Cops determined to fix tickets found ways around a new computer system designed to thwart their scheming, The Post has learned.
Police Internal Affairs investigators caught officers on wiretaps several months ago complaining about electronic summons scanners the NYPD installed last July to stop corruption, according to a source familiar with the widening probe.
But the cops also discussed how to beat the scanners, the source said.
“Like anything else, people adapt,” he said. “They were heard saying how it was harder for them now but not impossible.”
This despite Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence Friday that the new system solved the department’s pervasive ticket-fixing problem.
“The commissioner, I’ve talked to him a lot, and he’s convinced when the cop gets back to Headquarters with the tickets they go right into the computer and after that it would be very hard to manipulate the system,” the mayor said on his weekly radio show.
Not so, say senior police sources, who claim the fixing continued long after controls went in.
The new system forces cops to scan their ticket books at their precinct station house before going on patrol, with bar codes providing an electronic history of each summons.
At the end of their shifts, their tickets get scanned again, then deposited into a summons box, where they typically sit for up to 24 hours before being sent to the parking violations bureau or Department of Motor Vehicles.
The scanners have stopped tickets from mysteriously disappearing from the box.
But the new system didn’t account for cops going back to the box to alter information on the handwritten tickets.
“The plate is the key,” said one police supervisor. “The plate and the registration have to match. If they don’t, that’s a techni cal dis missal.”
The easi est way to invalidate the ticket, he said, is to change a “1” to a “4” on the paper work.
Officers also contin ued to kill moving violations by missing court dates at the DMV or by conveniently forgetting summons details, which forces judges to toss tickets.
The persistent fixing — mostly a free “courtesy” for cops’ family and friends, but involving bribery in some cases — has frustrated police probers, sources say.
“There’s no foolproof system. The fixing was still going on until the point when cops started saying, ‘Oh, my God! They are coming after us,’ ” said the source familiar with the probe.
The investigation started in 2008 when a Bronx cop suspected of selling drugs was heard on a wiretap asking a union rep to take care of a summons. As many as 400 cops could be fired or lose pay or benefits.