NYPD seeks video of black doll's head on cops' car

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

8:26 PM EDT, July 24, 2008

Internal Affairs investigators are still trying to find a video camera in Harlem that may have captured who put the head of a black doll on an unmarked police car's antenna, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday.

The NYPD has said it believes kids playing a prank put the head on the antenna -- not the white lieutenant and officer who were driving the car Tuesday.

That night, according to state Sen. Bill Perkins (D- Manhattan), the cops laughed off the incident and put the doll's head in the trunk when a teen tried to take a photo. Police, however, contend the doll's head was placed on the antenna while the cops were checking on the crowd at a basketball tournament.

When they were done, police said, the cops got into the car and drove to the scene of another crowd -- the opening of a Fifth Avenue restaurant where a number of local officials had gathered. There, they were made aware of the doll's head, and the officers put it in the trunk.

"It seems plausible to me," Kelly said. "Is it possible you don't see something on the back of your car? Yes.

"How often do you look at the back of your car?"

Among the videotapes under review is one from an NYPD camera, Kelly said.

Perkins said the officers refused to open the trunk outside the restaurant, but Kelly said there was no doll's head when Internal Affairs later opened it.