The Number

Twenty-five-spreasing sergeant waters shooting where? Oh, shooting. Are there police officers there? Yeah? Where are you? You are in the muster room at the twenty-first precinct, the nerve center. A call is coming through. You will follow the action taken pursuant to that call from this minute until the final report is written in the one twenty-four room at the twenty-first precinct.

Alright, don't worry about it. I'm sending more offices over there. That's right. They're on the way, okay? Okay, thanks. Twenty-first precinct. It's just lines on a map of the city of New York. Most of the 173,000 people wedged into the nine-tenths of a square mile between Fifth Avenue and the East River wouldn't know if you asked them that they lived or worked in the 21st.

Whether they know it or not, the security of their homes, their persons, and their property is the job of the men of the 21st precinct. The 21st, 160 patrolman, 11 sergeants, and 4 lieutenants of whom I am the boss.

My name is Canelli, Frank Canelli. I am Captain in command of the 21st. I had finished my night tour at 8am and was not due back on the job for 24 hours. A precinct commander's duty chart is arranged so that there is at least one captain on the job in each division at all times.

He reports for his day tour at 8am and is on the job until 6pm. Then, normally, he is off duty until the beginning of his night tour at 4 o'clock the following afternoon, and works until 8 o'clock the next morning.

But on duty or off, the precinct is still the captain's responsibility, and he is subject to call by the desk officer in the event of any major crime or unusual occurrence. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred in the precinct until 10-18 p.m., when detectives Novak and Fitzpatrick of the 21st Squad, who had been investigating an apartment burglary while returning to the station house, heading downtown on Lexington Avenue.