An NYPD whistleblower says he’s been transferred to the graveyard shift at Bronx Central Booking in retaliation for raising red flags about crime reports at his old Queens precinct.
Sgt. Robert Borrelli told internal investigators that cops in the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways routinely downgraded crimes to keep the crime rate artificially low — and turned over the shady paperwork as proof.
The department’s Quality Assurance Division opened a probe last May, sources said, and already upgraded some of the crimes from misdemeanors to felonies — a development that Borrelli says earned him the unwanted transfer and shunning from fellow brothers in blue.
He grumbles that his new assignment in the Bronx is a form of “highway therapy” because it’s a much longer commute from his Long Island home.
His overtime has been reduced and a tire on his car was punctured outside his old precinct, he said. He also faces departmental discipline for an argument with an officer.
It’s one word — retaliation,” he said. “They're coming after me because I opened my mouth.”
Borrelli told Quality Assurance Division investigators that the crime report shenanigans flourished under now-retired Deputy Inspector Thomas Barrett and continued under current precinct commander Capt. Scott Olexa.
There is this constant pressure to change crime reports,” Borrelli told the Daily News. “The numbers are what the numbers are. I’m not going to change a report to make it something it is not.
“It’s wrong, and it has to stop.”
Barrett declined to comment to The News, while Olexa referred questions to a department spokeswoman.
Deputy Inspector Kim Royster, the spokeswoman, said the Quality Assurance Division investigated 12 complaints Borrelli provided — and reclassified four of them. She also said investigators looked at 1,036 additional incidents and found only eight misclassifications.
Cases Borrelli forwarded to quality-assurance cops included:
An incident involving an off-duty firefighter who broke into the lot of a towing company to retrieve his car — then later paid the company’s owner $400 for damage to the pound’s lock. The firefighter was not arrested or disciplined.
A woman reporting that her ex-boyfriend stole property from her apartment, including two flat-screen TVs, allegedly was told by police to keep her written explanation “short and sweet” — and to not mention the televisions.
A teen confronted on the subway by wanna-be thieves had his case classified as unfounded by a transit captain.
A child rape was written up as a case of unauthorized sexual touching, but was later logged properly after Borrelli and a lieutenant questioned the special victims detective who wrote up the report.
Rob I know that your saying the truth
ReplyDeleteKeep it up
From: tony t