A Brooklyn jury hearing the case of a woman who says she was roughed up when her son was arrested is expected to consider whether responding cops were driven by quotas.
Capt. Alex Perez of the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant said Monday that arrest numbers are indeed a factor in evaluating officers’ performance, as he testified in a lawsuit against the city filed by Carolyn Bryant.
Bryant claims Operation Impact cops arrested her son Barbarito Lopez in July 2006 to fill arrest quotas and, after she went outside to see what was happening, assaulted her because they knew her as the mother of Carlos Lopez, who was killed by cops in 2003.
Perez told the Brooklyn Supreme Court jury that an officer in a unit with no arrest is more likely to get a poor performance rating than an officer with more arrests.
“Officers are told that the number of arrests is part of performance activity?” Bryant’s lawyer Seth Harris asked Perez.
“It’s one of many factors,” Perez replied.
“They are told they’re expected to make arrests?”
“Yes.”
Earlier, Harris asked Perez whether officers not making any arrests would “incur the wrath” of supervisors.
“I don’t know if wrath is the right word,” Perez said, “They would draw the attention of a supervising officer.”
Bryant, whose resisting arrest and obstructing governmental administration charges were dismissed, testified that she has suffered neck and knee pain since the incident.
Drug charges against her son were dropped and he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
Outside court, Harris said, “I look forward to the jury deciding the quota issue once and for all.”