NYPD Union Rep Called "Rat" for Whistleblowing

Officer Frank Palestro, the latest cop to call foul on corruption in the NYPD, has gotten serious flak from his fellow police and the union, though he maintains he was just doing his duty. The union delegate and nine-year police veteran was outed after secretly reporting Lt. Susana Seda for behavior such as telling cops to write summonses for traffic violations they didn't witness, refusing to take complaints and tampering with a gun at a crime scene. Since then, he's been transferred so he won't have to deal with the wrath of his peers in the precinct. "I was the [Patrolmen's Benevolent Association] delegate, and now I'm labeled a rat for doing what I was supposed to do," said Palestro. "This will stay with me for the rest of my career."

According to Palestro, union reps rarely report the infractions of their fellow officers. "I wrestled with it for a while because I'm a delegate and we don't do things like this," he told the Daily News. In the end he made three anonymous phone calls reporting corruption within his precinct, but the log of his calls somehow made its way into the vents of his locker at the stationhouse! "[Seda] told everybody I was a 'f------ rat,'" he said, adding that the union has also reprimanded him. So far no action has been taken against the accused lieutenant.

Palestro's allegations follow a study that revealed widespread and deeply ingrained corruption regarding how the NYPD's crime statistics are obtained, as well as whistleblowing by several other members of the force.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on February 24, 2010 11:27 AM

Comments [rss]

BigDaddy

The Code of Silence is also on the west coast. That NYPD Officer did the right thing in my eyes! What would you have done if you where in his place! I just read a book about a "whistleblower" in Corrections from the California Prison System called, "The Green Wall." This officer should be commended for telling his story. I found his website at: www.greenwall2001.com

ProudLiberal1947

HaHaHaHa! i remember writing about this a month or two ago. Now Identify the SCUM and Trash that are going after the whistle blower isolate, dominate and break these pieces of shit down.

These are the garbage of the police force that live in constant fear this is the garbage that can't make the system work and this is the garbage that thinks everyone is a bleeding heart liberal because these DIRT BAGS are above the LAW, these Dirt BAGS,believe they are the Judge Jury and Executioners. These are NOT COPS they are LOWER then the criminals they are hired to protect us from.

These are the cops that worry more about there own necks, notice you do not read about the Bronx cop and his supervisors that ran a drug ring for how many years.

Now let the city embrace this whistle blower and if anything happen on or off the job every cop on shift and off shift is prime suspect.

A cop doing their job and hey get tagged a rat, so I guess the SCUM BAG CRIMINAL CROOKED COP is some kind of hero. Take these Bastards down and take them down hard.

ocm123

To be fair, the "whistle blower" said that he eventually decided to report his lieutenant after some officers asked him for help in dealing with this issue. He also claimed that of his colleagues support what he is doing.

ocm123

I meant "some of his colleagues"

ocm123

Although technically this fits the definition of corruption, it is in a different category than an officer taking drug money or participating in a criminal enterprise. Despite that, this kind of fudging of the statistics is extremely common in the police department and needs to stop. Its worth noting that individual police officers get no personal benefit, besides not getting a lot of crap from bosses, from participating in this behavior. In fact, most officers would love for the NYPD to significantly scale back their reliance on compstat.

JacqueMehoff

what's there to say anymore?

FelixtheCat & Christine Quinn'

Silence from bloomberg.

SimonLok

This guy deserves a huge thanks and reward for coming forward. This kind of crap/corruption is unfortunately rampant in the force and of the few that have the morals to come forward, even fewer have the stomach to do so.

Sinchy

How about a whistle blower law for cops.

If a cop turns in a corrupt officer the whistle blower should get the corrupt cop's pension. Boom- no more police corruption.