From the NY Times:The phone numbers could not be easier to remember.
One is 1-800-Pride-PD; 212-CORRUPT is another.
Yet dialing these numbers can be the most difficult call a police officer ever makes.
“I’m reporting a guy on my team. What do I do? What do I do?” said Jeffrey McAvoy, a former narcotics detective who called in 2008 to report a lieutenant whom he suspected of stealing $5,000 hidden in a drug dealer’s sneakers.
“I went to the bathroom about a dozen times and threw up, actually physically threw up, before I made the call,” Mr. McAvoy recalled.
The Patrol Guide, a hefty set of regulations governing conduct in the New York Police Department, states that all officers “have an absolute duty to report any corruption or serious misconduct.” But within the department, that regulation contends with an older taboo against informing on other police officers.
...the department’s official stance, according to lawsuits filed by three former detectives and one current one, runs counter to what police officers have experienced.
Those lawsuits, and interviews with several officers who have called Internal Affairs to report their colleagues, seem to provide ample evidence that the anti-snitching culture in the Police Department remains virulent.
The department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, declined to comment.
2 comments:
Readers should note that the cops who drove these whistle-blowers out of the department are the same ones that you will encounter on the street today.
Its always been this way. My grandfather was a cop in the 82nd PCT in the 1950s. He saw to much corruption, bribery and riff-raff and experienced the wrath of the "wall of blue" first hand when he blew some whistles.
They called him "a fink" then sent some "black hand" threatening letters to his house/candy store front my grandmother (his wive) ran.
Knowing things would never change He left the force and became a fireman.
--Apparently he (RIP) was correct
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