NYPD cops were forced to pump breast-milk in garbage-filled rooms, the backs of cars, and bathrooms, according to lawsuit five mothers filed against the police department this month.
In various instances across different precincts since 2007, new moms weren't given appropriate lactation areas and faced "hostilities, ridicule and shame" from co-workers and higher-ups when they attempted to pump milk, the lawsuit filed December 23rd says. The lawsuit alleges the women were plagued with "jeers, sarcastic comments, ostracization, ridicule, extra supervision, [and] extra burdens to document and prove their personal breaks."
"It was embarrassing," Simone Teagle, a former NYPD cop who retired last month, told Gothamist.
Teagle went to work everyday with a book bag and an ice pack cooler to carry her pump and store milk, since she had no access to the fridge in a garbage-filled kitchen at the 113th Precinct headquarters. Teagle, who's son is now 2-years-old, would pump in a lounge for female officers—but the conditions were horrendous.
The cop lounge was littered with "dirty newspapers, mold on the wall, bags of garbage, boxes of newspapers, dust everywhere, old food," said Teagle. She then tried pumping breast-milk for her newborn in a locker room, but eventually was forced to pump in the privacy of her car.
Where former NYPD officer Simone Teagle had to pump breast-milk.
"I would be pumping milk with my breast out and there would be other female officers sitting around watching TV," she said. "It became an embarrassing thing."
She said supervisors would "blow me off—not take what I was saying seriously" when she raised concerns about the lack of a proper lactation area.
"It basically fell on deaf ears," she added. Eventually, she began taking fewer breaks to pump milk because of the difficulties to get proper accommodations. "It's extremely painful once you fill up and become engorged with milk."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breast-fed (or given breast milk) exclusively for the first six months, and then breast milk plus other foods after that, "with continuation of breastfeeding for 1 year or longer as mutually desired by mother and infant."
Bronx cop Melissa Soto-Germosen told the Post, which first reported on the lawsuit, she had to store breast milk in a refrigerator filled with maggots. The officer faced sarcastic comments from higher-ups when she brought up her legal rights, and ultimately dealt with clogged milk ducts due to a lack of space. When she did pump milk, she sat in a dusty, bedbug-filled locker room that smelled of pesticides, according to allegations made in the suit.
NYPD Officer Melissa Soto-Germosen pumped breast-milk in a dirty locker room, the lawsuit alleges.
Another cop Viviana Ayende assigned to the Central Park Precinct in 2013 wasn't provided a larger protective vest to fit her properly, and had to express milk into the toilet to relieve pressure.
Queens cop Elizabeth Ortiz tried to get on the day shift, but was told by a supervisor in a "whiny voice," "Aww, you do not want midnight because you are tired?"
"Midnights suck," a supervisor told her. "You are not the only cop here on midnight with a child."
She eventually suffered postpartum depression when she had to stop pumping milk because of lack of accommodations and emotional distress, according to the suit.
Another mother Theresa Mahon had to take off a protective vest, gun belt and her shirt in the back of a car while on duty behind a towel in the window of a car multiple times to pump milk during an overtime shift during the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.
The class action lawsuit builds on discrimination complaints the five officers filed against the NYPD in February, and a $5 million suit Teagle filed in October 2018. In 2018, the city passed laws that require employers to provide employees with lactation areas, and a written policy must be given to new employees.
The Law Department declined comment on the lawsuit.
NYPD spokesperson Sergeant Jessica McRorie said the department is "in compliance with federal, state, and local laws to provide reasonable accommodations to express breast milk" and maintains a written policy on how to request breaks to express breast milk.
"The NYPD is committed to providing its employees with appropriate accommodations to express breast milk privately, comfortably, and in close proximity to work," she said in a statement. "Requests to express breast milk are presumed granted upon request to meet the immediate needs of the employee. This allows both the employee and the Department to engage in a dialogue to determine an appropriate schedule, a reasonable amount of time to express milk, and available locations to lactate."
McRorie added retaliation for asking for accommodations is prohibited and those who do retaliate are "subject to disciplinary action," though it was not immediately clear whether NYPD was investigating any individuals for retaliation.
The class action suit covers all employees a part of the department—such as 911 dispatchers, school safety officers, and traffic agents, according to lawyer Eric Sanders, who is representing the women in the class action suit. More than 500 could be class eligible.
Teagle added she's heard of school safety officers pumping milk in Board of Education closets.
"I knew that if I didn't speak up and say something, it would never change. It's an unfair condition. It's our right to be able to pump milk for our children," Teagle said. "We shouldn't have to go back to work and made to use formula because the department doesn't want accommodate us."
