When Cops Go Bad Does the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau Even Notice?

The Village Voice reports:

While NYPD officials boast about what they claim is a steady drop in crime on the streets, crimes committed by cops may be on the upswing.

In the past couple of years, the city's cops have not only been caught up in steroids investigations, like the one revolving around Lowen's Pharmacy in Bay Ridge; they've also been nabbed for running a Canada-to-Long-Island dope ring, stealing guns from their evidence rooms and selling them, providing muscle for an Albanian stick-up crew, pimping out teenaged girls, ratting out their own department to gangster pals, and stealing drugs to give to their informants. Oh, and then there was a New Jersey home invasion by two NYPD cops hoping to steal drugs—not bust the bad guys. Months before, the department's Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) had dropped the ball on one of the cops, but things turned out OK: The cops botched the home invasion.

In one of the recent cases, cash-strapped Washington Heights cop Krisix De La Cruz helped her drug-dealing uncle rip off cocaine stash houses in 2005. The cop had borrowed money from her uncle so she could take a prep course to bone up for the sergeants' exam. Luckily for New Yorkers, the FBI busted her before she could take the test and advance in rank. De La Cruz was sentenced this past December 5 to five years in prison for robbery and cocaine conspiracy.

Whether she is an aberration or part of a trend is difficult to determine, because the NYPD—always eager to release stats on what it says is a steady decrease in crime during the past 13 years—refuses to release stats on crimes inside the station houses.

Just think Mayor Bloomberg is for only police owning a gun.Anyway,in Chicago gun control has also had interesting results.