the Office of the Inspector General of the NYPD (OIG), pointed out numerous irregularities in how the NYPD manages their Criminal Group or “gang” Database (CGD). While these irregularities in procedure confirm

On the beat (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayor's Office)

With crime continuing torise in many parts of the state, those of us in law enforcement are doing

Mayor Adams with NYPD officials (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

In his first nearly twelve months in office, Mayor Eric Adams has shown no signs of moving on a major campaign promise to publish a list of police officers the NYPD is watching for violent or otherwise unseemly behavior.

The promise was one of the more striking commitments the would-be mayor made to boost accountability within the ranks of the police force, a department of 34,000 uniformed officers. It was also one of the more tangible pledges Adams made to demonstrate his commitment to balancing police reform with

Gov. Hochul & Mayor Adams discuss subway support teams (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

Governor Kathy Hochul's Safe Option Support outreach teams have helped find "bed placements" for 150 homeless individuals living in the subways in their first six months of operation, according to the New York State Office of Mental Health.

The figures, provided to Gotham Gazette after an inquiry, indicate some action by one of Hochul's first major mental health and public safety initiatives as governor, amid rising homelessness and street violence. They also raise more questions about whether

A gun seizure (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

When talking about gun violence in northeastern states like New York, elected and law enforcement officials often say that guns arrive via the “Iron Pipeline,” short-hand for the I-95 corridor where firearms smuggled from southern states with laxer gun laws to the northeast.

But the reality is much more complex, according to John B. DeVito, Special Agent in Charge of the New York office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

During remarks Thursday at a conference hosted by City & State New York,

A street renaming (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City is experiencing multiple overlapping public safety crises. The city has crisis levels of homelessness, record levels of drug overdoses, ongoing COVID-19 challenges, and widespread concerns about evictions, wage theft, climate change, and more — but the city agencies doing the most significant hiring are police and corrections.

We need new investments in producing safe, healthy, and economically secure communities that will also create thousands of new jobs for New York City residents. We propose the creation of a New

Mayor Adams & President Biden discuss gun violence (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

In 2020, there were 375,800 fewer serious crimes in America compared to 2019, about a 5% decline. Amidst the overall decline, one specific type of crime ran counter to trend: murders, most of which are committed with guns, were up by 5,000, a rise of nearly 30%.

How should we think about these statistics? Should we be happy that serious crime is down or concerned about the increase in homicides? We argue this trend is actually bad news overall. As Berkeley criminologists Franklin Zimring and Gordon

Mayor Adams at the scene of a deadly Bronx fire (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Mayor Eric Adams had a hectic and tragic first month in office, responding to several devastating deadly incidents, establishing a new tone out of City Hall, and overseeing a shaky transition beset by questions about several appointments and punctuated by praise for others.

In the wake of a Bronx fire that killed at least 17 New Yorkers, the murder of a teenage cashier during a robbery in Harlem, a deadly subway pushing in Times Square, an 11-month-old baby

A vigil for police officers Rivera and Mora (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Mayor Adams' Blueprint to End Gun Violence, just released with much fanfare, represents, regrettably, an old-wine-in-a-new-bottle agenda overly-reliant on punitive law enforcement tactics. The mayor seeks to roll back bail reform and criminalize more young people, and will return to our streets the notorious plainclothes NYPD units responsible for the deaths of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and others. These measures would do nothing to prevent the shocking kind of tragic incident that

Mayor-elect Eric Adams outside the 71st Precinct (photo: Erica Sherman/Brooklyn BP's Office)

The last time that New York City had a deputy mayor for public safety, New York City was in crisis. In 1990, murders topped out at over 2,200 – seven times the city’s low in 2018.

Mayor David Dinkins directed his new appointee, Judge Milton Mollen, to “confront the crime that

City Council Member Adrienne Adams (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

The New York Police Department needs a major culture shift, according to City Council Member Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Council’s public safety committee, and incoming Mayor Eric Adams can lead the way.

Speaking at length on a recent episode of the Max Politics podcast from Gotham Gazette, Adams outlined key takeaways from a series of oversight hearings she has chaired and

Jumaane Williams (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

November 9, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Jumaane Williams on Being Reelected Public Advocate & Exploring a Run for Governor

Jumaane Williams joined the show to discuss his reelection as Public Advocate, what he's watching for from Mayor-elect Eric Adams, his exploration of a run for Governor, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter @TweetBenMax. You can listen to the

NYPD Commissioner Shea & Mayor de Blasio (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

We’re seeing history rewritten before our eyes, the heartbreaking death toll of 2020 turned into another political talking point. This time, it’s not COVID-19 fatalities, but the grotesque murders and other violent crimes that impacted so many last year. But while those crimes are all too painfully real, the narrative around this once-in-a-lifetime crime spike is completely fake, and it’s an insult to the memory of those we lost.

