NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton defends decision to promote captain accused of enforcing discriminatory practices

BY Thomas Tracy and Graham Rayman — Saturday, June 25th, 2016  ‘The New York Daily News’

The city's top cop on Friday defended his decision to promote a captain who has been accused of forcing minority officers to arrest more blacks and Hispanics.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Capt. Constantin Tsachas, 50, the commanding officer of Transit District 32 in Brooklyn, was set to be promoted Friday to deputy inspector because he has “the requisite skills and comes highly recommended.”

“I have full faith and support in him,” he added. “This department does not engage in quotas and does not push its officers for activity that’s inappropriate.”

Bratton went on to slam a group of police officers who sued the NYPD alleging they were punished by their commanders for not arresting enough people of color.

“This is a department that focuses on reducing crime and violence,” he said. “It’s unfortunate I have some conscientious objectors in the organization who don’t want to do police work.”

The class action lawsuit accuses the NYPD of operating a quota system. The officers’ lawsuit was dismissed in federal court but they have filed an appeal.

“They lost in court and they will lose again,” Bratton said Friday.

One of the cops who have sued, Edwin Raymond, worked for Tsachas. He blasted Bratton’s comments.

“A conscientious objector doesn’t join in — I’m here,” Raymond said.

“I have a significant amount of arrests. I even made an arrest when I was in the academy before I got my gun. If I was a conscientious objector, I would be hiding in a transit room instead of riding the trains and apprehending perpetrators.”

Raymond claims that Tsachas tried to ruin his career because he wouldn’t arrest more minorities.

Officer Michael Birch secretly recorded Tsachas saying, “You describe to me who’s committing the crimes, you’re fully aware of it, and you’re not targeting those people.”