EXCLUSIVE: Black NYPD highway cop claims racism, ticket quotas on road patrol
A black cop is blowing the whistle on the NYPD Highway Division, alleging "racism is routine" in the elite unit and there is a quota to write 70 summonses per month, the Daily News has learned.
"Any officer not making his quota can be given inconvenient tours of duty, a bad car to work with and even an involuntary transfer out of Highway, something which bodes badly for the officer's career," Officer Dana Harge, 40, charges in his bombshell federal complaint.
"Many of the actions taken against me were motivated by racism and were intended to prevent me from making my quota and would have resulted in the desired end of an involuntary transfer."
Harge filed the discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month and also filed a complaint with the NYPD's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity in May.
An NYPD spokesman confirmed the complaint is currently under investigation and did not comment further on the cop's allegations.
Harge has been assigned to Highway Unit No. 3 in Queens since 2008, after he graduated first in his motorcycle class, and describes his job performance as "stellar." Harge contends he has made more than 300 arrests for DWI and was honored by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers in 2013 for making the most drunk driving arrests of any NYPD highway cop that year.
As a result, Harge was recommended for promotion to detective. But a higher-up in the highway unit put the kibosh on the paperwork, which "mysteriously disappeared," although there is a log number for the recommendation, according to the complaint.
"In May of 2015 I came in with 82 summonses, which is well above the quota of 70 per month...After that I was not allowed to use an unmarked (car) to get me to stop being successful and to get me transferred out of highway," he charges in the complaint.
The complaint depicts the highway unit as an nearly all-white command. There are only two black cops in Highway 3, according to the complaint, and citywide the Highway Unit is only 4% black.
"If the NYPD doesn't know how to treat blacks in their own ranks, I don't see how they ever going to improve relations with the black community," Harge's lawyer Fred Lichtmacher told The News.
Harge's allegations of discrimination by white superiors include:
Harge works for the NYPD Highway Division.
* He has been written up for minor violations nine or more times in the past 15 months, and is treated differently than white officers.
* His sergeant was ordered to downgrade Harge's job evaluation in December 2014 from 4.5 to 3.5.
* He has been barred from driving paralyzed detective Steven McDonald, which is considered a great honor in the unit.
* Harge was told that he would no longer be assigned to post S304 in south Queens because it has a predominately black population.
Perhaps the most bizarre allegation involves black cops from being shunned from the public spotlight in favor of white cops.
On July 10, Officer Harge was chosen by his sergeant to be the driver of the lead car for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team parade in lower Manhattan, but the complaint says a captain confronted the sergeant at the parade. The captain allegedly asked her why she brought Harge to the detail, calling him a "cancer" and a "boob."
He also claims a black highway sergeant was ordered to go to the firing range on a day last spring when a local TV station was scheduled to interview him so that a white officer could be interviewed instead.
"Highway did not want an African American officer appearing as the 'face' of Highway in the media," the complaint alleges.
The complaint also suggests Harge's superiors have targeted him because he had a medical condition that prevented him from shaving for a period of time, and as a result of an allegation from a female motorist he ticketed who claimed he "flirted" with her.
"Based on the very low number of African Americans who are in Highway and how badly I have been treated it is not hard for me to conclude Highway is racist," Harge states in the complaint.
A black cop is blowing the whistle on the NYPD Highway Division, alleging "racism is routine" in the elite unit and there is a quota to write 70 summonses per month, the Daily News has learned.
"Any officer not making his quota can be given inconvenient tours of duty, a bad car to work with and even an involuntary transfer out of Highway, something which bodes badly for the officer's career," Officer Dana Harge, 40, charges in his bombshell federal complaint.
"Many of the actions taken against me were motivated by racism and were intended to prevent me from making my quota and would have resulted in the desired end of an involuntary transfer."
Harge filed the discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last month and also filed a complaint with the NYPD's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity in May.
An NYPD spokesman confirmed the complaint is currently under investigation and did not comment further on the cop's allegations.
Harge has been assigned to Highway Unit No. 3 in Queens since 2008, after he graduated first in his motorcycle class, and describes his job performance as "stellar." Harge contends he has made more than 300 arrests for DWI and was honored by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers in 2013 for making the most drunk driving arrests of any NYPD highway cop that year.
As a result, Harge was recommended for promotion to detective. But a higher-up in the highway unit put the kibosh on the paperwork, which "mysteriously disappeared," although there is a log number for the recommendation, according to the complaint.
"In May of 2015 I came in with 82 summonses, which is well above the quota of 70 per month...After that I was not allowed to use an unmarked (car) to get me to stop being successful and to get me transferred out of highway," he charges in the complaint.
The complaint depicts the highway unit as an nearly all-white command. There are only two black cops in Highway 3, according to the complaint, and citywide the Highway Unit is only 4% black.
"If the NYPD doesn't know how to treat blacks in their own ranks, I don't see how they ever going to improve relations with the black community," Harge's lawyer Fred Lichtmacher told The News.
Harge's allegations of discrimination by white superiors include:
Harge works for the NYPD Highway Division.
* He has been written up for minor violations nine or more times in the past 15 months, and is treated differently than white officers.
* His sergeant was ordered to downgrade Harge's job evaluation in December 2014 from 4.5 to 3.5.
* He has been barred from driving paralyzed detective Steven McDonald, which is considered a great honor in the unit.
* Harge was told that he would no longer be assigned to post S304 in south Queens because it has a predominately black population.
Perhaps the most bizarre allegation involves black cops from being shunned from the public spotlight in favor of white cops.
On July 10, Officer Harge was chosen by his sergeant to be the driver of the lead car for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team parade in lower Manhattan, but the complaint says a captain confronted the sergeant at the parade. The captain allegedly asked her why she brought Harge to the detail, calling him a "cancer" and a "boob."
He also claims a black highway sergeant was ordered to go to the firing range on a day last spring when a local TV station was scheduled to interview him so that a white officer could be interviewed instead.
"Highway did not want an African American officer appearing as the 'face' of Highway in the media," the complaint alleges.
The complaint also suggests Harge's superiors have targeted him because he had a medical condition that prevented him from shaving for a period of time, and as a result of an allegation from a female motorist he ticketed who claimed he "flirted" with her.
"Based on the very low number of African Americans who are in Highway and how badly I have been treated it is not hard for me to conclude Highway is racist," Harge states in the complaint.
