Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
I've known Jack for a few years, so I know he'll give me some flack about the source. Still: in the Village Voice blog, a piece about a (former) police officer in New York:
The disturbing reports today from the trial of a detective on corruption charges once again confirm allegations raised in the Voice's NYPD Tapes series that the quota pressure causes police officers to do bad things.
Former Brooklyn narcotics detective Stephen Anderson testified last week that cops commonly made up drug charges against innocent people to hit arrest quotas, according to reports in the New York Post and Daily News.
Is this believable? And with as much discretion as possible, Jack, is it, um, widespread? Do police officers have quotas to fill? That seems to be the problem in New York, anyway:
Anderson himself was arrested for planting cocaine on a quartet of men in 2008 in a bar in Queens to help another officer, Henry Tavarez, meet his buy-and-bust quota.
"Tavarez was ... was worried about getting sent back [to patrol] and, you know, the supervisors getting on his case," he recounted at the corruption trial of Brooklyn South narcotics Detective Jason Arbeeny, the Daily News wrote.
"I had decided to give him [Tavarez] the drugs to help him out so that he could say he had a buy," Anderson testified last week in Brooklyn Supreme Court, the Daily News reported.
In the Voice series, Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft alleged that officers routinely made up stop-and-frisk reports, dubbed "ghosts," to make their monthly quota. Moreover, precinct commanders are heard haranguing cops to just go out do stop and frisk people, even when there was no crime to respond to. Quotas affected everything from arrests to traffic tickets.
Jack, what do you think? Is this a NY problem? Or just a couple of bad apples?
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Comments :
Apr '11
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
This is recent?
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
Rob,
I've been with the LAPD for quite a while and worked in a number of assignments, including narcotics. I never had anyone tell me to make some minimum number of arrests. The only problem the LAPD has had with quotas has been when some motorcycle officers claimed they had been retaliated against for failing to meet ticket quotas. Two cops were awarded $2 million by a jury earlier this year after they sued the department and their former captain over such a claim.
The LAPD has had its share of troubles over the years, but I'm glad to say widespread corruption is not among them.
May '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
I thought This American Life did a good job with Adrian Schoolcraft's story.
Also, it isn't just in NYC. 10 police officers in Los Angeles alleged a quota system in a lawsuit. The Feds sued the cops in Camden, New Jersey over quotas. A high ranking officer in Baltimore alleged quotas back in '04.
Etc.
Jul '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
I've known a lot of police reporters. They all say there's an us-against-them culture with cops. If you're a civilian, you're not one of them. Unless you are a victim, you are a potential enemy until they are satisfied you're a neutral, at which point you become an irrelevancy. "Move on, nothing to see here." I admire the thin blue line, but I'm not dewy-eyed. They'll bend the truth to stay in with the brotherhood. This is perfectly normal bonding behavior. When you see mix-ups on the sports field, the guys in one uniform go after the guys in the other uniform. Cops don't see humankind in at its best light. Their constituency is the scumbags of the world. It makes for hardened cynics when enough time passes. Am I wrong, Jack?
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
Cops do indeed become cynical to some degree after some time on the job. Most keep it within bounds. A healthy cynicism is actually an asset for the job. The trick is in knowing when to turn it off.
Jan '11
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
When you ask, "Do police officers have quotas to fill?," do you mean, apart from traffic tickets? And while we're there, is that extrapolatable, as reported, or is police cheating always just about "small stuff?"
Oct '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
With all due respect to both Rob and Mr.Dunphy, nearly anyone collecting a paycheck is required to meet a standard with some form of performance measurement. Some are static, others implied, the implied category seems to affect police officers in large part. When speaking to this practice, it needs to be understood the playing field is wide and varied in response and result.
Having to deal with the system of rank and file officers, Detectives, Captains, DAs, in the last 50 years. One found there is a need to succeed in that envionment. Fortunalty one has not come across any participants with the, Devil take the hindmost attitude. Pretty close though, there were always new boundaries to be found in law.
In the real world, when an officer pulls you over, look in his or her eyes, then decide if it is a game of, Tag..Your It.
Oct '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
Jack Dunphy
Cops do indeed become cynical to some degree after some time on the job. Most keep it within bounds. A healthy cynicism is actually an asset for the job. The trick is in knowing when to turn it off. · Oct 17 at 5:15pm
Hope you have seen more of that than this old fellow has, with all due respect.
Jul '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
"Quotas" are one way to express dissatisfaction with our current policing system.
Perhaps a more to-the-point question is just who ARE the police.
For the sake of discussion, I would submit that the police have become the "standing army" that the Founding Fathers warned us against. They purport to uphold the law, but it is not all that clear just WHAT law they uphold.
For instance, police in Chicago have been quite willing to roust citizens who purchased firearms using their state FOID, and demand to see the weapon, whereupon they confiscate it. There are any number of instances where officers have encountered licensed persons with CCW's where they have demanded the weapons be unloaded, and have left the scene placing these weapons in parts and with loose ammo, in the back seat of a car. In NO during the aftermath of Katrina NO police officers were very happy to disarm innocent citizens merely possessing a weapon in their home.
So I would submit that police merely act as the politicians' personal army, enforcing whatever the local politicians wish. Making the whole question of "quotas" rather minor, don't you think?
Jul '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
In my experience, like Jack's, there is no formal, declared quota or minimum. But each contact, arrest, or enforcement action is tallied and tracked, so commanders can look at the activity levels of each officer in a unit.
It isn't a matter of saying, "you need to make X arrests", it's a matter of looking at an officer's activity compared with his fellows, and saying, "you're not doing enough". It's an imperfect system, to be sure, but as wilber forge pointed out, there needs to be some measurement of performance.
May '10
Re: Drug Bust Quotas: Calling Jack Dunphy
Legalize it. That is all.