16 NY cops charged with ticket-fixing

NEW YORK (AP)

What began two years ago as a low-profile wiretap investigation of a New York Police Department officer has resulted in criminal charges against at least 16 officers alleging they abused their authority by helping family and friends avoid paying traffic tickets, two people familiar with the case said Thursday.

The officers were expected to be arraigned Friday in the Bronx, said the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because authorities hadn't announced the results of the grand jury investigation.

The people declined to detail the charges or name the officers. The Bronx district attorney's office declined to comment Thursday, as did Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, and union officials.

The ticket-fixing case doesn't appear to rise to the level of the more notorious corruption scandals in the nation's largest police department. But in terms of the number of officers facing criminal or internal administrative charges, the probe represents the largest crackdown on police accused of misconduct in recent memory.

The charges against 13 police officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant are the latest in a spate of corruption allegations against NYPD officers. They include delegates with the department's largest and most powerful union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

Earlier this week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought conspiracy and other charges against five current and three former officers alleging they were part of a gun-running ring. In two other recent unrelated federal cases, one officer was charged with arresting a black man without cause and using a racial slur to describe the suspect, and another with using a law enforcement database to try to trump up charges against an innocent man.

As the ticket-fixing investigation unfolded, union officials complained that the probe unfairly singled out officers for an unofficial practice - undoing paperwork on traffic citations before they reach court - that has been tolerated for years.

"This issue could have and should have been addressed differently," Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, has said.

The case evolved from a 2009 internal affairs probe of a Bronx officer suspected of associating with a drug dealer, officials said. While listening to the officer's phone, investigators heard calls from people seeing if he could fix tickets for them, they said.