Earn $500 By Helping NYC Cops Wrestle Suspects

NEW YORK — New York City's police sergeants union wants to pay civilians who help cops subdue unruly suspects amid what the group's president called "weak" police leadership.

Starting Wednesday, anyone who aids a law enforcement officer in apprehending someone resisting arrest will be eligible for a $500 reward from the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said President Ed Mullins. The union is also working with state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn) to create legislation similar the state's "Good Samaritan" law to protect such bold civilians, Mullins said.

The program follows reports of several videos showing irate New Yorkers verbally berating officers, and another reportedly showing a detective choking a man in Inwood.

While he acknowledged bystanders' right to record and photograph cops, Mullins said New Yorkers should get involved and help police officers rather than just watch with their cellphones.

"Individuals are more concerned about capturing what's on tape rather than get involved and maybe help save someone's life, or maybe help keep a criminal from escaping," Mullins said.

Law enforcement officers who get help from a civilian can nominate the person for the reward online, or civilians can try to claim it themselves, Mullins said. But he said the program isn't meant to create vigilantes.

"We don't want civilians to come out and start beating people with bats," Mullins said. "We want you to help restrain and follow the direction of an officer that's out there that says, 'Hold him down, get his hand, I'm trying to cuff him.'"

Footage of a man cursing out and threatening cops in Harlem's 28th Precinct stationhouse was what finally pushed Mullins to create the program, he said.

Other videos this month have shown several people harassing a group of cops in a Bronx apartment building and a man going on a lewd rant against officers in Brooklyn. The man in the latter case was arrested and given a summons for disorderly conduct, the New York Post reported.

Surveillance video from July separately captured Det. Fabio Nunez putting Thomas Medina of Queens in a banned chokehold after he responded to a noise complaint. In a video published by the New York Daily News this week, Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the cops involved "used the necessary force to take that individual into custody."

Mullins nonetheless slammed NYPD brass for creating confusion over how cops should deal with such disorderly individuals. He said furor over police violence in recent years has created a "hands-off-type policy of policing."

Mullins called Commissioner James O'Neill "weak" and "indecisive" and said Monahan's defense of the recent chokehold is "really embarrassing." A cop used a similar move in the infamous 2014 death of Eric Garner, which sparked protests.

"What would have happened if that guy died?" Mullins said, apparently referring to the Inwood incident. "Would we say it was banned? There's confusion to this."

The NYPD didn't respond to Mullins' criticisms of the department, but it appeared to express concern about the reward program potentially putting New Yorkers in danger.

"The NYPD encourages people to support their cops by calling 911," the Police Department said in a statement. "The department doesn’t want to see people put in harm’s way unnecessarily to collect a reward."

In a New York Post op-ed published Tuesday, O'Neill defended how the cops caught on video responded to the malicious tirades thrown at them. He called it "utter nonsense" to characterize the nasty behavior as a response to a "fictional 'hands-off' police policy."

"Let no one confuse smart, effective policing that trusts and empowers our cops with some silly, false notion of 'standing down,'" O'Neill wrote. "That does an enormous disservice to all New Yorkers."

(Lead image: Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins announces a program to reward civilians who help cops on Wednesday. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)