The NYPD Tapes A Shocking Story of Cops, Cover-ups, and Courage

In May 2010, NYPD officer Adrian Schoolcraft made national headlines when he released a series of secretly recorded audio tapes exposing corruption and abuse at the highest levels of the police department. But, according to a lawsuit filed by Schoolcraft against the City of New York, instead of admitting mistakes and pledging reform Schoolcraft's superiors forced him into a mental hospital in an effort to discredit the evidence. In The NYPD Tapes , the reporter who first broke the Schoolcraft story brings his ongoing saga up to date, revealing the rampant abuses that continue in the NYPD today, including warrantless surveillance, systemic harassment, and underreporting of serious crimes like rape and murder. Through this lens, he tells the broader tale of how American law enforcement has for the past 30 years been distorted by a ruthless quest for numbers, in the form of CompStat, the vaunted data-driven accountability system first championed by New York police chief William Bratton and since implemented in police departments across the country. Forced to produce certain crime stats each quarter or face discipline, cops everywhere fudged the numbers, robbing actual crime victims of justice and sweeping countless innocents into the police net. Rayman paints a terrifying picture of a system gone wild, and the pitiless fate of the whistleblower who tried to stop it.

Graham A. Rayman is a writer for The Village Voice who has covered the New York City Police Department for 17 years. His NYPD Tapes series has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the Polk Award, the Harvard Goldsmith award, and a half dozen other prizes. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents
Prologue: Halloween, 2009 “What is this, Russia?”
Chapter 1
Chapter 2: 'The Profit I Wanted to Deliver'
Chapter 3: Bed-Stuy: Do or Die
Chapter 4: 'Play The Game'
Chapter 5: 'DOMINICANS DON'T PLAY'/THE HUNTS POINT DIGRESSION
Chapter 6: 'YOU GOTTA PAY THE RENT'
Chapter 7: DESK DUTY
Chapter 8: The Lengths People Will Go
Chapter 9: HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Chapter 10: 'We Are Here to Help You'/Patient No. 130381874
Chapter 11: A GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE
Chapter 12: THE SCHOOLCRAFT EFFECT
Chapter 13: THE WASHINGTON HEIGHTS DIGRESSION
Chapter 14: 'NOTHING HAS CHANGED'/'WE'RE NOT GOING TO SETTLE'
Chapter 15: SMOKING GUNS AND 'HAM AND EGGERS
Epilogue of a Sort: THE LIGHTENING ROD ON THE BUILDING