Salon.com > arrest quotas

Second cop confirms NYPD arrest quotas

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:43:00 +0000

As noted here earlier this week, suspended NYPD officer Adhyl Polanco testified Tuesday in the landmark Floyd vs. City of New York trial that his supervisors pushed quotas for stop-and-frisk searches and arrests. Polanco's statements came the same day that an audio recording, leaked to The Nation, revealed that the police union colluded with NYPD on setting a monthly quota of 20 summonses and one arrest per officer. While the NYPD has denied operating a quota system -- which would be illegal -- yet another cop has come forward to testify that quotas are very much at work. Via Raw Story:

Momentum surges for police reform

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:36:00 +0000

The NYPD is currently on trial in more ways than one. While a federal judge presides over a landmark case challenging the constitutionality of the police department's stop-and-frisk tactic, political will is growing to ban the racially divisive policing practices and to increase oversight on NYPD behavior. From the streets of East Flatbush to the forums of mayoral debates, momentum is growing to challenge the NYPD as it currently operates.

While Mayor Bloomberg's administration has long maintained that independent oversight of the NYPD is not necessary, his ally, City Council Speaker (and mayoral candidate) Christine Quinn announced Tuesday that lawmakers had reached a deal to install an inspector general to monitor the vast police department. The call for an inspector general, who could have investigative powers and the ability to issue subpoenas, followed mounting evidence of widespread discriminatory policing, both in the form of stop-and-frisks (over 86 percent of which target black and Latino New Yorkers) and the NYPD's spying on Muslim communities. For a careful politician like Quinn to support such a proposal reflects a shifting political tide towards reform.

Leaked audio: Police union set arrest quotas with NYPD

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 20:49:00 +0000

As the Nation reported Tuesday, a revealing secret recording expected to be used as evidence in the current Stop-and-Frisk federal trial confirms an instance of New York City’s police union cooperating with the NYPD in setting arrest quotas. The union, the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, has publicly spoken against arrest quotas -- believed to be a major contributing factor in the police targeting young, black and Latino men for minor arrests.

In the recording, a delegate from the police union can be heard saying that an agreement of a quota of 20 summonses and one arrest per month: “I spoke to the CO [commanding officer] for about an hour-and-a-half... 20-and-1. 20-and-1 is what the union is backing up… They spoke to the [Union] trustees. And that’s what they want, they want 20-and-1.” (20-and-1 means 20 summonses and one arrest per month.)

The Nation reported that, although illegal, there is reason to believe that a broad, functioning quota system is in place: