Do Cops Serve The Rich? Meet The NYPD’s Private Piggy Bank

Last month, the NYPD announced a new mobile app for the police department to receive crime tips from the public through the touch of a phone. CS-NYC is an extension of the department's Crime Stoppers tipster program, which was conceived and promoted by the NYPD and the New York City Police Foundation, a conduit of private money from city elites, corporations and real estate developers to the police for almost half a century.

The foundation, a public-private "charity," was started in 1971 by the Association for a Better New York, a consortium of business interests linked to a turn towards the privatization of New York City in the 1970’s and which is still influential today. Led by Lewis Rudin, a real estate developer who created a family empire of city property, ABNY would later back an unsuccessful attempt to create a private police force.

While the private police idea didn't hold, the foundation did. It was the first private foundation for a police department ever established in the United States (other cities would soon follow). The Police Foundation came on the heels of the epic police corruption scandal revealed by the Knapp Commission, which was itself a result of whistleblower cop Frank Serpico's revelations. It is the only non-public organization in the city that is legally permitted to raise funds for the police department.

The foundation, created by the obviously incorruptible rich, sought to restore confidence in a police force largely exposed as corrupt. It also aimed to provide resources for cops that might be difficult to get through the democratic process, especially at a time when city was mired in economic woes. When the NYPD mounted horses division was in danger of being cut in the 70's, the foundation paid for horses for the next two decades. Next came bulletproof vests. The gifts became more sophisticated and influential: bomb-detonating robots, the early computers for the COMPSTAT crime-mapping system, the Real Time Crime Center and more recently police body cameras.

The foundation also sought to change hearts and minds, paying for a failed community newsletter to promote the police department's efforts. In addition to CS-NY, other modern day foundation initiatives include "Options," a program that puts virtual reality goggles on kids so they can better identify with cops. The foundation also pays for an advertising campaign for the department's dubious "neighborhood policing" program.

Crime Stoppers, which I've criticized in the past, is perhaps the foundation's best known initiative because it bombards television airwaves with images of crime, which may add to public misconceptions about how much crime exists, and asks viewers to become paid informants. Crime Stoppers seems to also enjoy the support and collaboration of media outlets, like NY1 News (which has been honored by the foundation and whose parent company, Spectrum, is a donor). The New York Times has also acknowledged its longstanding relationship with the Police Foundation.

The foundation's dollars even spread across the globe as it shares the costs with the NYPD for its International Liaison program, which stations Intelligence Officers and their families abroad in places like Israel. Abu Dhabi, (in 2017 the UAE donated $2 million dollars to the foundation) also hosts an NYPD officer. This program may be the foundation's most ambitious effort as it underscores a local police force's expanding, military-like reach. Collaboration with Israel has come under scrutiny by some who criticize the department's sharing of surveillance tactics and worldview with Israeli security forces.

Some of the foundation's lesser known programs raise other concerns. The "Commanding Officer for an Evening" program takes celebrities and well-to-do New Yorkers, some of whom are donors, on police ride-alongs. Dan Rather, former CBS anchor (and donor), tagged along with cops as they searched for a robbery suspect in a public housing development. Another program participant hung out with top NYPD officials over hors d’oeuvres and drinks. He hadn't previously been a donor but was asked to donate later on.

Was allowing Rather to play deputy in a crime-fighting fantasy through the projects a paid perk? Was the Police Foundation selling access to the NYPD in order to fund itself – which in turn funds the police?

Police commissioners love the foundation. Former NYPD commish Ray Kelly got it to pay for his membership at the prestigious Harvard Club as well as for a political consultant when he was mulling a run for mayor. Fellow top cop (and Harvard Club bro) Bill Bratton reportedly got NYPD consulting jobs for his friends through the foundation, perhaps because of his ability to raise money for them. From the NY Post:

So who are bow ties behind the New York City Police Foundation?

The foundation today is headed by Andrew Tisch, co-chair of the Loews Corporation, and part of the famous billionaire Tisch family that has run or owned the Loews movies, CBS and the New York Giants. The Tisch name can be found on buildings at NYU and the Metropolitan Museum. Andrew's niece, Jessica, is the NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Information Technology.

The foundation's current board of trustees is overwhelmingly white. The collection of past and former members reads like an invite list for a party you're not invited to:

H. Dale Hemmerdinger, mega real estate developer; Abby Elbaum, real estate developer; Laurence Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world's biggest financial management firm; Benjamin Winter, real estate developer; Eric J. Gertler, former co-publisher of the New York Daily News; John Greed (you read that right), CEO of Mutual of America; Bob Kraft, New England Patriots owner; Stephen J. Meringoff, billionaire commercial property owner; Ron Perelman, billionaire businessman; Mort Zuckerman, real estate titan and former owner of the New York Daily News; David Millstone, CEO Standard Industries; Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump's daughter, and several Rudins, the dynastic real estate family.

Once a year, Police Foundation donors come together for a gala where the Police Commissioner and Mayor often give speeches to congratulate everyone for the cash infusion into the NYPD. At this year's event, where tables sell for as high as $100,000, the foundation raised a record high $5.5 million dollars. The deep-pocketed corporate donors include AT&T; Goldman Sachs; Viacom, Bank of America; Verizon; Morgan Stanley; Fidelity Investments; BlackRock; Fox Corporation; Hearst Corporation; Tischman Speyer; the Mets; the Yankees; Con Edison; National Grid and many other recognizable names.

In 2015, after the revelations of the gigs for Bratton's cronies framed the foundation as a police "piggy bank," the City Council said they would hold public hearings about the Police Foundation (the idea was also floated in 2010). The hearings never happened. There was similar inaction after a 2017 Politico investigation suggested that donors could leverage their contributions into contracts with the police department. City officials apparently can't be bothered to ask questions.

"There are no accountability measures with the foundation," says Christian Covington, an attorney who has worked on police accountability research at NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge. He says that when private contributions benefit the department, "it's not clear if the police favor certain monied interests." He referred to a police crackdown on vendors who sold knock-off designer bags and clothes under Ray Kelly and wonders if this was because fashion companies influence the police department. (Louis Vuitton is a recent donor to the foundation).

The trail of questions following the Police Foundation ultimately form an answer: the New York City Police Foundation shouldn't exist. Period. If someone on the street gave a cop a $100 to pay for a new gun, it would be illegal for them to accept it – but the foundation allows for this on a much larger and more sophisticated level, raking in about $12 million dollars in 2018 and at least $100 million to date.

When technological gifts and questionable initiative are paid for with private dollars for a public agency, there is no public transparent process that asks what worked, what didn't, or whether any of this was even a good idea. All that matters in these instances is whether NYPD leadership and the foundation's board, made up of the city's ultra elite, thinks the cops should have it. The rest of us aren't consulted but are affected. The department already has a nearly $6 billion dollar annual public budget. It certainly doesn't need another pile of money under the mattress.

The irony is that the Police Foundation was created at a time when the corruption of cops taking bribes from drug dealers was universally decried. Now, the department accepts gifts from hedge-funders and real estate firms as our wealthy overlords enjoy a pipeline to a police department that criminalizes poverty.

If a private war chest overseen by unelected elites at some level shapes NYPD tactics and policy, this creates the impression – and confirms the reality – that the police serve the rich.