We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies

This does not surprise me in the least, how much it disgusts me, well some things are really to vulgar to even HINT at... "Arrest quotas?" Seems odd, as if they need a reason for being there. They have one, (I think I read this in a manual someplace) that is: "To protect the public", and part of that is to "Serve the common good" Making up "crimes, or bogus arrests or charges" is an abomination, and one sure fire way for people NOT to respect the police, or others in "authority". The main reason why we need to have a criminal justice system where ALL events as in arrests and convictions (or not) are reviewed independently. A fully open-and transparent non-profit, publicly owned entity can do this. The fox does a piss poor job of guarding the chicken coop, or us chickens with in them. While most in law enforcement one likes to think, and I believe are as decent, or not, as the next person, being in such a position of power is inherently dangerous. That is with out oversight.

Can such a structure be put in place with out breaking the bank, and given the fact the Republicans HATE anything to do with regulation...How bout a tax on those who profit from the criminal justice system? Lawyers and private companies that run prisons? Better yet, better to tax no one but come up with the funding on a volunteer basis? Make the press work in the favor of those willing to fund this. The innocence projects of many states has been funded on a solely private, no-tax basis. Thank God for that. Until we stop killing people in the name of "justice" we call it execution, we need to be very very careful about who we we "off" in the name of the state, ahh thats the people gang you know, you and me? The same kind of oversight mechanism can be designed, that is assuming we think it's important for cops to arrest people who actually DO SOMETHING WRONG. As most in the police I think want to be fair minded, and not create "busy work", I think most would be in favor. What do you think out there?

It's all about money.

I don't know about the USA, but here in the UK a drugs conviction means you can have your money, home, car, or any possessions and assets seized and confiscated. They can take from you whatever they want and sell them in police auctions.

Although you or I are not allowed to profit from drugs crime (hence the confiscations), TPTB makes many a tidy penny from it.

Of course, on top of this, there are the fines you have to pay too.

Extremely lucrative for them.

Originally posted by Corruption Exposed
reply to post by Digital_Reality

 

This is pure selfishness on behalf of these cops. They had no concern for these people by falsely arresting them to meet their quota.

It is completely "normal" behaviour tho - when you give people incentives in their work they will change their behaviour to meet the incentives - it happens everywhere, all the time.

Incentives, quota's...whatever "targets" people have - they work to achieve the target......not to acieve whatever underlying philosophical raison d'etre might exist.

I agree with previous posters - quota's for arrests are ridiculous in the first place.

In regards to arrest quotas:

Such a thing is an administrative decision imposed by top brass. Whether these policies of quotas exist or not, every single police officer who joins the force takes an oath of office to uphold the law and protect and defend the constitutions by which they are bound. Arrest quotas have nothing to do with upholding the law, and most assuredly nothing to do with the law if those arrests are made at the expense of individual right(s).

The cop admitting to these arrest quotas is attempting to place the blame of his own criminal actions on someone else, in this case a "superior orders" defense. Each police officer on an individual basis who uses existing ordinances or acts of legislation in a misguided attempt to expand jurisdiction in order to facilitate their own private belief system has acted criminally. They are not protected by their office because they were not operating with the jurisdictional boundaries of their office. Wearing a uniform loaded with weapons does not grant people lawful jurisdiction to abrogate and derogate people's rights.

Assuming these quotas do exist, they do because of a whole gang of criminal thugs went into agreement and met those quotas, instead of a whole bunch of honorable men and women refused to acquiesce to such political nonsense, and made it clear to their supervisors that each police officer does not have any duty, nor any obligation to act unlawfully. Only when that scenario exists will arrest quotas loose their value. As long as there are criminal thugs willing to meet these quotas, the song remains the same.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Exactly. Why in the world would they miss their quota, which generates a bad review, which means No Promotion or Raise!? The entire concept of law enforcement meeting quotas should be reviewed by the Supreme Court...oh, wait, they will rule against anything that would benefit the People, so...I dunno, but I think it's kinda spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


You make a good point about the incentive being in place. I have had jobs that have incentives that motivate you to meet your targets. I am not aware of any incentive programs the NYPD program had though. I believe there were quotas that were to be met, or at least attempted to be met. If the quota was not met it would be marked on file. If the quotas were repeatedly not met there may be additional action such as an investigation. I am not sure exactly how it is done. I'm not a cop.

