Posted on 06/28/2002 8:51:19 PM PDT by kellynla
June 28, 2002 -- The NYPD is so strapped for applicants that it is lowering standards to admit recruits with DWI arrests, The Post has learned. Background checks on 100 of the 2,800 new recruits who'll enter the Police Academy on Monday reveal that nine were busted for driving while intoxicated, police sources said.
Of the nine, two were arrested for DWI while in the military.
In addition, half a dozen recruits were busted for drinking from an open container.
Another admitted on his application form that he had smoked pot and used the club drug "ecstasy."
And yet another - whose application is still being considered - has three domestic-violence arrests and another arrest for smoking pot.
Admitting cops with DWI arrests appears to fly in the face of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's new policy that any officer who drinks and drives - on or off duty - and seriously injures someone will be booted from the force.
"This is hypocritical," fumed one angry police supervisor. "If you're telling police officers they can't drink and drive, then how can you admit new candidates who have done so."
A veteran detective agreed, saying, "I think the police commissioner has to make up his mind. This is a double standard. How could you fire cops for driving drunk and then hire candidates who have drunk driving arrests?"
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said through a spokesman, "If that is true and they continue lowering the standards this way, they are creating the Police Department scandals of tomorrow."
Kelly has begun a drive to hire cops because the Police Department's numbers have dwindled from 41,000 to 37,000.
The heroic acts of officers on Sept. 11 spurred an increase in applicants, but this was offset by the loss of thousands of officers who decided to retire after earning large amounts of overtime after the tragedy. NYPD pensions are calculated on earnings in the last year on the job.
Kelly had no immediate statement on The Post's findings, but in the past has denied charges that standards have been lowered in general to help fill the ranks.
An NYPD spokesman suggested the NYPD's hands are tied, saying "The only thing that precludes a candidate from being hired is a felony conviction or a dishonorable discharge."
Driving while intoxicated is a misdemeanor and 1985 civil service rules allow recruits to join the department with misdemeanor convictions.
One of the recruits who had a DWI arrest in the military received a "less than honorable discharge."
But that is not a dishonorable discharge and thus he was allowed to join the NYPD, sources said.
Of the 2,800 in the new Police Academy class, background checks have been completed on 900.
Investigators doing the checks complain they're being rushed to complete them and thus the checks are not as thorough as they could be.
The investigators say that while in the past, they would go to the applicant's home, now they are doing everything by telephone.
Here is an update from News Radio 88. Don't think its gonna happen.
Kelly: No one with a DWI conviction will be hired by the NYPD
(New York-AP) -- No one with a prior conviction for driving while intoxicated will be hired as a New York City police officer.
That's the word today from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Kelly says if someone is convicted of driving while intoxicated, they will be barred from joining the police force.
The New York Post reports today that background checks on 100 recruits in the newest Police Academy class showed nine had been arrested for D-W-I.
Kelly says no one can be refused a job because of an arrest, but they can, and will, be turned away if they have a drunk driving conviction.
Most big city police dept's recognize that they significantly diminish the applicant pool if they maintained such strict standards. The one thing that matters most in LE candidates is integrity. A past history of alcohol and drugs usually does not disqualify you so long as its not within a certain amount of time before applying, and you disclose such activity rather than hide it.
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