The 9th Precinct
When I was a kid, I enjoyed the old TV show “Kojak” with Telly Savalas. Recently, I was down in the East Village and ran across the old precinct house that he was supposedly based out of: the 9th Precinct.
It’s located on 5th Street between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue. In the bad-old-days, this area was one of the toughest and most crime ridden places in Manhattan, being right next to Alphabet City.
I always find it interesting that the police cars are typically parked in the streets instead of a discreet parking lot someplace near. Of course, a “discrete parking lot” would cost the city about a bazillion dollars, but they don’t even risk parking tickets by just pulling up front.
Below is the entire station house, or at least the front of it.
The old exterior was also used for the “NYPD Blue” TV show, so it does have even more “history”. (The Blues was actually supposedly set in the 15th Precinct, but I understand that was a ficticious precinct number.)
It just went through a lot of recent renovations. It looks sharp.
-H
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Famous Ankles 
October 10, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Point of interest: The 9th Squad building was used in many police tv shows including NYPD Blue and Kojak as noted here. The 15th Precinct did not/ does not exist. I remember shows going back as far as Naked City in the early 60’s that were filmed here. Got to meet Telly Savalas during Kojak shoot.
November 12, 2024 at 11:36 pm
Very nicee blog you have here
April 23, 2025 at 10:42 am
Growing up in the 1970s and watching Kojak, my father would comment on how he lived next to this police station from 1927 until he went to WWII in 1944. He told me as a child he would go into this police station and ask if they wanted him to but them donuts. They would give him their change and he would buy them donuts and he would get to keep some of the change. He said every street had a gang and if you were on the wrong street at the wrong time you could be beat up pretty good. He said they played stickball on that street and the movie theater him and his friends went to was 5 cents. One would pay ands let the others in through the side door. He said you always wanted to sit in the middle because the rats climbed the walls near the sides.