Daily News Union Calls Out NYPD After Public Incident With Reporter

NEW YORK CITY —The NYPD and New York Daily News Union are at odds over an altercation between a crime reporter and a top police official outside a hospital last week.

The incident happened when reporters converged at Bellevue Hospital to report on two injured police officers who were shot in the Lower East Side.

According to the Daily News Union, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry confronted the paper’s bureau chief, Rocco Parascandola over his recent reporting.

The union allege Daughtry got into the bureau chief’s face and twice had to be physically removed by other officers.

They have since called on the NYPD to issue a formal apology to the reporter and the paper in a post on X, saying in a letter the incident "demonstrates a fundamental lack of respect for working reporters and a brazen contempt for decorum."

"We trust that, in addition to making a public apology, the NYPD will ensure that Deputy Commissioner Daughtry’s conduct is formally reviewed and take steps to ensure no such incidents happen again,” they added.

In response, the NYPD released their own statement on its own X account, stating that Parascandola "has been as dedicated to waging personal attacks on select NYPD executives as he has been committed to writing "hit" pieces about the New York City Police Department."

In addition, they alleged the reporter had "called NYPD executives on their personal cell phones at night, forcing them to field unwarranted inquiries while they’re at home with their families. And openly insulting and mocking those same executives inside the halls of police headquarters."

Following the NYPD's response, the union said they would not be intimidated.

"The response, from the very officers in the NYPD whose job is to work with the press, was not an apology, an offer to discuss what took place, or even a response to Daughtry's conduct. Instead, they took to social media to post an unhinged post, belligerent rant in attempt to smear the reporter in question and target the Daily News Union."

In a press conference Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams said it was the first time he was hearing about the alleged incident.

"We all have to respond appropriately and if he responded inappropriately, he will have to be communicated with about that. I expect the highest standard from all of us,” Adams said.