Police Corruption: the Adrian Schoolcraft Story

I follow a couple of blogs that document violations of citizens' rights by the police. At first it was shocking to me how regularly police trampled property, search and seizure and 1st amendment rights; but now I'm not surprised whenever I hear of the latest abuse. Nor am I surprised when police are given a slap on the wrist following internal, departmental investigations for things that would land the rest of us in jail.

Enter Adrian Schoolcraft. This is the story of an NYPD policeman who secretly recorded all of his activities on duty for several years. He initially started carrying a recorder to protect himself from false accusations by citizens. However, when his supervisor started to illegally push quotas onto officers at his precinct, the aim of his recording turned towards documenting bad behavior by the police. Contrary to what one would hope, the higher ups in the NYPD didn't try to solve the problem. Rather, they turned against Schoolcraft.

His story can be heard on This American Life.

This story doesn't appear to have gone national yet, but you can read about it at Village Voice and HuffPo. The New York Times has picked it up so I'm surprised I'm not finding more articles about it elsewhere. (Here's the NYT article.)