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This week, a grand jury probe began targeting approximately 40 cops from all 12 Bronx precincts, including delegates from the city's largest police union, for a ticket-fixing scheme; they've already netted some results, including at least one officer who testified as to how officers fixed tickets. But now, the Post reports that the probe may have expanded to all five boroughs, and as many as 400 cops could face disciplinary charges as a result.

According to their sources in the unit, two NYPD lawyers were recently transferred from the department's legal bureau to its advocate's office, which handles departmental trials against officers, and told to expect hundreds of cases. "This is huge. That's a lot of cops all in one shot. I've never heard of something like that before, this many police officers charged in one period." Another source familiar with the probe added, "It was a systemic thing," stretching from "losing" paperwork to missing court dates to making tickets disappear.

But despite the Post's zeal at so many cops facing disciplinary actions, some of whom could even face criminal charges, could this be more of a reflection of the state of the NYPD, and the pressure higher-ups have been putting on officers for quantity at the expense of quality tickets? It's already been established several times that quotas exist; a jury even ruled that quotas influence and affect officers arrests and summonses. And that doesn't even take into account the steep increase in cycling tickets this year, over questionable offenses such as hanging tote bags on handlebars and speeding under the speed limit in Central Park.