Wait 'til they get the credit card charges from all the strip clubs they had to go through.

That's an absurd article--why did you bring it to our attention?

They're entitled to per diem when they're travelling out of town, right? $3,600 is ridiculously LOW for multiple officers to spend over 20 days! --especially in Manhattan! The article didn't mention a single charge that seemed out of line (a lite beer off duty?--it's cheaper than a muffin from a street vendor). Hell, the entire bill comes to only $180 per day--and how many men is that divided among?

Were they not supposed to eat? Those prices look awfully reasonable to me, especially for New York City. The real question would be whether the leads they were in NYC to follow up on were good/detailed enough to merit a trip there. Otherwise, this is a complete yawn of a non-story.

After reading the story there is only a few conclusions. Nothing happen in the city that day. The editor of the paper is stupid. The reporter is looking for a little job security. Want to bet the paper and reporter spent more than the cops. Evidently the high flying reporter thinks the cops are not supposed to eat anything but donuts.

Sheesh. Even if it was only /two/ investigators, that's still only $90 a day to live on -- /in New York City/.

Even if you slept at the Motel 6, that's still, what, $60/night for double occupancy? Wow, that leaves 'em with a hole munificient $60/day each for meals, carfare, and incidentals.

The newspaper story is written deceptively as well. It mentions '$80 in valet parking'. It doesn't mention how long it took or how many instances to rack up that valet parking. It mentions 'a $19 sea bass'. It fails to mention whether the diner in question ate a fancy meal /once/ in his entire trip, as a treat, and lived off of McDonald's and cheap pizza the rest of the time, or if he ate that well on a regular basis.

Assuming a 2-3 man investigative team, that was $60-90/day per man in per diem. That's entirely within bounds.