Metro

NYPD hit on ‘quota’ bust

A Brooklyn jury in a police-brutality case ruled yesterday that quotas contributed to the arrest of a woman in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Carolyn Bryant was collared in 2006 when she tried to intervene in the arrest of her son, Babarito Lopez.

She says she suffered neck and knee injuries in the scuffle and sued the NYPD and the officers involved, claiming that the 81st Precinct had a quota system for arrests that contributed to hers.

The jury agreed, saying the NYPD had a “custom and policy” regarding the number of arrests that violated her constitutional rights.

“It’s a binding decision by a jury that nobody’s appealing,” said Bryant’s lawyer, Seth Harris. “Other lawyers can now argue that convincingly that the issue of quotas has been decided.”

But several inconsistencies in other parts of the verdict led Bryant and the city to settle the suit for $75,000.

Despite the verdict, city lawyer Zev Singer said: “We are gratified that the jury found this was a lawful arrest. Despite the jury’s finding, however, the New York City Police Department does not use quotas.”