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Brooklyn Cop's Secret Tapes Reveal Crime Stat Pressure
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 5, 2010
Modified May 5, 2010
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 5, 2010
Modified May 5, 2010
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Earlier this year, Officer Adrian Schoolcraft pulled a Serpico, accusing the NYPD of under-reporting and refusing to investigate crimes in order to keep crime statistics down (a claim for which he received an unwilling psychiatric evaluation). Today, the Village Voice revealed that Schoolcraft sought to back up those claims by secretly carrying a digital recorder around his precinct for more than a year, logging hundreds of hours of conversations, and giving the public an insider's perspective on the management and pressures of an NYPD precinct.
The recordings, made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, reveal a schism in the world of policing: "The rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high 'activity'—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes." The report in the Voice includes several specific examples of ways in which law enforcement finagle the stats:
- During a September 12, 2009, roll call, a fellow cop tells Schoolcraft: "A lot of 61s—if it's a robbery, they'll make it a petty larceny. I saw a 61, at T/P/O [time and place of occurrence], a civilian punched in the face, menaced with a gun, and his wallet was removed, and they wrote 'lost property.' "
- On June 12, 2008, Lieutenant B. relayed the summons target: "The XO [second-in-command] was in the other day. He actually laid down a number. He wants at least three seat belts, one cell phone, and 11 others. All right, so if I was on patrol, I would be sure to get three seat belts, one cell phone, and 11 others."
- The NYPD claims that downgrading happens only rarely, but in the course of reporting this story, the Voice was told of burglaries rejected if the victim didn't have receipts for the items stolen, of felony thefts turned into misdemeanor thefts by lowballing the value of the property, of robberies turned into assaults, of assaults turned into harassments.
John A. Eterno, a Molloy College professor who in the past has testified for the NYPD as an expert witness, summed up the recordings: "You're seeing relentless pressure, questionable activities, unethical manipulation of statistics. We've lost the understanding that policing is not just about crime numbers, it's about service. And they don't feel like they're on the same team. They are fighting each other. It's, 'How do I get through this tour, making a number, without rocking the boat?'"
You can hear excerpts from the tapes at the Voice website, including clips of cop horseplay at roll call, commanders pressuring cops to "get their numbers," and supervisors ordering officers to be "skeptical" about robbery victims.
Tagged
81st precinct
Adrian Schoolcraft
bed stuy
brooklyn
cops
corruption
crime stats
nypd
serpico
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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