Bloomberg boasts of NYPD as 'my own army'

The NYPD's an army of one -- at least in Mayor Michael Bloomberg's eyes.

His role of running New York includes having "my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world," he boasted during a speech at an MIT conference Tuesday. He described his job and how it can be just as challenging compared to the private sector and the federal government.

"I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom's annoyance," the mayor continued. "We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have."

Bloomberg's crack about having his own troops was an attention-getter, but the Village Voice on Wednesday pointed out that the NYPD -- a force of about 33,000 - is nowhere close to being the world's "seventh biggest army."

Vietnam has that distinction, according to a July report on Economist.com.