Inside the Intelligence Division, which was largely led by white commanders, the “rap unit” was known to stall careers: Black detectives there did not get promoted for years, no matter how sterling their recommendations, according to a complaint filed by three black detectives with a federal labor agency.
For years, the complaint says, there was only one promotion in the unit, which was not focused on the long-term investigations that often help detectives get recognized — and it was given to a white detective, one of a very few assigned there.
The frustration was not uncommon among scores of detectives in the Intelligence Division, and hundreds of others in the nation’s largest police force. In interviews, current and retired detectives said a patronage system of promotions had bumped detectives based more on connections to powerful bosses, and less on their work, fueling bitterness and accusations of nepotism.
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The Justice Department, which has retreated from police oversight under President Trump, said in June that it would not sue the New York Police Department over the findings. That averted a high-profile confrontation with the nation’s largest police force for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has said federal interventions in local policing are bad for morale.
The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a statement that the decision was made “on the merits” by federal prosecutors in New York. Civil rights lawyers said it put added pressure on New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, to push to make detective promotions fairer. The detectives plan to sue the department in the coming days.
