400 NYPD Cops Under Investigation for Fixing Tickets
I guess it's not surprising that 400 were doing it. But it is pretty surprising that up to 400 may face charges.
A major ticket fixing scandal is rocking the NYPD, and as many as 400 cops could face bribery and larceny charges for making tickets disappear in exchange for gifts, according to a report.
"This is huge," a source told the New York Post. "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." The investigation was reportedly started by accident.
Apparently the owner of a barbershop not far from the 43rd Precinct in the Bronx called his police officer son to see about fixing a ticket. Unbeknownst to the officer, the telephone was being tapped by Internal Affairs officers who were investigating local drug trafficking.
Sources told CBS affiliate WCBS that union delegates were among those asked to fix the tickets. Among the cops under investigation, more than two dozen face potential felony charges, while another 10 could face lesser charges like obstruction of government administration.
Sources also told the station that although the case began in the Bronx, prosecutors in at least two other boroughs have pieces of the probe.
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Prediction: Less than 10 pigs will be charged. 0 will endure any jail time.
Anyone else not in the least outraged by this?
Isn't have tickets fixed the whole reason for being friends with a cop? What about the preemptive fix that comes from making a donation and getting a PBA sticker to display on your car?
No. i have never fixed a ticket and i've never had a friend ask me to fix one. i *have* had friends get tickets ask me how to fight it , and even a few who admitted they committed the offense and agreed they should just pay it.
fixing tickets is absolutely wrong. taking compensation for it should be an automatic firing, and a criminal charge.
Not me. The politicians set up a corrupt system where parking (and traffic) tickets are use not to keep the streets clear but to raise revenue. Having turned cops into shake-down artists, we are supposed to be outraged that they want some of the take?
More pussy, Balko or O'Keefe? You know it's O'Keefe did you see his video and all those sexy babes? Balko last piece of ass was Andrew Sullivan!
I can hardly wait for the union to fight any of these cops being fired.
And what a shock that the union reps were apparently the clearinghouse for corruption.
The Sergeants union has spoken. The person said that it's not corruption it's a courtesy.
While I've heard alot about the Rs going after public unions, are they going after police unions too?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....FEEDNAME;=
""Mullins has recorded an audio message asking current and retired members of the NYPD of all ranks to come forward with stories about fixing tickets to show it's not anything nefarious. ""
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....z1K4wlPz95
Will there be any takers?
Wow. The utter ethical vacuum, not to mention tone-deafness, on display there.
Mullins has recorded an audio message asking current and retired members of the NYPD of all ranks to come forward with stories about fixing tickets selling drugs out of the evidence lockers and shaking down shopowners for freebies to show it's not anything nefarious.
It's the type of arrogance I've come to expect with the PBA.
It's a trap!
....is democracy in action in our New World.
400 NYPD Cops Under Investigation for Fixing Tickets to get extended paid vacations
ftfy
So politically connected people were getting preferential treatment?
*shocked*
Are these tickets tracked digitally?
I'll track them digitally if you put them up your ass.
your fingers or the tickets?
So politically connected people were getting preferential treatment by agents of the state?
*shocked*
Is not shocked
Internal Affairs officers who were investigating local drug trafficking.
Haven't RTFA, but this could use a bit of explanation: Don't Internal Affairs investigations target cops? Cops being investigated for drug trafficking seems like a bigger corruption scandal than ticket fixing, no?
It would be bullshit if the whole drug investigation was blown because of this. And it wouldn't surprise me if that was done on purpose.
Yeah. That would be so convenient...like how terrorists never get caught in Saudi Arabia...they mysteriously always end up dead in a major raid.
Hater, they were investigating a cop involved with drugs.
""The probe -- being conducted by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau and the Bronx DA's Office -- began in 2008 when a cop suspected of dealing drugs was heard on a wiretap asking a union official to get rid of a summons."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/l.....z1K4x90s22
How much evidence would they have to get to file RICO charges against the Pig Union? I mean, hypothetically, because that shit will never happen.
Oh Dunphy...DUNPHY...
what? there's no controversy here. fixing tickets is wrong.
A few bad apples. That's all.
It's the 99% of cops who are unprofessional and have an us versus them mentality when dealing with everyone that make the remaining 1% look bad.
So why don't cops 'police' their own? You know - unleash the same kind of shit on the 1% that they pull on whistleblowers?
often they do. look at the paul schene case. a clear case of excessive force and he was turned in by a fellow officer who discovered it during a review of holding cell video.
he was fired, and prosecuted (hung jury twice iirc).
Other sources I've seen make clear that the PBA/SBA union reps were the people to talk to when in need of a fix.
Apparently because they were more likely to have the cushy desk jobs and could thus "lose" the paperwork before it got sent out to the DMV.
The investigation was reportedly started by accident.
I love it. It was only by mistake that the NYPD Internal Affairs department found out about this.
many investigations are started by small stuff like this or solved this way. son of sam killer was caught by parking tickets iirc. the french connection was discovered because a cop saw somebody flashing a lot of money in a bar, etc.
it's often the tiny stuff that leads to big investigations
Only 400?
^ this
there are something like 35k in the NYPD. I'm sure that the real number is closer to... 35k
Another 20 were implicated initially....
Don't forget to bring a towel!
When you're trying to wipe up the vomit caused by another Balko nut punch, you can sure use a towel. That's why Towelie says... Always bring a Towel!
...You wanna get high?
Yes, I do. I had my wisdom teeth removed a week ago, and I'm still in pain! Grr...
Hahaha, of COURSE they only found this on accident! And if there could have been any way to hide this recording, they would have done that too.
