Free The NYPD Tapes: A Shocking Story of Cops, Cover-ups, and Courage by Graham A. Rayman

continued to be promoted. And Schoolcraft was already aware of quotas. They were a constant in the NYPD, even if the bosses at 1 Police Plaza wouldn’t publicly admit it. In fact, the pressure to produce arrests, summonses, and stop and frisks was hammered home in nearly every roll call.
    In October 2006, a new executive officer arrived in the 81st Precinct. His name was Steven Mauriello. When Mauriello was promoted to precinct commander a year later, it would spell the beginning of the end of Schoolcraft’s police career.
    In June 2007, Adrian had a conflict with a Lieutenant Jones over whether he was properly authorized to leave work to help his wheelchair-ridden father get home from the hospital.
    Schoolcraft was so irritated by the exchange that he wrote another notarized letter to the precinct’s commanding officer. In the letter, Schoolcraft alleged that Jones threatened to punish the whole shift of officers for what Schoolcraft did.
    “Every violation that I usually put in the minor violations I’m writing CD’s for, so you can thank somebody for that,” Jones said, according to the letter. “Schoolcraft, see me when you’re finished.”
    “This is a formal complaint regarding the conduct of Lt. Jones,” Schoolcraft wrote. “His retaliatory threats were intended to create a hostile work environment for myself and other officers.”
    By December 2007, perhaps because he had begun questioning things, Schoolcraft’s rating dropped to a 3, which was still at standards, but teetering on the edge of unsatisfactory. The precinct’s crime rate dropped 1 percent.
    For the year, he had made 620 radio runs, done 71 vertical patrols, written 34 tickets, written 6 C summonses, and made 9 arrests. Those numbers were lower than his 2006 totals.
    In the evaluation Sergeant William Meyer wrote: “He at times needs direction or prompting to resolve problems. He at times needs extra guidance to meet goals and deadlines. He does need extra motivation to perform his assignments and meet performance goals.” This is the first time his evaluation sank to pedestrian margins.

CHAPTER 4
    “PLAY THE GAME”
    B y the end of 2007 going into 2008, the precinct’s executive officer, Steven Mauriello, was given command of the precinct and promoted to deputy inspector. Mauriello was born on Long Island, and he graduated from Valley Stream High School in 1985. As a high school kid, he worked as a stock boy, making $5 an hour at the local Foodtown supermarket. He attended college at St. John’s University and graduated in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in psychology. His college transcript indicates that his grades were mostly Bs and Cs, but he did get an A in composition and rhetoric and a D+ in a criminal investigation class.
    He joined the NYPD in 1989. In one of his very first evaluations, in February 1990, his supervisor wrote, “Officer Mauriello has excellent career potential. He is a reliable and dedicated police officer. He has good arrest and summons activity. He should have a good career with the department.”
    In other words, Mauriello learned the lesson fairly quickly: Good “activity” gets you places in the NYPD.
    In December 1991, while Mauriello was assigned to the 34th Precinct in Manhattan, two men posing as Con Edison workers pushed their way into a Manhattan apartment occupied by a couple and their nine-year-old daughter. He and other officers blocked their escape and arrested them and then cared for the victims.
    “The officers were aware of our horrible experience and treated us with care and understanding,” the father wrote.
    In 1993, a precinct resident wrote to Mauriello’s boss, Joseph Esposito, who would become a top chief ten years later, “We feel he [Mauriello] deserves recognition for his deep concern in our dire need for help in this drug infested area. . . . We need more officers like Steven Mauriello.”
    Another 1993 letter thanked him for “his earnest