NYPD Whistleblowers Say Stop and Frisk Abuse Was Propelled by Quota System; Called ‘Rats’ by Fellow Officers
Two NYPD whistleblowers testified in the big court battle over the Stop and Frisk program this week.
Both allege that the abuse of the program has been propelled by a quota system, in which officers were pressured to make a certain amount of stops per month.
Both officers say they’ve faced harassment from fellow officers for speaking out.
Officer Adhyl Polanco, who was initially responsible for calling attention to the quotas via a series of secret recordings made back in 2009, told the court he’d been required to make five stop-and-frisks a month by union delegates and police supervisors. Polanco, who said fellow cops called him a rat after he went public with the recordings, testified officers often felt pressured to make unconstitutional stops in order to meet those quotas. “We were handcuffing kids for no reason,” he said. “I don’t want my kids to get shot by a cop who’s chasing them to write a ‘250.'”
Read more at ThinkProgress.org
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