The NYPD is poised to fire about three dozen new officers after questions arose about their background checks, the Daily News has learned.
The Police Benevolent Association union is attempting to obtain a court order preventing the department from proceeding with its plan, which stems from allegations that the head of the department’s Candidate Assessment Division allowed applicants to attend the NYPD academy who should have been disqualified, police sources said.
The three dozen affected probationary officers, hired within the last 18 months, should never have been put into the academy because of “criminal records and other reasons,” one high-ranking NYPD source said.
“These are officers who can’t legally be police officers,” the source said. “They should not have been hired in the first place.”
Earlier this year, the head of the Candidate Assessment Division, Inspector Terrell Anderson, was transferred to another unit and stripped of his gun and shield after investigators learned that he allowed unqualified candidates to continue with the hiring process., according to NYPD officials.
He was found to have pushed candidates through who had failed the department’s psychological exam, according to the New York Times.
Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News
PBA President Patrick Hendry. (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News)
PBA President Patrick Hendry said the new officers shouldn’t be penalized for the department’s mistakes.
“(They) aren’t responsible for the NYPD’s broken hiring process or the supervisors who made these decisions, in some cases more than a year-and-a-half ago,” Hendry said. “As far as they know, they were qualified to be New York City police officers, because the NYPD hired and trained them.”
“It is an absolute travesty that the department is trying to cover its tracks by summarily forcing them off the job, without affording them the same appeal process available to other applicants,” Hendry said, adding that the PBA was “exploring all legal options to protect our members’ rights and hold the NYPD accountable for this complete management failure.”
