NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has been using the nonprofit New York City Police Foundation as a piggybank, according to the New York Post, giving out over $2 million in consulting contracts to people outside of the department, including 6 people who Bratton has known since the 1970s.
Former NYPD officials accuse Bratton of using the foundation, which is supposed to fund crucial NYPD initiatives, to create a good-ol-boys club where Bratton’s old friends get paid handsomely.
“Within the NYPD, there are multiple, high-level, experienced police managers that are more than qualified to identify, draft and implement these policies that affect everyday New Yorkers on a daily basis,” one source said. The Post’s report does not explore whether or not the consultants are qualified and earn their paychecks.
One of the consultants, Bob Wasserman, works out of NYPD headquarters and introduces himself as Bratton’s “chief of staff,” even though that job belongs to a 30-year NYPD vet named Kevin Ward. Bratton and Wasserman split lucrative consulting contracts with the Oakland and Baltimore police departments in 2013, before Bratton became NYPD commissioner. Wasserman allegedly “tells people what to do,” which is outside of his role as a consultant.
(Photo: @JeffRae)
