subpoenas

The City Would Like to Hear the Real ‘NYPD Tapes’

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 27: Members of the New York Police Department (NYPD) take part in a promotion ceremony attended by New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly at Police Headquarters on January 27, 2012 in New York City. Kelly appeared in the film
Photo: Spencer Platt/Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Given the intensive level of investigation the NYPD has carried out in its administrative case against whistle-blower Adrian Schoolcraft, the cop who secretly recorded his superiors issuing quotas and fudging statistics, it’s a little surprising the city hasn’t already subpoenaed the man who chronicled his tale for the Village Voice (and later for This American Life and the book The NYPD Tapes): former staff writer Graham Rayman. But it has now. According to the New York Times, it demanded that Rayman hand over hundreds of tape recordings Schoolcraft made, as well as “reams of notes, correspondence and e-mails.” Rayman says he has no plans to comply: “I think it would be malpractice for a journalist to cooperate with a subpoena like this and would have a chilling effect on what all journalists do.” Damn right.

City Would Like to Hear the Real ‘NYPD Tapes’