Two reporters who cover the New York Police Department had their access to agency headquarters temporarily revoked on Thursday, a day after federal agents seized the phone of Police Commissioner Edward Caban. Officials told Tina Moore, New York Post police bureau chief, and Maria Cramer, New York Times police bureau chief for The New York Times, they were being punished for contacting police unions for assistance in interviewing department employees, the Times reports. The actions deepened the tensions between police leaders and the reporters who cover them. Last December, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams decided to move reporters to a trailer outside Police Headquarters under a plan that news outlets denounced. Officials have used social media to criticize journalists, and a police leader confronted a reporter from The New York Daily News and berated him for his news coverage.
Craig McCarthy, the Post’s City Hall bureau chief, wrote on social media that Tarik Sheppard, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of public information, had used an expletive and called McCarthy a “scumbag” after the reporter tried to contact a police official about the federal investigation. Cramer was told by Carlos Nieves, an assistant police commissioner, that her identification card was being invalidated until Sept. 16. Nieves told Cramer that she had violated rules requiring her not to go around the police press office to request interviews with department employees. Cramer said she had contacted the lieutenants’ union to request an interview with a member for an article, adding that she had never agreed not to do so.
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