Around Here, We Don't Call Internal Affairs

An NYPD lieutenant shamed a detective in front of the entire squad, branding him a “rat” for reporting misconduct to the Internal Affairs Bureau, two of his former colleagues confirmed.

The two detectives detailed the humiliation in sworn statements filed in connection with former Detective James Griffin’s federal lawsuit, which contends he retired after being publicly disgraced by his supervisor. Griffin had previously been threatened by fellow detectives, ostracized, and found the word “rat” scrawled on his locker and a hole punched through his desk.

Griffin had refused to take the fall for a Brooklyn detective who bungled a homicide investigation by failing to interview the victim before he died.