News organizations that have desks at NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza downtown were told they need to get out by July 31. Why? Because the NYPD wants to make room for a new Joint Command Center. [UPDATE: The NYPD has changed its mind! Update below.]

The AP reports that "letters from Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, mailed out to editors on April 10 and hand-delivered to reporters Tuesday, notified The Associated Press and other local media [Daily News, New York Post, New York Times, Staten Island Advance, El Diario, NY1 News and WINS] that the roughly 15 reporters assigned at One Police Plaza must be gone by midsummer." The Daily Politics, which has the text of the letter, points out, "This is certain to put a crimp in police reporting, as nothing beats being on site where so many sources are located all under one roof."

According to City Room, the (established) media has "been granted the use of the offices, on the second floor of the 15-story brick building, on Park Row in Lower Manhattan, since it opened in 1973"—the space is nicknamed "The Shack" from the days reporters were in a trailer outside headquarters—and that the police say the eviction "will not impede the flow of information." NY Times Metropolitan editor Joe Sexton said, "The public is always best served when reporters have the greatest possible access to the people and institutions they cover. Years ago, Ray Kelly understood that truth instinctively and believed it genuinely. I look forward to reminding him of that truth, and to talking about ways of serving it.”

In the letter, Kelly also says that the media might be able to come back in 2013 (!) when the new Police Academy is completed.

Update 11:30 p.m.: Ha! The reaction to the plan from the, uh, press, has prompted the NYPD to make sure the media has space at 1PP. Here's the new NYPD statement:

After concerns expressed by reporters assigned to Police Headquarters were conveyed to him today, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly directed that the press room on the second floor of Police Headquarters be made available as a filing center from which reporters may file stories until permanent space can be identified over the next two years, as opposed to four years as originally intended.

Construction of the new Joint Operations Center using the former fire station and portions of the second floor adjacent to Police Headquarters will still require the Community Affairs Bureau and the media offices in the shack to vacate their offices by July 31. But instead of waiting until new space becomes available with the construction of the first phase of the new Police Academy in 2013 for reporters to return to Police Headquarters, the Police Department intends to find new office space for the reporters by the time the new Joint Operations Center is constructed over the next two years.

In the meantime, the reporters may use to press room, normally used for press conferences and various department meetings, as a filing center from which they can file stories on a daily basis.

This is quite the (semi) about-face. Clearly, given the AP's report that letters sent to various editors were mailed last week, the NYPD has been sitting on this plan for at least a week but apparently didn't anticipate that the press might be upset.