Rookie cops NYPD is trying to fire can remain on job amid legal battle, judge rules

Yahoo

16-07-2025

NEW YORK — Thirty-one rookie police officers who the NYPD is trying to fire because of alleged oversights by a rogue commander during the hiring process will remain on the job while their union fights for them in court, a Manhattan judge ruled Tuesday.
At a hearing, state Supreme Court Justice Phaedra Perry-Bond denied a request from the city to lift a July 10 temporary restraining order obtained by the Police Benevolent Association union that stopped the NYPD from firing the cops.
The department is trying to fire the officers after determining they weren't qualified to join the force in the first place based, they say, on checkered histories that include arrests, drug use, hiring sex workers, traffic violations, and 'serious disregard for rules and consequences,' according to lawyers for the city and the NYPD.
All of the cops in question either failed a psychiatric evaluation or a character assessment while they were being vetted, according to the NYPD, and were told as such.
However, the city claims that a lone commanding officer, Inspector Terrell Anderson, the head of the NYPD's Candidate Assessment Division, mistakenly approved them after calling them back for additional interviews, sending them off to be sworn in and trained at the Police Academy.
'These candidates were approved by an individual whose actions were unauthorized. Now, we have them working in the field when they have been disqualified,' city Law Department attorney Marina Sukonnik said in court.
One officer the NYPD says was unqualified to serve — who, like all of the cops, has been on desk duty without a badge or a gun since July 10 — 'reported using LSD and marijuana to cope with stress,' while a third showed 'an extensive history of poor decision-making and recklessness,' the NYPD said in court papers.
Another officer 'openly discussed arguments and conflicts with other people in a boastful manner' during an NYPD psychological interview and said that when she received a failing grade from a college professor, she told the teacher, 'No one likes you; I don't like you, your students don't like you.'
Another officer was deemed unfit because 'he had a prior history of paying prostitutes for sexual favors,' the NYPD said in court papers.
'Because of the public trust placed in the NYPD and the sensitivity of many issues faced regularly by police officers, the police commissioner must have the ability to demand a high degree of character and fitness from police officers and certainly must demand that they be qualified under the appointment standards for the position,' the city said in court papers.
In court Tuesday, Matthew Daly, a lawyer for the PBA, said most of the cops were of minority, non-affluent backgrounds and had been making arrests and working patrol without incident — in some cases, commended for their performance — when they turned up to work last week and told to resign or face being fired before a court order put the firings on hold. Some have been on the job for more than 18 months.
Calling the NYPD's hasty firing attempt 'sloppy and heavy-handed,' Daly suggested the commanding officer had been scapegoated despite an ongoing internal investigation into the mix-up. He said many of the cops had left other jobs after the NYPD hired them and risk homelessness, student loan delinquency, and losing their family's medical insurance were they to get the boot.
The union lawyer stated that the PBA's position was that the NYPD had no right to revive the disqualifications; however, if it did so, Daly said the officers should be given 30 days to appeal.
'The city is trying to humiliate and condemn them,' Daly said. 'All we're asking for is that the status quo be maintained.'
Sukonnik countered by saying the officers had no right to keep their jobs or to appeal now the findings that they were unfit.
In pointed questions to the city's attorney, Perry-Bond sounded skeptical about the department's position that the rookie cops had blown the deadline to appeal the finding within the 30-day timeframe while simultaneously acknowledging they'd been rehired during that period and pressed Sukonnik about whether the NYPD was acting fairly.
'It isn't just, 'Oh, you shouldn't have been hired. Goodbye,'' the judge quipped, a few beats later denying the city's efforts to lift the restraining order and ordering the parties back in court in 60 days.
'There are people whose lives are on hold here.'
Union officials who attended Tuesday's hearing said the cops highlighted by the NYPD made up a small portion of the 31 whose jobs are on the line and that many of the group had worked for various city and law enforcement agencies in the past. One had worked as a correction officer for 10 years, and another had worked as an investigator for the Brooklyn D.A.'s office before being hired by the NYPD.
PBA President Patrick Hendry said singling out certain officers in court documents amounted to a 'shameful smear campaign' against the entire group.
'We're grateful to the judge for taking this case seriously, understanding that these are 31 police officers' lives. their livelihood. That she understands that they have families, understands that they have bills, understands that they have rent, understands that they were just told, 'Hey, you're not entitled to any process here. You're fired,' That is wrong,' Hendry said.
'They were deemed to be qualified to be New York City police officers. They were called back, they completed what they were asked to complete, those investigations, and they got hired by the police department. … They've been doing a great job, and they deserve to continue the job that they love.'
Capt. Chris Monahan, president of the Captains' Endowment Association, the union that represents NYPD captains and inspectors, staunchly defended Anderson on Thursday.
'Inspector Anderson had the authority under previous administrations to hire candidates,' Monahan said. 'He was under tremendous pressure to fill NYPD recruit classes. He had a careful review process and didn't place candidates with diagnosed mental health issues in any classes.'
Earlier this year, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the department is in a 'hiring crisis' and significantly reduced the number of college credits required to join the force to broaden the candidate pool.