It is named after a cramped office which was located inside the NYPD headquarters, where journalists report on crime stories.
The first in-headquarters press bureau began in 1863, in the basement of the NYPD headquarters on Mulberry Street.
This location was the office for several well-known reporters, including Gay Talese, David Halberstam, Joe Cotter and McCandlish Phillips.
In April 2009, NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said he would evict The Shack from Police Plaza by August to expand a command center, but reporters were ultimately allowed to stay in the building.
[1] In December 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that reporters would be relocated from the NYPD headquarters into a larger trailer outside the One Police Plaza building to offer space for local and ethnic media outlets.