NYPD Officer Sues Department Over “Courtesy Cards” System.

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer has criticized the use of “courtesy cards” by friends and family members of his colleagues, accusing department heads of maintaining an extensive system of impunity. that allows people with a connection to the law enforcement agency to avoid traffic tickets.

Although not officially recognized by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the cards have long been considered a benefit of employment. City police unions issue them to their members, who pass them around to those who want to show their NYPD connections, often to avoid a better infraction, like a ticket for speeding or not wearing a seatbelt. .

In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan this week, Agent Mathew Bianchi recounted a selective law enforcement practice with consequences for officers who did not follow the implicit policy. Active duty and retired officers have access to hundreds of cards, and have given them away for a discount on a meal or a home improvement, Bianchi said.

At the Staten Island police station where he works, an area inhabited by a majority of white people and whose population has a high percentage of police and municipal workers, Bianchi said that many people whom he has stopped for traffic violations have shown him one of the cards.

“I see card after card.” You’re not allowed to ticket anybody,” he told The Associated Press. “We’re not supposed to show a certain favoritism when we stop cars, and we’re not supposed to give the card to a man who mows my lawn.”

Bianchi said he was scolded several times for ticketing a relative of an officer. In some cases, his commander personally reviewed his body camera footage to see if he was giving people with cards a “hard time,” the lawsuit says.

The final straw, however, came last summer when Bianchi ticketed a friend of the top NYPD agent, Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, according to the complaint. Three days later, Bianchi said he was removed from his job at the traffic unit and moved to the night patrol.