Brooklyn, NY – A Brooklyn precinct is under investigation for manipulating statistics to make its cops look like better crimefighters, the Daily News has learned.
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Two probes are centered around whether Bedford-Stuyvesant’s 81st Precinct recorded felonies as misdemeanors and refused to take complaints from victims – all in an effort to drive down the crime rate, sources said.
And the allegations came from one of the precinct’s officers.
Officer Adrian Schoolcraft shared his suspicions with the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Quality Assurance Division, the NYPD unit responsible for maintaining the integrity of crime stats.
Schoolcraft told The News the top brass are so concerned with numbers that one precinct lieutenant is known as “The Shredder” because he’s often spotted destroying documents.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne confirmed the Quality Assurance Division probe. Other police sources confirmed both investigations.
Schoolcraft gave The News the names of 14 crime victims from notes he took at the precinct from late 2008 to October 2009.
In interviews with The News, five crime victims appeared to back up Schoolcraft’s allegations.
One man said he was beaten bloody and robbed – and then told by cops he was the victim of a “lost property” case because he didn’t get a good look at the suspects.
Another man said he was berated by the precinct’s commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello, for trying to report a stolen car.
“It’s just not right,” said Schoolcraft, a seven-year member of the NYPD. “They are taking advantage of people. A lot of [crime victims] don’t know any better.
Schoolcraft has big problems of his own.
He received a poor work review early last year – his supervisors cited his need for “constant supervision” – and was stripped of his gun and put on desk duty in April after telling an NYPD doctor he thought work stress caused his stomach and chest pains.
He has been suspended since Halloween, when supervisors said he left work an hour early without permission.
Police went to his Queens home that night to bring him back to the precinct stationhouse, where he faced suspension for going AWOL. Schoolcraft refused to accompany the cops, and the confrontation apparently escalated.
He was deemed unstable and committed to a psychiatric unit at Jamaica Center for more than six days against his will, he said.
Schoolcraft has not returned to duty and lives with his father upstate. He insisted the NYPD is trying to make him look bad because of his complaints about the precinct’s recordkeeping practices.
Mauriello, the precinct’s commanding officer since 2008, called Schoolcraft’s allegations “atrocious” before referring all inquires to the NYPD’s press office.
Sharp decline in crime
Over the past two years, the crime rate – a measure of the number of seven major felonies in a precinct – has fallen about 17% in the 81st Precinct, compared with a dip of 12% citywide.
From 2003 to 2007, the rate in the precinct fell at a much smaller pace, and even increased slightly one year.
“I wanted to become a police officer, chase the bad guys, and I thought the NYPD was the best police department in the world,” Schoolcraft said.
“I never thought it would turn out like this.”
this sounds like the record keeping of mimonides hospital’s cardeac unit.
The 81 is a very busy pct. Lots of jobs. They actually have a barricaded perp job ongoing at this time….
They also had the 1st shooting in NYC for 2010 !!! -k-
Its not the only NYPD Pct doing this their doing it all over cause Bloomy wants to show under him crime is down. I know a little what’s going on their a bunch of crooks all they do is write tickets & show crime is down when its not
You think this is bad wait until the 71 fake numbers get released
Two years ago, I walked into the 66th pct with a rolex my son bought in BP from a black guy for $100 it still had the credit card receipt with the name of the victim in the box and the desk sergeant refused to take a report. He said “its probably a fake and the value is not high enough to make a report”
This is going on in precints all over the city. All the mayor cares about is numbers that make him look good. He’s been talking about crime going down while many of us see that the opposite is truth. Burglaries are reported as tresspassing, car break-ins are reported as lost property, assaults are reported as disputes – and crime is down!
So what else is new under the sun. The NYPD are as corrupt as the rest of the government. Everything they do is based on how they’ll look in the media.
I guess without morality you have dishonesty, etc.
it starts at the top good morning ny an bloomy will get away
this happened ever since Bratton intraduced “Comstat” they are constantly under reporting the numbers it happens in almost every difficult area in the 5 boroughs
The 81 PCT CO has created am atmosphere where the crimes reported by the public are downgraded to a lesser charge to keep the numbers of Felony crimes lower than the years before. DI Mauriello has his own personal agenda to move up the ranks of the NYPD and does not care about the public, let alone his own cops. DI Mauriello has placed more emphasis on his special units to write more useless summonses and make more arrests that actually serving the public when it comes time to write out complaint reports. If you wish to be a cop and treated fairly this is not the man you want to work for, Not matter how hard you work or how good your integrity is this man will not let you advance in your career if you don’t “suck up” and get on board with his agenda.