What about all the illegal double parking that is tolerated for cops and NYC employees? They don't get ticketed so it won't even appear in this investigation. I guess Internal Affairs doesn't know about this either.??
Why is so shocking that the DA would go after these guys? Tickets are a source of revenue for the local government. This has nothing to do with corrupt cops, and everything to do with corrupt politicians protecting their revenue stream.
All the shit that gets pulled by LEO on citizens and this is what they're going after? Cops should counter by writing fewer tickets in the first place. WIN-WIN!
Based on this article, that's basically what they have been doing.
If a ticket has been "fixed", did it ever really exist?
Does the bribe?
Yep - Cops and Pols fighting over our money.
So the cops that were ACTUALLY helping people get charged?
Wait, I'm confused about the movie. So the cops knew that internal affairs were setting them up?
What are you talking about? There is nothing like that in there!
Well played, sir. Well played.
Thank goodness the union is there to defend these noble public servants.
"400 NYPD Cops Under Investigation for Fixing Tickets"
Well all of those tickets aren't gonna fix themselves.
Who says the war on drugs doesn't do any good?
To play devils advocate.
1. If a cop pulls you over when you are speeding and decides not to give you a ticket, is that ok? 2. If you are ticketed for speeding, and you were in fact speeding, and the judge dismisses the ticket for no valid reason other than he feels good that day and wants to give you a break, is that ok?
Yes and yes. Because in each of those two scenarios, anyone theoretically has an equal chance of winning that little lottery. As long as we're positing that the cop or judge is not giving you a ticket or dismissing the ticket based solely on factors other than who you are, who you know, how connected you are, etc., then yes.
The problem here is that people were getting tickets dismissed purely because of inside connections. It's a rigged game.
Nah this is a bigger problem than not giving tickets. Discretion is one thing, but you can't falsify records. My father, who was a cop, said he refused to ever tamper with records and that these cops should be in big trouble.
this is 100% correct. at least in my agency, i have 100% discretion as to whether to issue a ticket. in fact, i dealt with an extremely irate guy yesterday who DEMANDED i cite a recycle truck for "littering" because he claimed some papers etc. flew out of the truck interior. he said "I HAVE PICTURES ON MY PHONE" . when i asked to see those pictures, so i could see what he was talking about, he declined lol. the recycle guys said sometimes it happens when they dump a bin (a few papers fly out) and they would go back over the route to pick up what they could see.
the point is i had 100% discretion.
but *if* i had written a cite , then any chicanery with it would be a serious offense.
any officer who fixes tickets deserves to be punished. write it or don't, but once it's written , the ONLY "decider" becomes the court. no fixing.
period
TrickyVic:
False analogy. You propose two scenarios where the use of discretion might randomly benefit a random person (me). This does not in any way compare to the systematic abuse of personal connections. Additionally, I would say No, it is not OK, because if they have the discretion to help me they have the discretion to screw me. If an officer sees the systemic problem of discretion and has a consistent principle to guide him (moral or constitutional), then it might be different.
I would add that your scenarios fail to mention the compensation that was received by the officers in the scandal. Unless you disagree that it is not OK to offer compensation to an officer in exchange for his looking the other way.
That goes beyond the ticket fixing. I'm not looking at crime involved with ticket fixing, albeit a big part of this case.
let me make a distinction. if they fixed tickets, they should be suspended. if they took MONEY to do it, they should be fired.
absolutely no question about that. bribe taking should be an automatic firing.
Yet we are never allowed to say anything bad about cops, when they are just as susceptible to corruption as any other government official. They are corrupted by power, and we need the market to be able to exert more control over them.
How bout all we worry about all the fucking illegal searches and seizures before this nickel and dime bullshit?
Its like Al Capone and income taxes. Any reason to throw habitual criminals in jail is a good reason.
Take what you can get.
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp
"The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program."
The only reason for the headline grabbing number is that this brand of corruption affects revenue intake. The overlord class can't have their minions messin with the flow.
Brief "Cops Gone Wrong" anecdote:
I had a buddy who was like an all-american, prodigal son... played football, went to harvard, very religious, humble, nice guy.
So on one cold, icy, winter's day, this guy is helping an old lady cross the very-icy street after Church (*you can't make this shit up*)... and a crossing guard/traffic cop demands he turn around and bring her back to the other side... given that he's 3/4 of the way across, he ignores her, and keeps going... the cop freaks out, runs to grab him, but slips on the ice and breaks her hip.
Long story short: Kid is charged with assaulting a police officer. He has to withdraw from school. the PBA files civil suits as well. Since the kid has no real assets to tap, they somehow file to make the parents responsible, and start a procedure to *take their home away*. They are threatened that unless they settle in the civil trials that the criminal proceedings will GUARANTEE jail time. They were in court for like 2years straight. They got anonymous threats. Some local cops who knew the family actually personally apologized to them, basically explaining, "Once something happens, we have no control: the PBA and Unions go to work, and they play hardball..."
I think one reason things went over a cliff was that the father (a lawyer) immediately tried to get the whole thing tossed out, full-stop, and ... and the Police Unions used a typical police tactic: ""Either deal with us now, accepting you were wrong for this little thing (whether you were or weren't)... or if you DONT.... well, then we'll find a SERIOUS thing to come after you for."
Holy shit! PBAs are entirely malignant organizations.
and coming to that conclusion based on an anon anecdote on an hit and run is entirely logical.
So glad I just watched 10 rules to deal with cops!
http://www.intellectualtakeout.....node=79185
dunphy@ yes i agree with you, it goes entirely logical.
Thanks