The NYCLU has filed a lawsuit with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a group of NYPD detectives who say the department's elite Intelligence Division is racist. The lawsuit alleges that the NYPD "has chosen to cloak promotions in secrecy and give the all-white high level supervisors who run the Intelligence Division unfettered discretion to handpick white detectives for promotions over more qualified African American detectives." Black detectives also claim there is a so-called "secret list" from which white officers are promoted within the division.
NY1, which exclusively obtained a copy of the lawsuit, reports that it specifically names Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati, the commanding officer of the Intelligence Division. (The NYPD Intelligence Division & Counter-Terrorism Bureau focuses on "combat threats beyond those posed by traditional crime.") "This has been a problem for years," retired Lieutenant Darrin Speight of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement tells NY1. "This is not something new. We want officers that are there by merit, not there because you drink beer with your supervisor or you are friends with the inspector."
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne denies the existence of any "secret list," but the stats presented in the complaint are telling. According to NY1, the lawsuit alleges that of the 600 employees who work for intelligence, only 35 are black. Out of 161 sergeants, only eight are black. And just 21 detectives out of the 224 in the unit are black—a mere six percent. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that no black officer in the Intelligence Division has been promoted above the rank of sergeant.