My main point was that I don't think the NYPD would have "incentives" in place to arrest people. The quotas were probably there to make sure they are justified in requesting a higher budget. As other posters have mentioned, crime pays for the people in power.

Maybe a member will know more about any potential incentive programs that may be in place. I am in no place to guess what happens in the NYPD.

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


Or maybe becase ordinary cops under pressure to meet htheir quotas had no recourse but to do so or become unemployed?

you're hot on asigning moral and criminal blame to ordinary people with little or no ability to effectively resist those put in charge of them.

IMO the hierachy that assigns quotas IS to blame - they do so knowing that most people will do as they are told in order to keep their jobs. Such cases of "group think" or "learned helplesness" or "group violation condoning attitude" are very real motivators & drivers of human behaviour - & pretending they dont' exist, or can/should be ignored is foolish.

but IMO the probable cause here is management ignorance - they did not understand what wold happen when they put quotas in place.

corruption Exposed: "Incentives" may give the wrong impression - if you tell pepole to meet quota's, then whatever actions/records/rumours come about due to meeting or not meeting quota's are "incentives" of a sort.

In my job I deal with human factors in aviation - pilots and mechanics adopting "group think" where they all adopt a common, false belief, or tolerance for an error condition is common - all sorts of excuses get trotted out - "it's never happened", "it can't happen here", "it won't happen to me", "everyone else does it", "we've always done it that way" - all these are symptomatic of people behaving in accordance with an established and accepted pattern rather than what is necessarily correct or right in a given circumstance.

and in aviation job it kills people - sometimes hundreds at a time

And if you laid criminal blame every time someone behaved like that (and of course the vast majority do not cause casualties) you'd simply have no airline industry at all.

Getting around human behaviours like this takes courageous leadership from teh top - and courageous following - in both cases to insist on education, correction when the problem is found.

it is a VERY unpopular attitude to have until the whole organiseation "gets it" - and even then it is still a very difficult one to maintain....as soon as you lose an effective CEO or Top Cop it can easily start to erode.

Yep welcome to my city . This has been going on for quite some time now and the mayor along with the commissioner have been in numerous scandals. Yep the same guys that pepper spray protesters, the same ones that racial profile with stop and frisk searches, the same guys that are in hot water for ticketing scandals I could go on and on and on. The sad part is there are plenty of good cops, but on the same token there are quite a few bad cops (so the term bad apples etc.. does not apply).

I think there is nothing wrong with a little corruption here and there. Most of human laws are fallicies anyway, savvy yourself and learn how to use corruption like this to your advantage.

Or maybe becase ordinary cops under pressure to meet htheir quotas had no recourse but to do so or become unemployed?

you're hot on asigning moral and criminal blame to ordinary people with little or no ability to effectively resist those put in charge of them.

I understand what you are saying and you are right to a certain extent in that more pressure should be on the higher ups. That being said, are you truly defending the actions of individuals that not only wrongfully convict innocent people but outright PLANT evidence? I don't care if your job is on the line, you don't ruin another person's life for the sake of your job that's just plain wrong any way you cut it.

this is not a surprise to me at all.

some states are worse than others. the police in california make no bones about their quotas.

it turns them into revenue agents for the court.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul


Oh come on my favorite featherless chicken friend

Only you would come on a thread like this and defend these actions

You are forgetting the # 1 rule of the Concept of Liability. The fault and causation falls on these officers who planted the drugs. It also violates the # 1 rule of Professional Liability. These cops might end up costing the NYPD tens of millions in damages if these victims get a good case together.

Before they prosecute a single one of those dirt-bag cops, I would call for the immediate release of ALL those arrested, convicted and jailed as a result of these criminal cops.

It would seem to me that every drug conviction obtained by this person should immediately be overturned.

I also think that every person that spent time in jail based on this testimony should receive generous compensation.

