By Kirstan Conley and Chuck Bennett
New York Post
NEW YORK — Cops assigned to an NYPD patrol unit that cruises the highways of Manhattan are among the hundreds of officers being probed in a massive ticket-fixing investigation, The Post has learned.
In addition to cops in the 12 precincts in The Bronx being investigated for making tickets vanish for favored friends and family, probers are keeping an eye on officers with Highway 1.
It’s headquartered off the Bronx River Parkway, but cops based there regularly pull over motorists along the West Side Highway and FDR East River Drive in Manhattan.
As many as 400 cops could face departmental or even criminal charges for allegedly fixing tickets by losing paperwork or missing court dates.
Another 40 officers are subject to a grand jury investigation about taking gifts or outright bribes for making tickets vanish, the sources said.
One policewoman in The Bronx, whose job gave her direct access to tickets, recently testified that she was constantly badgered to make tickets disappear, the sources said.
But the officer - who was placed on modified duty after her testimony - said she lied to fellow cops, telling them she had killed the tickets when, in fact, she’d sent the paperwork through.
About 30 officers have testified so far, the sources said.
Many of the alleged fixers were union delegates, who could get access to the paperwork - or ask others for it - and make it disappear before they were sent out to adjudicating agencies, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Parking Violations Bureau.
One delegate caught up in the probe is Raymond Brickley, the Sergeants Benevolent Association’s top representative in The Bronx, the sources said.
Brickley, who joined the NYPD in 1984, was placed on modified duty, and his request to retire was denied, the sources said.
Another union rep, Officer Joseph Anthony, a trustee with the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, was questioned, the sources said.
The SBA didn’t return a call for comment, and the PBA declined to comment.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday declined to comment on the probe but said it would be nearly impossible now for any cop to do a ticket favor.
“The practice of just calling up and saying, ‘Can you fix a ticket for me?’ really isn’t possible anymore because once something’s in the database electronically, there’s somebody that can look to see whether it was removed and go and see why,” he said.
The new computer system went online in July, and the ticket-fixing probe time frame extends from 2008 to June 2010.
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