Stories from the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau

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Last month the NYCLU got a hold of 600 pages of the NYPD’s internal reports, and today the Times took an exhaustive look at the serious and petty crime committed by cops. According to documents—which span the period from 1993-2008—an average of 119 officers are arrested annually. Known as the “rat squad” since most of its cases rely on cops snitching on one another (its employees are called “cheese eaters"), many of the Internal Affairs Bureau’s cases involves “drugs, theft or crimes like fraud, bribery or sex offenses, on and off the job.”

But that’s fluctuated over the years, under different mayoral administrations and police chiefs. In 2006, for instance, the reports note an “unprecedented” uptick of abuse of suspects and gave the example of a group of cops that followed a woman suspected of petty theft into a store and “struck her in the head with his firearm for no reason.” You can see excerpts from the reports here, and graphs charting the rise and fall of officer arrests and investigations here.

“History tells us there always will be bad cops, and the department will never be able to completely control that,” said Christopher Dunn, of the civil liberties union, who spent weeks studying the reports. It’s true: recently there’s been a surge in cop DWIs, and other infractions, like an NYPD perfume heist, haven’t been infrequent. Despite the black spots, or perhaps because of them, current police commissioner Ray Kelly claims the IAB is at the top of its game. “For me, myself, personally, it is absolutely critical to the good order, to the function of this department, that we have a well-staffed, a well-trained, a proactive Internal Affairs Bureau, and that’s what we have,” he said.

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on March 28, 2010 1:50 PM

Comments [rss]

Stephenson Billings

I wouldn't call that article an "exhaustive look." It was several pages of smoke, nothing of substance. Either the reporters didn't have access to the anyone who would give them the real dirt, or they were just amateurs. The piece hinted at different things, mentioned the shortcomings with the public reports, mentioned statistics, but didn't offer any details about where the corruption is happening or what needs to be done to control it. I was amazed that internal affairs has 600+ officers. And the closing anecdote about the officer drummed out because of petty violations just seemed to validate the point that internal affairs is a waste of resources (not that I advocate this position, but it seems like the reporters were trying to).

Altogether, I found this one of the oddest pieces in the Times in the last month. A whole lot of nothing, skirting around what could have been a very interesting and revealing topic. Good job police PR, you've definitely headed off any scandals here!

JacqueMehoff

same with their Serpico interview. we get fluff. someone should get down to the deep rooted problems in the NYPD, how it get's taught from one generation to the other or one veteran to another, how it's the "rat squad".

LibHater

Got a hold of 600 pages? And how were these pages obtained? I'm pretty sure the officers in those reports have a right to sue the dept in this case.

imperialnetwork

Those pages were obtained via the Freedom of Information Law. Records of public agencies, including the Police Department, are presumptively available to the public (upon request), with a few exceptions. NYPD turned over many documents and redacted others/denied others outright.