I think that many lawyers will make lots of money off of this.

reply to post by Wildbob77


Lawyers are creaming their pants right now
I agree, instant re-examining of evidence in some cases and outright acquittal in others.

1994

I was walking down the street heading home from work. A cop stopped me and said he had reason to believe I was up to no good. after a search he prduced a bag of the green stuff. hauled me in and I spent a night in jail and paid almost 700$ in fines. Now a part of my permenant record, which has cost me dearly for certain things in life to succeed further.


I had no drugs on me when he stopped me. Court called me a liar and they are sick of people like me. The judge called me trash for about 5 minutes. then proceeded to lecture me about life.

Protect and serve?

thanks for F'ing up my advancement towards greater goals.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed
It already drives me crazy that the bonds and jail sentences for drug offenses, which are most of the time due to someone with a serious drug addiction in need of rehabilition which they will not receive in jail, are so much more severe than offenses against children. When you add to it the possibility that this person was initially arrested and jailed falsely, it is unbelievably frustrating. This may have met some type of quota, but how much of OUR taxpayer dollars were wasted paying the salary of someone actually commiting a crime themselves, as well as the money going to privatized jails out of OUR pockets to keep the falsely accused and convicted incarcerated? DISGUSTING- COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY SICKENING This is why there cop killers and people with no respect for authority out there on our streets, and these are the most dangerous of all offenders.

reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

Or maybe becase ordinary cops under pressure to meet htheir quotas had no recourse but to do so or become unemployed?

Police officers cannot be fired because they refused to act unlawfully. Ignorantia juris non excusat!

you're hot on asigning moral and criminal blame to ordinary people with little or no ability to effectively resist those put in charge of them.

Presumably you mean the poor, poor, pitiful police officers who just had to act unlawfully because it is their job to do so, and if they don't act unlawfully they will surely be fired, because they are just ordinary people with little or no ability to effectively resist those insisting that they do act unlawfully.

Of course, if police officers cannot even resist the unlawful and criminal actions of handful of administrators, surely the people who expect to rely upon them for protection and service are screwed..and of course, they are.

IMO the hierachy that assigns quotas IS to blame - they do so knowing that most people will do as they are told in order to keep their jobs. Such cases of "group think" or "learned helplesness" or "group violation condoning attitude" are very real motivators & drivers of human behaviour - & pretending they dont' exist, or can/should be ignored is foolish.

Sure, it is not the actual conduct and behavior of any individual acting criminally that is to blame, it is instead the policy behind those actions and behavior that is to blame. Why, all ready you've argued that criminals (as long as they are wearing a badge) cannot be held accountable for their actions, when everyone knows they are just ordinary people working for the man, and it is the man who made them act this way, so don't hate the player, player. Hate the game.

Sigh.

You are welcome to your opinion, as tragic and steeped in moral relevance as it is.

but IMO the probable cause here is management ignorance - they did not understand what wold happen when they put quotas in place.

Ha ha ha ha! Of course! First, let's remove the blame from the actual thugs committing the crime, and move that blame to a policy. Next, let's make sure to exonerate the policy makers because...well, because they just don't understand the damage they are doing. You know, mens rea and all. See? It's nobody's fault, really, just a stupid policy to blame. So, just because police officers are inclined to trample all over your rights on a daily basis, this doesn't mean that they do not have good reason to do so, see? They have a job to protect! What are your rights anyway, when it comes to protecting a tax supported employee?

And if you laid criminal blame every time someone behaved like that (and of course the vast majority do not cause casualties) you'd simply have no airline industry at all.

If someone is acting criminally then they should and need to be held accountable for their actions. I mean criminally in that an injured party exists. If there is no victim, there is no crime. Arresting innocent people just to meet a quota is criminal, and if in your profession there are people acting criminally, it is not acceptable to shrug your shoulders and suggest that too many are acting criminally so we'll just have to tolerate the criminality.

Getting around human behaviours like this takes courageous leadership from teh top - and courageous following - in both cases to insist on education, correction when the problem is found.

Courageous followers who took an oath of office to uphold the law, and have genuine respect for that law, will not follow "superior orders" that demand they act unlawfully. Cowardly followers will.