A Queens cop who sources say created a crime spike in felony reports through his scrutiny of fellow officers is singing a bitter tune, according to NYPD officials.
An internal department audit has blown holes in Sgt. Robert Borrelli’s claim that colleagues in a Queens precinct were down-playing felonies in official reports, they said.
“His allegations were thoroughly investigated by our quality-assurance division, and they were found to be unfounded,” Deputy Inspector Kim Royster told The Post yesterday.
Officials said the department audited more than a year’s worth of reports from the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways, where Borrelli was stationed, and found little wrong with them.
“We did an additional audit to review classifications of crimes from April 2010 to March 2011. We looked at 925 complaint reports and found 17 were missclassified as a result of human error, typical administrative errors,” an NYPD official said.
“It was not egregious,” the official said of the errors.
In December, The Post first reported that the Rockaways were being rocked by a crime wave. Burglaries jumped 144 percent, felony assaults climbed 66 percent, and robberies rose 31 percent.
Law-enforcement sources believe the spike is the result of Borrelli who took it upon himself to pour over police reports which frightened cops into pumping up the charges on new arrests.
Borrelli claimed department brass have been pushing the rank and file to downgrade official reports to keep the crime index low.
“They’re downgrading shootings to reckless endangerment when they should be attempted assault,” he said.
When Borrelli took his allegations to Internal Affairs, he was suddenly banished to the night shift at Central Booking in the basement of Bronx Criminal Court.
“The transfer is in retaliation,” Borrelli said. “They brought me up on bulls–t charges.”
The NYPD said the transfer was because the cop had a long disciplinary history.
Authorities said Borrelli’s new assignment, which began March 1, was the result of complaints against him and a history of clashing with others.
They pointed to an incident in which he berated his commanding officer, another in which he interfered with a burglary investigation, and a third in which he ticketed a firefighter who was handing out radios during Hurricane Irene.
Borrelli is also facing departmental charges for inappropriate language and prejudicial behavior.