Lawsuit Against NYPD Internal Affairs Alleges Arbitrary Spying, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Impropriety
A pair of lawsuits by black female officers with the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau allege that the division arbitrarily spies on cops, discriminates against minorities, and that they are subject to sexual harassment including the trading of sexual favors for promotions. Via the New York Post:
"Plaintiff alleges that African-American Female Officers' in particular, are expected to engage in the stereotypical behaviors of being primarily subservient to primarily Caucasian Male police supervisors by acting as their "personal secretaries, paramours, or sex partners," the suits allege.
Black female staffers in the IAB who don't play the game are routinely denied promotions and preferred assignments, according to the suits.
Calling the IAB a "Good Ole Boys" club, the women allege that agency brass routinely tap random officers home and cellular phones and look into their private financial records as part of dubious investigations, the suits state.
Black and Hispanic officers who file discrimination claims against the department mysteriously become targets of IAB "fishing" missions, the suits claim.
The lawsuits also claim minority officers are punished more harshly by the bureau than their white counterparts. Earlier this year, a detective who served as an aide to the Internal Affairs Bureau's chief likened the division to "the mob" and endorsed the idea of an inspector as she prepared to file her own lawsuit.
Between 1992 and 2008, an average of 119 cops were arrested a year, according to Internal Affairs Bureau reports. A 2010 Village Voice exposé of the NYPD's internal affairs division revealed that internal affairs cases are processed at a "snail's pace" no matter their size or significance, that it's often impossible to find out what happened with a complaint, and that cops who complain to the bureau about their colleagues are often retaliated against by their supervisors.
The NYPD is currently facing a series of lawsuits alleging retaliation against whistleblowers; the department argues, backed by case law, that the whistleblowers shouldn't be protected because reporting on internal misconduct is part of their job.