NYPD Confidential: Power and Corruption in the Country's Greatest Police Force

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Macmillan, Jul 21, 2009 - Political Science - 321 pages

For years, the police commissioner and the mayor of New York City have duked it out for publicity, credit, and power. Some have translated their stardom into success after leaving office, while others have been hung out to dry. In the battle for control of the country's most powerful police force, these high-status government officials have often chosen political expediency over public honesty. The result is a legacy of systemic corruption and cover-ups that is nothing less than shocking.

Respected journalist Leonard Levitt has covered the NYPD for New York Newsday, and the New York Post among other papers. His columns have made him persona non grata in police headquarters. In NYPD Confidential, he reveals everything he's discovered throughout his decades-long career. With amazing details of backroom deals and larger-than-life powerbrokers, Levitt lays bare the backstabbing, power-grabs, and chaotic internal investigations that have run the NYPD's reputation into the ground in the past—and the forces conspiring to do so once again.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Evidence of Things Not Seen
7
The Secret Meeting
28
The Rise of Bill Bratton
43
The Dirty Thirty
78
The Fall of Bill Bratton
96
Get on the Train or Get Under It
129
The Tragedies of Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo
159
How Well Do You Know Bernie Kerik?
187
Never Appoint a Bitter Man Police Commissioner
232
Afterword
284
Bibliography
289
Index
291
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

LEONARD LEVITT wrote the column, One Police Plaza for Newsday about the New York City police department from 1995 to 2005. He has also worked as a reporter for the Associated Press and the Detroit News, as a correspondent for Time, and as the investigations editor of the New York Post. His work has appeared in Harper's, Esquire, and the New York Times Magazine. He received an Edgar Award for his nonfiction work Conviction.

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