The rules of “collars for dollars” at NYPD Transit District 34 were clear.
Cops who arrested black men were rewarded with more overtime, a now-retired officer, Pierre Maximilien writes in an explosive declaration filed Monday in a discrimination lawsuit brought by Sgt. Edwin Raymond and three other cops.
The declaration is one of the latest developments in a long-running case brought by black and Hispanic cops who charge they were forced to arrest more blacks and Hispanics than other groups. They were treated harshly and denied promotions if they refused, the lawsuit alleges.
Asian, Jewish and white people — known as “soft targets” — were not to be slapped in cuffs. All cops in that district were to fill a collar quota, but black and Hispanic officers who didn’t meet expectations were treated more harshly by then-Commanding Officer Constantin Tsachas, Maximilien writes.
“We were taught by Tsachas’ closest lieutenants that we could not give summons to what they called as ‘soft targets,'” Maximilien writes in his declaration. “The soft targets they were referring to were white, Asian or Jewish people. Instead, it was emphasized that we needed to stop male blacks. Those were the ones Tsachas wanted to go to jail.”
Maximilien, 49, retired in 2015, saying he could no longer endure Tsachas’ racist retaliation. He writes that when he refused to follow those orders, he was reprimanded, his overtime was stopped and he was assigned only to transporting prisoners. He writes that he tried to raise warning bells about the quota system with top NYPD chiefs, the Department of Investigation, and the police unions, but no one acted.
“The utter disregard for civilians of color and their ability to treat them like animals made me second guess who I was actually serving in the NYPD,” he writes. “Tsachas created this racial divide within the department. He rewarded the white officers and punished the minority officers.”
Black and Hispanic cops in general were punished more severely for failing to meet the quotas. “The supervisors would place the minority officers in punishment posts by ourselves, deny vacation or leave, deny us overtime, change our shifts, give us bogus command disciplines, yell at us in roll call, and give us poor evaluations,” he writes.
On the other hand, according to Maximilien’s declaration, when white officers didn’t meet the collar quota they were treated with kid gloves.
“They would get a pass from command,” he writes. “They would write it off as a bad month and place them in areas with partners who were extremely aggressive so they could make the arrest quota.”
Tsachas is still on the job and was promoted to Deputy Inspector in 2016.
The NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation. The city’s Law Department said Maximilien’s allegations had no merit.
“The information presented by plaintiffs changes nothing. The NYPD investigated the allegations in Officer Maximilien’s declaration and found them to be meritless. The judge ruled that the city’s production of email evidence was sufficient, despite what plaintiffs now claim. We’ll continue to defend against these baseless allegations,” said law department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci.
Raymond’s lawyer John Scola said the NYPD’s been aware of the accusations about Tsachas for nearly a decade.
“If they had acted appropriately, they wouldn’t have retaliated against my clients with racially motivated punishments. We hope the NYPD take corrective action,” Scola said.
The existence of quotas has long been denied by the NYPD. However, Maximilien noted that the NYPD refers to quotas by a series of code names, including productivity indicators, goals, activity, expectations, conditions and performance goals.
“The NYPD has a lot of internal names for the arrest quota, but they all mean the same thing,” he wrote.