Empire City Podcast Premieres: Eight-Part Series on The History Of The NYPD

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is the largest and one of the oldest municipal police departments in the United States, with approximately 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees. The NYPD was established in 1845, and today, is responsible for policing an 8.5-million-person city, by performing a wide variety of public safety, law enforcement, traffic management, counterterror, and emergency response roles.

The NYPD has also been the source material for thousands of books, TV shows (NYPD Blue, Law And Order, Elsbeth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Car 54, Kojak, and many more), and movies such as Serpico. 

It's logical that Wondery and Crooked Media have announced the premiere of Empire City, an eight-part narrative series investigating the fascinating and largely invisible history of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Created and hosted by Peabody Award-winning journalist Chenjerai Kumanyika (Uncivil),Empire City provides a window into New York City’s past and insights into the foundations of law enforcement in America. Empire City debuts ad-free on Wondery+ and all other podcast streaming platforms on September 9th.

Listen to the trailer HERE

With the future of policing front and center in American politics, Empire City reveals the often-hidden and suppressed history of where and when it all began. An official selection of the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival, Empire City begins by painting a vivid portrait of New York City in the mid-1800s: A town overrun with labor protests and deadly riots, vice, racial conflict, police constables kidnapping freed Black people and sending them into slavery, a burgeoning abolitionist movement and the first true-crime stories - peddled by newspapers.

In each episode, Kumanyika walks listeners through pivotal moments that challenge misconceptions about present day policing and politics. Among topics covered are how the fight over by-mail abortion pills today can be traced back to an evangelical vice fighter who was determined to shut down New York brothels; and how riots on the streets of New York led to officers being armed for the first time. Empire City features voices of historians, grassroots tour guides, and organizers like Mariame Kaba, Leslie Alexander, Asad Dandia, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Kamau Ware, and Jonathan Wells, as well as descendants of early police officers and resistance fighters, and former police officers who provide unparalleled insights into the history of policing in New York.

Kumanyika is a scholar, journalist and assistant professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Institute of Journalism who specializes in using narrative non-fiction audio journalism to critique American ideological myths about topics such as race, the Civil War, and policing. Kumanyika’s ties to the topics at hand in Empire City are deeply personal as the son of Makaza Kumanyika, a prominent civil rights organizer who was wrongly arrested and surveilled by the NYPD for leading peaceful protests against police brutality.

Kumanyika was the co-executive producer, co-host, and co-creator of Uncivil, a Peabody-awarded podcast on the Civil War produced with Gimlet Media. He was a co-host and collaborator on Scene on Radio’s Peabody-nominated series Seeing White and its fourth season on the history of American Democracy. Kumanyika has also been published by NPR, The Intercept, VICE, and Transom, and he has appeared on NPR Code Switch, All Things Considered, Invisibilia, and numerous other scholarly platforms and publications.

Empire City is a Wondery and Crooked Media production. The show is executive produced by Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack.

Wondery, an Amazon company, is a podcast studio known for Dr. Death, British Scandal, Even the Rich, and Business Wars, and distribution of hit partner shows Morbid and How I Built This.

In 2017, former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor started Crooked Media with Pod Save America—a well-received politics podcast. Since then, they’ve continued to add new shows, voices, and opportunities for activism through their Vote Save America platform.

PushBlack is the nation’s largest nonprofit media organization for Black Americans, reaching nine million people across multiple platforms. They tell empowering stories of Black life and history that inspire people to take liberating actions in the best interest of Black communities.

 Check out Empire City. You deserve the truth, if you can handle it.