NYPD Officials Apparently Deleting Incriminating Communications Related To Alleged Illegal Summons Quotas

from the cross-cut-filing-system dept

Tue, Jul 21st 2015 3:14pm — Tim Cushing

The NYPD doesn't care for transparency. Its relationship with open records requesters ranges from "frosty" to "antagonistic." It even employs its own in-house, completely arbitrary classification system in order to prevent even more of its documents from making their way into the hands of the public.

And, despite policies specifically mandating the preservation of records, NYPD officials are apparently preemptively deleting certain communications to ensure they'll never be made public.

Attorneys for the city have failed to turn over even one email from the files of former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly or former Chief of Department Joseph Esposito regarding summons activity over the last eight years, attorney Elinor Sutton writes in new filings in Manhattan Federal Court seeking sanctions against the city.

“It is simply not tenable that Commissioner Kelly and Chief Esposito did not — in the entire period of 2007 through the present — write or receive emails using terms” related to the word “summons,” Sutton writes.

Seven years of discussing police business and not once did Kelly or Esposito use the word "summons," one of the most common terms used when discussing police business. How can this possibly be? Well, when you're looking for evidence that NYPD bosses and supervisors instituted illegal quotas, the word "summons" would figure prominently in responsive documents... if said documents hadn't been memory-holed for the preservation of ~~the greater good~~ their positions.

And it's not just the top two men in the NYPD that have a "summons" hole in their communications. Searches for responsive emails/texts from three other high-ranking NYPD officials came up empty as well.

What Sutton has obtained that points to an unofficial quota system has come from whistleblowers and "other means." Sutton has copies of emails and texts -- sent using NYPD phones/email accounts -- that discuss quota-like "expectations" for officers and reprisals for failing to hit these numbers. But the NYPD's own search for these same documents has found nothing. This either means the NYPD isn't performing thorough searches or it has been destroying incriminating documents. Either way, the NYPD's lack of responsive documents looks very suspicious.

And the city itself is complicit in the "vanishing" of possibly culpatory evidence.

[C]ity lawyers didn’t advise the NYPD to preserve communications related to summonses until 2013 — three years after the suit was filed, Sutton says.

The city won't say much about the lawsuit or its police department's actions, but this contradictory set of sentences says a lot more than the city rep probably intended it to.

In a response filed last week, city attorney Qiana Smith-Williams said the alleged evidence destruction was “short on meritorious claims” and that the sides had not yet “exhausted the possibility of a settlement.”

If you believe the opposition's case is lacking in merit -- and you have an inexhaustible amount of (public) funds to fight it -- why would you be entertaining a settlement? The obvious answer is this: a settlement would allow the city to end the discovery process, maintain its secrecy, allow those involved in the quota scheme to avoid further examination/punishment. Handing out (public) money to the plaintiffs in settlement form also allows the city/NYPD to move on without having to admit wrongdoing. A payout means nothing changes. Quotas will still remain, but steps will be taken to ensure it's better hidden.

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Filed Under: deleting, evidence, nypd, transparency

24 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 3:26pm

they are a criminal organization save hey do not limit themselves to domestic crimes. They also terrorize foreign countries.

Looking at it from a rational point of view these guys should be classified as terrorists under the current laws. They murder to strike fear into people, so that people bow down to them and do what they want. They steal, brutalize and hide evidence of their misdeeds.

Yet in this country all these things are considered being a good cop simply because it is police that do it, not the average citizen.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 3:35pm

If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
it should start with itself.
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That One Guy (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 3:41pm

Why not?
I mean, it's not like they're likely to run into a judge willing to hold them accountable or punish them for their actions, so why not blatantly flaunt the law and destroy potentially incriminating evidence?
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 4:21pm

How magnanimous of them to have the willingness to spend taxpayer money to settle the issue of destroying taxpayer-funded documents in lieu of releasing the documents to the taxpayers.

I bet these guys ask someone out to dinner and then make the invitee pay for the dinner.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 4:30pm

They would'nt be abusing the authority they entitle themselves too, would they?

Naaaaaah
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Pixelation, 21 Jul 2015 @ 5:58pm

Perhaps they've changed the word they use for "Summons" to something like "Invitation". That way they get around some of these pesky FOIA requests.
I think there is a really good story brewing when the police hide things. Bring on the popcorn!
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Michael, 21 Jul 2015 @ 6:21pm

"It is simply not tenable that Commissioner Kelly and Chief Esposito did not — in the entire period of 2007 through the present — write or receive emails using terms” related to the word “summons"

It is if they spent all that time wasting taxpayer money doing anything except their jobs. Which, I suppose, seems pretty plausible.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Jul 2015 @ 9:44pm

Re:
They could have used code.

Summons = Invitation
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tqk (profile), 21 Jul 2015 @ 10:57pm

NYPD's handing out money!
Handing out (public) money to the plaintiffs in settlement form also allows the city/NYPD to move on without having to admit wrongdoing.

Quick, everybody, file an FOIA. Free cash! Sweet.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2015 @ 5:43am

Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
I've been asking that question about the Law Enforcement aspect of governance, particularly in the US, which is the self-proclaimed "Land of the Free".
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2015 @ 7:49am

So what you're saying is, the NYPD continues to play government agency rather than municipal authority. Business as usual then.
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Uriel-238 (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 9:52am

At what point is the NYPD regarded as rogue?
Because this seems pretty roguish.

