Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told City Council budget members on Wednesday that an internal review found some of the NYPD’s top brass cruising around in souped-up cars that were supposed to be reserved for undercover investigations. She said the department has started clawing those vehicles back and tightening the rules on who gets to use them, speaking during a budget hearing at City Hall.
As reported by the New York Daily News, Tisch’s review identified roughly 1,000 CRALO (Confidential Rental and Leasing Office) vehicles in circulation, a fleet that ranges from basic sedans to higher-end models used for undercover work. The paper also noted that the department spends about $1.2 million a year in federal funds to lease those cars from rental companies, and that no individual was disciplined because supervisors had signed off on the assignments.
What Tisch Told The Council
At the hearing, Tisch walked council members through how the department examined where those “Craylo” vehicles were going. “We’ve done, based on that analysis, a reallocation of Craylo vehicles to make sure that they are being assigned to commands where they are doing undercover and investigative work,” she said, according to the City Council transcript. The exchange came during routine budget questioning on vehicle use and fleet spending, an otherwise dry topic that suddenly got a lot more interesting.
Department Moves To Reclaim Fleet
Tisch ordered an accounting of CRALO shortly after becoming commissioner in November 2024, and officials told the New York Daily News that the department has since pulled CRALO cars from some executives, limited higher-ups to a single assigned vehicle and confined CRALO use to investigative units. In practice, that means the specialized fleet is supposed to be back where it was intended to be: helping undercover officers and detectives, not shuttling executives to and from the office.
Reforms, Costs And Oversight
Department testimony at council hearings also underscored that CRALO is a significant piece of the NYPD’s overall fleet. Officials projected about $9 to $10 million in expenses for those leased vehicles this year, according to the City Council transcript. That figure gives budget hawks a clear line item to scrutinize as they track how federal grants and other funds are being used to support the NYPD’s rolling stock…