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NYC's 81st Precinct: Where Police Can't Be Bothered with Taking Crime Reports

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 3:47 pm
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​If you live in one of America's shittiest cities, you've seen him before: The cop who can't be bothered to do his job. Maybe he's pissed at a corrupt and dysfunctional department. Maybe he's tired of dealing the daily refuse of [Insert the name of your town here]...

Maybe he's just grown bitter after working for a municipal government where nothing works and no one cares. (We're looking at you, Cleveland.) But if you try to get him to do his job, he'll treat you like a prick, doing his best not to fight crime, but to simply get you to leave him alone.

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For months officers refused to take a report on Catherine Sullivan's stolen minivan
​Residents in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York know the drill well. It's home to the 81st Precinct, where work in an unimaginable four-letter word. Take the case of Catherine Sullivan, who moved there from upstate to get her doctorate degree.

The 65-year-old woman had her minivan stolen off the street in July. Since then she's been trying to get the fine men and women at the 81st to take a report. Her insurance company won't pay out without one.

But she can't get anyone to do it. She's gone several times to the station, but she has yet to find anyone willing to scribble out a piece of paper, much less find the mope who stole her van. As one officer told her, "They do this to everyone," she told the New York Daily News.   

Then there's Angel Gonzalez, a 79-year-old retired factory worker and Korean War vet. He kept $22,000 in a lockbox in his apartment. He feared if he deposited it in a bank he'd be ineligible for public housing.

But someone punched out his front door and stole his money. He too called police. Once again they refused to take a report, much less investigate the burglary. Despite clear indications that someone had punched out the lock -- and left tool scars on the door jamb -- police refused to look at it as a burglary, claiming there was no evidence that a crime had been committed.

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It's hard to beat Cleveland police for laziness. They let serial killer Anthony Sowell run free.
​When he went to the 81st to complain, he was told to go home and call 911, since his apartment was in another precinct. He did that, only to find out that the officer had lied to him. He did indeed live in the 81st.

Today, he's still without his money or a police report. And you can bet there's not a soul looking for the people who broke into his apartment.

We'd like to declare the 81st the Worst Police Precinct in America. But you, dear readers, might know of an even more wretched department or precinct. If so, offer your tales in the comments section below. Don't be afraid to name names. Let's out the people who screw us daily.

True Crime Report's nomination: The Cleveland Police, the guys so lazy they allowed a serial killer to roam free.

Tags: New York, Ohio

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