Or at least rouge.

This doesn't seem like an agency that serves the public. At all.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jul 2015 @ 11:52am

Re: At what point is the NYPD regarded as rogue?
It is business as usual in a police state
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JB Smith, 22 Jul 2015 @ 12:19pm

Virginia state police are the largest domestic cell of terrorists in the nation
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the brain initiative are the worst scams ever perpetrated on the American people. Former U. S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin Warns: Biochips Hazardous to Your Health: Warning, biochips may cause behavioral changes and high suicide rates. State Attorney Generals are to revoke the licenses of doctors and dentists that implant chips in patients. Chip used illegally for GPS, tracking, organized crime, communication and torture. Virginia state police have been implanting citizens without their knowledge and consent for years and they are dying! Check out William and Mary’s site to see the torture enabled by the biochip and the Active Denial System. See Terrorism and Mental Health by Amin Gadit or A Note on Uberveillance by MG & Katina Michael or
Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence by Springer or Mind Control,
Microchip Implants and Cybernetics. Check out the audio spotlight by Holosonics.
“Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director and now Google Executive, Regina E. Dugan, has unveiled a super small, ingestible microchip that we can all be expected to swallow by 2017. “A means of authentication,” she calls it, also called an electronic tattoo, which takes NSA spying to whole new levels. She talks of the ‘mechanical mismatch problem between machines and humans,’ and specifically targets 10 – 20 year olds in her rant about the wonderful qualities of this new technology that can stretch in the human body and still be functional. Hailed as a ‘critical shift for research and medicine,’ these biochips would not only allow full access to insurance companies and government agencies to our pharmaceutical med-taking compliancy (or lack thereof), but also a host of other aspects of our lives which are truly none of their business, and certainly an extension of the removal of our freedoms and rights.” Google News
The ARRA authorizes payments to the states in an effort to encourage Medicaid
Providers to adopt and use “certified EHR technology” aka biochips. ARRA will match Medicaid $5 for every $1 a state provides. Hospitals are paid $2 million to create “crisis stabilization wards” (Gitmo’s) where state police torture people – even unto death. They stopped my heart 90 times in 6 hours. Virginia Beach EMT’s were called to the scene.

Mary E. Schloendorff, v. The Society of New York Hospital 105 N. E. 92, 93 (N. Y. 1914) Justice Cardozo states, “every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent, commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages. (Pratt v Davis, 224 Ill. 300; Mohr v Williams, 95 Minn. 261.)
This case precedent requires police to falsely arrest you or kidnap you and call you a mental health patient in order to force the implant on you. You can also be forced to have a biochip if you have an infectious disease – like Eboli or Aids. Coalition of Justice vs the City of Hampton, VA settled a case out of court for $500,000 and removal of the biochip. Torture is punishable by $1,000 per day up to $2 million; Medical battery is worth $2.05 million. The Torture Act creates a cause of action.
They told my family it was the brain initiative. This requires informed, knowledgeable consent. Mark Warner told me it was research with the Active Denial System by the College of William and Mary, the USAF, and state and local law enforcement. It is called IBEX and it is excruciating. If you are an organ donor, they volunteer you.
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Coyne Tibbets (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 1:02pm

Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
...it shreds the documents.
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Sheogorath (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 3:04pm

Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
And deletes the data.
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Sheogorath (profile), 22 Jul 2015 @ 3:06pm

Re:
At least they're doing it at home this time instead of butting in on investigations abroad.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jul 2015 @ 12:09pm

Re: Virginia state police are the largest domestic cell of terrorists in the nation
Huh?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jul 2015 @ 12:51am

Re: Re: Virginia state police are the largest domestic cell of terrorists in the nation
Schizophrenia is scary isn't it?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2015 @ 8:47pm

Can't they just request the information from the NSA?
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Stoatwblr (profile), 15 Aug 2015 @ 4:01am

Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
In the "land of the free", braves live on "reservations".

That's all you need to know to realise the way the USA really works.
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Stoatwblr (profile), 15 Aug 2015 @ 4:03am

Re: Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
I am surprised that the original filing didn't try to go for the backups that are legally required to be taken and retained.

It's much harder to delete those without getting federal interest in what's going on.
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tqk (profile), 16 Aug 2015 @ 8:07pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: If the NYPD wants to eliminate crime...
I am surprised that the original filing didn't try to go for the backups that are legally required to be taken and retained.

Even the IRS barely knows how to access its backups. Really, barely, barely, barely! I'm not the least surprised other officialdoms can't figure it out either.

We geeks put a lot of effort into making this (recovering from backups) possible, and it should be simple to do. I can't understand why there's so many stories of difficulty with it. I have to infer maleficience on their part to explain it. Or they're just imbeciles, but how could they be hired in the first place if so?
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hether, 25 Aug 2015 @ 2:34pm

to Inna Sadomskiy you better wach you husbent because he talk to mach about her Tatar roots he also sad he willl get rid of her for some unknow reason Inna never trust your husband
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