Undercover Cops Say Practices Put Their Lives at Risk
By Patricia Hurtado, New York Newsday
A pair of undercover police officers filed a $ 10 million class action civil rights suit against the city and the NYPD yesterday, contending that the lives of undercover officers are at risk because the city fails to take proper health and safety precautions.
The suit, filed late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also alleges that the city is discriminating against black and Hispanic officers because up to 95 percent of the 2,000 officers working undercover are minorities. This type of duty carries the greatest risks, the suit said.
“It is a common practice in the NYPD to put the lives of undercover police officers at risk because of the department’s failure to comply with the rules and regulations for a safe ‘Buy and Bust operation,’ ” said Det. Richard Tamayo, an undercover officer and a plaintiff in the suit. A second plaintiff, identified as undercover officer John Banks, did not attend a news conference outside City Hall yesterday that did include four others wearing sunglasses and bandanas who, Tamayo said, were undercover officers.
“Many New York undercover officers have been shot, stabbed and beaten because of the New York Police Department’s reckless behavior,” said Tamayo, estimating there have been more than 50 injuries in the past five years, which he attributed to safety lapses.
Most importantly, Tamayo said, the police department has in the past three years started understaffing so-called buy-and-bust undercover teams, further putting the undercover officers’ lives at risk.
Tamayo also said inmates working as “trusties” for the city’s Department of Correction have been used by the NYPD to deliver office equipment to undercover locations. He said such methods could potentially breach the identity of the undercover officers.
In an unusual twist in the suit, the plaintiffs also complained that officers’ lives are endangered because officers smoke in the precinct stationhouses in violation of state and city health laws.
Tamayo, who had been assigned to Brooklyn North Narcotics, charged that once he complained about the smoking, he was transferred to a less-prestigious undercover operation. He said his personal property was vandalized by other officers, too.
“They use intimidation tactics against those who don’t smoke when we complain,” Tamayo said.
Asked about the lawsuit afterward, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined to comment.