But Excuse Me Officer, Don’t You Know Who My Second Cousin’s Ex-Brother-In-Law Is? He’s On The Force, Of Course!

Is the Civilian Complaint Review Board actually defending people who abuse PBA cards? It sounds that way:

Eleven officers have improperly confiscated police union “courtesy” cards shown to them by relatives and friends of other officers throughout the last 18 months, the Civilian Complaint Review Board announced yesterday.

In a letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, CCRB chair Franklin Stone recommended that the NYPD better inform officers about the cards, which are often shown by civilians to get special treatment or immunity from tickets and/or arrest.

“Most, if not all, of these cases involved the improper seizure of union cards by police officers who misunderstood the law relating to these cards,” the Nov. 9 letter read. “Simply put, officers often do not have legal justification to seize police union cards — private property — from individuals who lawfully possess them.”

And apparently people complaining about a lack of special treatment is endemic:

In a separate letter to Kelly — dated yesterday — [New York Civil Liberties Union associate legal director Christopher] Dunn and NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman echoed the CCRB’s concerns and called for an investigation into conduct by NYPD Officer John McNeeley, who was pulled over for speeding in Kansas last month and showed the officer his driver’s license and NYPD ID.

“About 5 minutes later, he brought back a summons to me and thanked me for my cooperation,” McNeeley wrote in a letter to the court obtained by the NYCLU. “I then tried to ask him why a cop would write another cop a ticket? He would not answer. I have stopped many people and the minute they pull out their Law Enforcement ID card I say ‘Sir or Mam [sic] have a nice day’ No questions asked. . . . You see it’s called professional courtesy.”

Nice to know that both the CCRB and the Civil Liberties Union (while ostentatiously “sounding an alarm”) are standing up for your right to get out of paying tickets. Very heartening!