A group of New York City police officers and recruits who should have been disqualified before entering the Police Department’s training academy was being fired Thursday, the department said.
The department did not immediately say how many officers were being dismissed. An official from the officers’ union, the Police Benevolent Association, said that about 30 officers and recruits were being fired.
“Following an internal investigation, the N.Y.P.D. recently identified officers who joined the department in the past two years despite receiving final notices of disqualification during the application process, which is a violation of the law,” the police said in a statement.
“The department was not legally allowed to hire these individuals and was forced to inform them that they could no longer continue as members of the N.Y.P.D.,” the statement said.
The Police Benevolent Association, which represents about 22,000 officers, said that it would ask a judge on Thursday for a temporary restraining order on the decision.
“These police officers aren’t responsible for the N.Y.P.D.’s broken hiring process or the supervisors who made these decisions, in some cases more than a year and a half ago,” Patrick Hendry, the union’s president, said in a statement.
“As far as they know, they were qualified to be New York City police officers,” he said. “We are exploring all legal options to protect our members’ rights and hold the N.Y.P.D. accountable for this complete management failure.”
The notices that the officers would have to quit or be fired within 24 hours were sent two months after officials learned that an inspector who had commanded the unit charged with assessing candidates had overridden negative psychological reports for 80 candidates, which should have disqualified them from entering the Police Academy.
The inspector who was transferred, Terrell Anderson, had been the commander of the Candidate Assessment Division. Department officials said that he had allowed the officers to enter the Police Academy even though they should have been disqualified based on their psychological assessments. Inspector Anderson, who had never been disciplined, was moved to the department’s housing unit in May.
Critics have said that the examinations were unfair to candidates of color.
Patrick Gordon, a lieutenant and the president of the Guardians Association, a group for Black officers, said Thursday that he had gotten calls from about 10 affected members on Wednesday.
“This is the most egregious scenario possible connected to this psychological evaluation,” he said of the dismissals.
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
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