Lawsuit Against NYPD Internal Affairs Alleges Arbitrary Spying, Racial Discrimination, Sexual Impropriety

A pair of lawsuits by black female officers with
the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau allege that the division
arbitrarily spies on cops, discriminates against minorities, and
that they are subject to sexual harassment including the trading of
sexual favors for promotions.
Via the New York Post:

“Plaintiff alleges that African-American Female
Officers’ in particular, are expected to engage in the
stereotypical behaviors of being primarily subservient to primarily
Caucasian Male police supervisors by acting as their “personal
secretaries, paramours, or sex partners,” the suits allege.

Black female staffers in the IAB who don’t play the game are
routinely denied promotions and preferred assignments, according to
the suits.

Calling the IAB a “Good Ole Boys” club, the women allege that
agency brass routinely tap random officers home and cellular phones
and look into their private financial records as part of dubious
investigations, the suits state.

Black and Hispanic officers who file discrimination claims against
the department mysteriously become targets of IAB “fishing”
missions, the suits claim.

The lawsuits also claim minority officers are punished more
harshly by the bureau than their white counterparts.  Earlier
this year, a detective who served as an aide to the Internal
Affairs Bureau’s chief likened the division to “the mob” and
endorsed the idea of an inspector as she prepared to file her own
lawsuit.

Between 1992 and 2008, an average of 119 cops were arrested a
year,
according to Internal Affairs Bureau reports. A 2010

Village Voice exposé  of the NYPD’s internal affairs
division revealed that internal affairs cases are processed at a
“snail’s pace” no matter their size or significance, that it’s
often impossible to find out what happened with a complaint, and
that cops who complain to the bureau about their colleagues are
often retaliated against by their supervisors.

The NYPD is currently
facing a series of lawsuits alleging retaliation against
whistleblowers; the department argues, backed by case law, that the
whistleblowers
shouldn’t be protected because reporting on internal misconduct
is part of their job.