Scandal has rocked the New York Police Department, as officer Mathew Bianchi filed a lawsuit against the force for its alleged favoritism of officers’ friends and family. Specifically, Bianchi claims that police unions demand that cops’ friends and families be excused from receiving traffic tickets.
The officer claims that he was punished by being transferred to nighttime patrol for giving tickets to reckless drivers who tried to avoid punishment. These drivers were attempting to use something called a “courtesy card,” reports the New York Daily News.
In his lawsuit, Bianchi claims that the cards were handed out to NYPD officers in order to then be disseminated to their friends and family. Drivers who showed the cards to officers would be given preferential treatment, and frequently allowed to leave without a ticket.
The laminated cards are allegedly printed out and distributed every year by the five police unions, and come with no formal instructions. However, such is the expectation that people bearing them will be let off, that Bianchi claims he was punished for not honoring them.
Read: Reckless NYPD Officer Caught On Video Trying To Intentionally Collide With Moped Rider
Trouble for Bianchi started after a traffic stop in 2017, when he pulled over a woman for speeding and running a red light. After she showed him a courtesy card, he gave her a speeding ticket, but let her off with a warning for running the red.
Despite being shown leniency, the woman complained, and the person from whom she received the card told Bianchi he was wrong not to honor it. His union then, allegedly, told him he would be in trouble if he continued not to honor the cards.
After that, Bianchi says he came under intense scrutiny, and was told he could be punished if he continued to flout convention. Then, in August, he wrote a ticket to a woman who did not present him with a courtesy card.
Despite that, he alleges that it was later revealed to him that she was related to an NYPD Chief of Department. Days later, he was transferred to regular patrol on the four-to-midnight shift.
Although the cards depend on the discretion of officers to let people go, something that they are allowed to exercise, Bianchi’s allegations suggest that the practice of not punishing people related to the NYPD is not just a courtesy, but a requirement.
The suit comes more than a decade after the NYPD was stained by a scandal in which 16 officers were indicted for “fixing” traffic tickets. Bianchi claims that this is the solution to the scandal, since it means that there simply aren’t tickets to make disappear. According to John Scola, Bianchi’s lawyer, the problem with these alleged actions runs deeper than simple favoritism.
“Many of these people are driving recklessly again and again. They’re a danger to everyone else on the road,” said Scola. “But rather than protect the community from these recidivist offenders, the NYPD chose to retaliate against my client and derail his career.”