Even before

City Council Member Adrienne Adams (photo: Emil Cohen/City Council)

October 26, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: City Council Member Adrienne Adams on NYPD Oversight & More

City Council Member Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat, joined the show to discuss her work chairing the Council's public safety committee, including recent NYPD oversight hearings, her bid to become the next Speaker of the City Council, and more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

 Tiffany Cabán, left, and Felicia Kalan

As in many other races in New York City this election cycle, public safety is the defining issue in the general election in Queens’ City Council District 22, where a rising leftist political star who wants to abolish prisons and the police is facing a Republican pitching a far more conserative approach and ‘common sense’ moderation in the overwhelmingly Democratic district.

The major party nominees are Tiffany Cabán, a democratic socialist and former public defender who won the Democratic

NYPD counterterrorism (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

The tragic impacts of the September 11 attacks stretch far beyond the nearly three thousand people who lost their lives that day 20 years ago. 

Over the last two decades, government forces have trampled on civil rights and liberties in the name of 9/11. Deeply entrenched aspects of our society like the ubiquitous surveillance state that follows us wherever we go, the military mission creep that’s infected our domestic law enforcement, and the unbridled police power that

Tiffany Cabán (photo: cabanforqueens.com)

August 2, 2021 - Max Politics Podcast: Tiffany Cabán Heads Toward the City Council

Tiffany Cabán, the Democratic nominee for City Council in Queens' District 22 and a leader of the city's left political movement, joined host Ben Max to discuss her primary win, plans for joining the City Council, latest thoughts on policing, NYPD funding, and "budget justice," and much more.

Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think, on Twitter ...

Alvin Bragg at NAN (photo: @AlvinBraggNYC)

Alvin Bragg, the former Chief Deputy Attorney General for New York State, appears likely to become Manhattan’s next District Attorney. After winning the Democratic primary, in the general election Bragg will face Republican nominee Thomas Kenniff, who has a very steep uphill battle given the overwhelmingly Democratic make-up of Manhattan's electorate and other advantages Bragg comes into the race with, including institutional support. Bragg ran a progressive primary campaign, while still treading something of a

De Blasio and the NYPD (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Even though cutting NYPD funding has become a popular position among many candidates running for mayor, City Council, and other offices this year, the city’s current leadership seems unlikely to embrace any significant cuts to the police department in the upcoming budget amid a sustained increase in gun violence and a glut of federal funding.

“The voters of this city overwhelmingly, I'm convinced, want a balance. They want reform. They want non-discriminatory policing. They want respectful

Emergency response (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

Last month, Mayor de Blasio unveiled his Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2022, which included a $112 million line item to expand his mental health teams pilot, yet to get off the ground, citywide. Minimizing the role police officers play in responding to

NYPD (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

As a City Council Member and Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, I understand that people need to feel safe, particularly in their homes. One aspect of this safety is an assurance that authorities will not haphazardly burst in. This is enshrined in the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which grants everyone freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. That means there must be probable cause to raid a home.

However, the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies seem to think

The mayor at a policing press conference (Mayor's Office)

People joke that New Yorkers think our city is the center of the universe, but judging by the recent media coverage, you’d think the rest of the country fell off the map. As we respond to the heartbreaking surge in shootings, many are quick to link the trend to civil rights protections like bail reform or the repeal of the controversial police secrecy statute 50-a. But the truth is that this isn’t a New York City problem, it’s a national crisis, ...

NYPD recruits (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)

An officer slams a driver on the hood of a car during a traffic stop, then punches the driver’s sister twice in the face, and escapes punishment. Another officer draws his gun on an 11- and a 13-year-old playing in a city park, and sees the charges against him dismissed without trial. A lieutenant ...

NYPD officers (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

The conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd provides some comfort to all of us that no one is above the law.

Patrick Lynch of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the union representing front-line New York City police officers, said it clearly. “What Derek Chauvin did that day was not policing,” Lynch said after the verdict was announced. “It was murder.”

The verdict has re-energized a debate, nationally and here in New York City,