During the recent investigation of the "ticket fixing" scandal in New York City Police Department, I noticed an article about a detective who worked in the Bronx, Francisco Payano.
Apparently, Mr. Payano, was a narcotics officer who apparently was caught lying to prosecutors, Grand Juries, and Judges in nearly 50 cases where he claimed to recover drugs from innocent people in order to pad his arrest statistics.
Mr. Payano isn't alone. In a recent trial in Federal Court in New York, Stephen Anderson, a former narcotics detective, testified about his experience of regularly observing fellow officers plant drugs on innocent people to meet arrest quotas. Now in my experience, I have never heard a police officer openly admit that they have quotas, but I have heard cops and their supervisors testify under oath in my trials there that have "standards and goals" which help them make promotion decisions. How standards and goals aren't quotas eludes me, but that is the NYPD official position. Rather than evaluating officers on a precinct wide level on objective statistics like a drop in specific types of crime over time, they evaluate cops on how many arrests they make. Well, obviously this leads to the above described conduct in cops that would rather cheat and pad their stats rather than working on making real arrests of actual criminals.
This is not an isolated practice. While most police officers are honest, diligent people who have heard the call for public service, there a quite a few bad apples who allow their power and authority to corrupt the system and use their position to make money in overtime and promotions based on their fraudulent and criminal conduct.
I have an unique perspective on the system as I was a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney's Officer and I have practiced criminal defense for a number of years representing individuals from all walks of life.
On the bright side, if you have been falsely accused of a crime by a law enforcement officer, and you had the good fortune to hire a good criminal defense lawyer who got the case dismissed or if you were found not guilty after a trial, you can bring a law suit under Federal Law to get compensation for your troubles and stick it to the City a little for employing these types of unethical cops. I have personally gotten my clients tens of thousands of dollars suing the City and these bad cops on behalf of my clients.
At the end of the day, the system isn't perfect, but its the best system we have. If we could weed out the bad cops through complaints, law suits, and the City's own investigation, we can live in a City that is safe for all of us.
Apparently, Mr. Payano, was a narcotics officer who apparently was caught lying to prosecutors, Grand Juries, and Judges in nearly 50 cases where he claimed to recover drugs from innocent people in order to pad his arrest statistics.
Mr. Payano isn't alone. In a recent trial in Federal Court in New York, Stephen Anderson, a former narcotics detective, testified about his experience of regularly observing fellow officers plant drugs on innocent people to meet arrest quotas. Now in my experience, I have never heard a police officer openly admit that they have quotas, but I have heard cops and their supervisors testify under oath in my trials there that have "standards and goals" which help them make promotion decisions. How standards and goals aren't quotas eludes me, but that is the NYPD official position. Rather than evaluating officers on a precinct wide level on objective statistics like a drop in specific types of crime over time, they evaluate cops on how many arrests they make. Well, obviously this leads to the above described conduct in cops that would rather cheat and pad their stats rather than working on making real arrests of actual criminals.
This is not an isolated practice. While most police officers are honest, diligent people who have heard the call for public service, there a quite a few bad apples who allow their power and authority to corrupt the system and use their position to make money in overtime and promotions based on their fraudulent and criminal conduct.
I have an unique perspective on the system as I was a prosecutor in the Kings County District Attorney's Officer and I have practiced criminal defense for a number of years representing individuals from all walks of life.
On the bright side, if you have been falsely accused of a crime by a law enforcement officer, and you had the good fortune to hire a good criminal defense lawyer who got the case dismissed or if you were found not guilty after a trial, you can bring a law suit under Federal Law to get compensation for your troubles and stick it to the City a little for employing these types of unethical cops. I have personally gotten my clients tens of thousands of dollars suing the City and these bad cops on behalf of my clients.
At the end of the day, the system isn't perfect, but its the best system we have. If we could weed out the bad cops through complaints, law suits, and the City's own investigation, we can live in a City that is safe for all of us.