A secretly recorded audiotape is being offered as proof that NYPD officers are required to meet ticket quotas.
The voice on the audiotape, reportedly, is of the police captain at the 81st Precinct station house in Brooklyn, telling his top commanders what he expects from them.
"If day tours contributed with five seat belts, five cellphones a week, five double parkers and five bus stops a week, okay. You as the bosses have to demand this and have to count it," said the voice on the tape. "Your goal is five in each of these categories. Not a difficult task."
But in a statement, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said what the captain on the tape is talking about is not quotas at all, but minimum performance goals.
"It's absurd to think that managers can't establish goals that require minimum productivity," said Browne. "To suggest otherwise would mean no recourse but to let slackers do nothing."
The attorney who released the tape represents an NYPD officer who has filed a lawsuit against the department,claiming he was the victim of retaliation after he reported that a supervisor was fudging the numbers.
