NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A New York Police Department whistleblower’s report that his precinct was systematically under-reporting crime – an act that resulted in a suspension and time in a psychiatric ward – has been validated by an internal department investigation.
The report, completed in 2010 but not made public, comes amid growing scrutiny of the NYPD and its declining crime statistics. Those stats have helped build a narrative that New York City has become, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg likes to say, “the safest big city in America.”
In September of 2009, Officer Adrian Schoolcraft of the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn met confidentially with NYPD investigators and provided evidence – including secret audio recordings he had made – that more than a dozen crime reports had been manipulated.
He charged that felonies had been downgraded, crime reports taken were never filed, and in other cases, crime victims were discouraged from filing complaints at all.
Weeks later, on Halloween night, he was taken from his apartment in handcuffs to the psychiatric ward of Jamaica Hospital, where he claimed he was held against his will for six days.
Schoolcraft had left work sick that day, after being harassed by senior officers in his precinct who had learned of his complaints, his attorney said. He filled out a sick form but failed to have it signed by his supervisor. Senior officers arrived at this apartment and encouraged him to return to work, but he refused.
“Act like a man,” Schoolcraft was warned, according to attorney Jon Norinsberg. When he refused, he was declared an EDP, or emotionally disturbed person, and police transported him to Jamaica Hospital’s psychiatric ward.
Schoolcraft, who remains under suspension, has filed a federal lawsuit against the department, as well as the hospital and several doctors there. A hospital spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations, citing patient privacy laws.
Reuters has viewed a copy of the internal NYPD report, which determined there was a “concerted effort to deliberately under-report crime in the 81st Precinct.”
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not return several calls for comment.
