“This Culture Has Got To Change”

The issues raised in the Voice series that showed the NYPD was cooking the books actually were investigated by the NYPD, except the findings were kept secret:

The implications of the report are obvious: If the 81st Precinct was a typical station house, then crime manipulation is more widespread than city officials have admitted.

John Eterno, a criminologist at Molloy College and a former NYPD captain, says that what was happening in the 81st Precinct is no isolated case. “The pressures on commanders are enormous, to make sure the crime numbers look good,” Eterno says. “This is a culture. This is happening in every precinct, every transit district, and every police housing service area. This culture has got to change.”

As for [the 81st Precinct Commander], he’s no rogue commander, says Eterno, who has published a book about crime reporting with John Jay College professor Eli Silverman. “[The commander] is no different from any other commander,” he says. “This is just a microcosm of what is happening in the entire police department.”