N.Y.P.D. Ousts 2 Reporters From Headquarters in Escalation of Tensions

The actions taken against the reporters, from The New York Post and The New York Times, came after federal agents seized the phone of New York City’s police commissioner.

Two reporters who cover the New York Police Department had their access to the agency’s headquarters temporarily revoked on Thursday, a day after federal agents seized the phone of the city’s police commissioner, Edward A. Caban.

Police officials told the reporters, Tina Moore, The New York Post’s police bureau chief, and Maria Cramer, the police bureau chief for The New York Times, they were being punished for contacting police unions for assistance in interviewing department employees.

Ms. Moore was escorted from the room used by reporters at 1 Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan Thursday evening. The move came hours after news broke that Commissioner Caban was among several top city officials involved in an unspecified federal investigation. It was unclear whether the two developments were related.

The actions deepened the tensions between police leaders and the reporters who cover them. Last December, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams decided to move reporters to a trailer outside Police Headquarters under a plan that news outlets denounced.

Top police officials have used social media to criticize journalists, and a police leader confronted a reporter from The New York Daily News and berated him for his news coverage.

Craig McCarthy, the Post’s City Hall bureau chief, wrote on social media on Thursday that Tarik Sheppard, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner of public information, had used an expletive and called Mr. McCarthy a “scumbag” after the reporter tried to contact a police official about the federal investigation.