NYPD, Police Union, Set Arrest Quotas

Hey, it's good for business

"I spoke to the CO [commanding officer] for about an hour-and-a-half," the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association delegate says in the audio recording, captured at a Bronx precinct roll call meeting. "twenty-and-one. Twenty-and-one is what the union is backing up…. They spoke to the [Union] trustees. And that's what they want, they want 20-and-1."

"Twenty-and-one means twenty summonses and one arrest a month," says a veteran NYPD officer who listened to the recording, and who spoke to The Nation on the condition of anonymity. Summonses can range from parking violations, to moving violations, to criminal court summonses for infractions such as open container or public urination.

"It's a quota, and they [the Union] agreed to it," says the officer. "It's crazy."