I heard this a lot when I was researching my book. Apparently, they are also not being replaced. “The number of detectives has dropped from 7,182 in January 2001 to 5,200 this month, a 28% decline, according to numbers provided by the Detectives’ Endowment Association,” and reported today in a Daily News piece by Alison […]

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The NYPD’s Cold Case Squad was formed in 1996. At the time my book went to press, of the 2,136 cases they had worked on by that point, they arrested 1,332 people in connection with those crimes, successfully cleared 629 cases and got exceptional clearances on 71 more (a case can be “exceptionally” cleared when […]

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Det. Wendell Stradford, (former Transit guy) makes an arrest [the article has since been removed]. From the piece: “Franklin praised cold-case Detective Wendell Stradford and Assistant DA Nitin Savur for hunting down Montgomery.” This was for a 1974 murder. In some ways I think the older the better. Those cases are sadder, they are the […]

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The Daily News ran a piece yesterday about the Cold Case Squad and I need to vent. The headline was “Cold case officers placed on hot seat,” and the spin was that the detectives were not performing and Deputy Chief Joe Reznick was cracking down. “Senior executives of the NYPD are expected to manage and […]

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