Former NYPD detective admits to boosting arrests by planting drugs on innocent people

stephen anderson, former nypd narcotics detective, gave disturbing and shocking testimony in brooklyn supreme court last week. anderson said planting drugs on innocent people to boost arrest numbers and quotas is a common practice amongst officers here.

the unethical practice is known as "flaking." anderson said narcotics squads in brooklyn and queens used flaking often. he was snared, along with a group of other officers, for flaking four men in queens in 2008. anderson now cooperates with prosecutors to share classified and cancerous information of a proud organization in america's largest city.

anderson said, "it was something i was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators. it's almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they're going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway...nothing is going to happen to them anyway."

the drug policy alliance (dpa) is the nation's leading organization promoting drug policies grounded in compassion, science, health and human rights. the mission of the dpa is to advance those policies and attitudes which best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.   

the dpa issued a statement. gabriel sayegh, managing director of policy and campaigns, said, "one of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are pressured to make large numbers of arrests, and it's easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on innocent people. the drug war inevitably leads to crooked policing - and quotas further incentivize such practices."

in september 2014, an officer in brooklyn secretly taped ominous department activity: uncovering an evil side to city policing. hundreds of hours of tapes revealed how bosses threatened street cops if they didn't make enough "stop and frisk" arrests. one of the tapes exposed a supervisor who said, "...but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics." 

the malicious tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints. the popular public radio show, this american life, did an in-depth feature on the padded stats in the corrupt brooklyn precinct - and the organized intimidation of the officer, adrian schoolcraft, who tried to blow the whistle.

last year, the nypd arrested over 50,000 people for low-level marijuana offenses. 86% of those arrested were black and latino. as such, marijuana possession became the number one criminal offense in the city. the dpa says these arrests are the result of "illegal searches" by the nypd, which are part of their controversial and oppressive "stop and frisk" practices.  

the statement issued by the dpa states, "marijuana was decriminalized in new york state in 1977 - and that law is still on the books. smoking marijuana in public or having marijuana visible in public, however, remains a crime. most people arrested for marijuana possession are not smoking in public, but simply have a small amount in their pocket, purse or bag."

additionally, the dpa's statement reads, "often when police stop and question a person, they say, 'empty your pockets' or 'open your bag.' many people comply, even though they're not legally required to do so. if a person pulls marijuana from their pocket or bag, it is then 'open to public view.' the police then arrest the person."