State Lawmakers Call For Commission To Investigate NYPD's 'Culture Of Corruption'
NEW YORK (1010 WINS / WCBS 880) -- "The mayor must act and the mayor must act decisively."
Those words were spoken earlier Thursday by New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, who is calling for Mayor Michael Bloomberg to form an independent commission to investigate the New York Police Department.
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Jeffries and a handful of other elected officials, speaking outside 1 Police Plaza, want oversight and action against what the senator called "systemic corruption in the NYPD."
"I'm confident that the overwhelming majority of police officers are law-abiding residents, but there is a culture of corruption that has festered like a cancer and it must be addressed," he said.
The alleged incidents specifically pointed out by Jeffries include:
Adams also talked about "drugs being planted in Staten Island" and "7 narcotics investigators being convicted of planting drugs."
"We are deeply troubled and alarmed at the recent outbreak of corruption all across the city of New York that is staggering in its scope," Jeffries said.
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Another major concern from officials has been many of the alleged incidents of corruption were uncovered by an outside agency and not Internal Affairs.
Responding to the comments from Assemblyman Jeffries, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said "the fact that these corruption cases are public at all means that the investigation bureau is doing its job."
"Each prosecutor in each of the five boroughs has a public integrity section that does nothing but look at such cases as does both U.S. Attorneys, so you have seven entities, independent of the police department (in addition to the mayor's commission) looking at this very issue," Browne responded.
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