Deep within the powerful NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau exists a small unit dedicated to investigating crooked cops of a different sort — criminals using the badge for a cover.
Former IAB chief Charles Campisi, who ran the world’s largest anti-corruption unit for 18 years, reveals the existence of Group 51 in a “Blue on Blue: An Insider’s Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops.”
The Police Impersonation Group is the only one of its kind in the country, formed in 1994 amid a burgeoning wave of bogus cops.
“Sometimes a badge, even a phony one, can be even more intimidating than a knife or a gun,” he writes.
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The fake officers often targeted bodegas and other small businesses owned by immigrants from countries where police corruption was the norm.
A dozen or so investigators on permanent assignment bust about 100 perps a year for committing serious crimes while passing themselves off as NYPD cops.
Campisi — who wrote the book with Gordon Dillow — reports that rapes by police impersonators are a particularly widespread problem in New York City and across the country.
He cites a typical case where a 35-year-old man banged on the door of an apartment in Queens, flashing a Department of Sanitation badge and yelling at the woman inside, “Police! Open up!”
NYPD unit nabs knock-off cops who use phony badges for no good
She did, and he raped her. Neighbors tackled the suspect as he tried to flee.
Edward Byam, one of three men sentenced today in a check cashing heist of a Pay-O-Matic in Queeens donning a sophisticated 'Hollywood' style mask. (handout)
(handout)
Exact replica of a mask ordered by Edward Byam for use in a robbbery of a Pay-O-Matic store. This mask was commissioned by the US Attorney's office in Brooklyn from CFX Effects and entered as evidence.
(Jesse Ward/Jesse Ward for New York Daily Ne)
Edward Byam's Pay-O-Matic heists resembled the ones pulled off by Ben Affleck in the movie "The Town," where crooks used silicon masks to grab cash.
The files are deep and the examples countless, like the 50-year-old recently-released child predator who flashed a badge at a 15-year-old boy on a subway platform.
The teenager was hustled into the back of a van and assaulted at a remote location.
And there’s the 40-year-old Staten Island man in full police uniform. When approached by a young immigrant woman needing directions, he ordered her to the top of a 16-story building. He threatened to throw her off unless she did what he wanted. This time, the woman fought her way free.
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New York law prohibits the sale of NYPD uniforms and replica shields.
But “15 minutes on the internet can get you decked out with a uniform, handcuffs, a police radio and siren, emergency lights and sirens for your car,” writes Campisi — not to mention a convincing fake ID and a shield that’s almost a perfect knockoff of ones the NYPD uses.
And then there’s the group that created their own sham minipolice precinct.
In 2005, allergist Dr. Clifford Bassett, lawyer Jonathan Weinrich and seven other members of the Kings County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Children were busted for trying to pass themselves off as real cops.
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Formed under a law that allows certain entities to enforce child abuse statutes, the 50 or so lawyers, accountants and other professionals functioned more as a social group of cop wannabes.
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“15 minutes on the internet can get you decked out with a uniform, handcuffs, a police radio and siren, emergency lights and sirens for your car,” writes Charles Campisi. (aijohn784/Getty Images/iStockphoto)
According to Campisi, they set up their own minipolice force in Sunset Park, with “equipment that was newer and better than ours.”
While it seemed the society hadn’t actually conducted any investigations, the danger was always there.
“The last thing anyone wanted was for guys with no police training whatsoever to interfere with ongoing police investigations, or draw a gun on somebody and shout: ‘Freeze! SPCC Police!’ ”
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The state attorney general’s office shut the group down in 2006.
Phony cop shakedowns are also common in the violent underworld of drug trafficking.
Campisi details a joint NYPD/FBI investigation that caught 16 Latin Kings, disguised as professionally equipped NYPD officers, targeting shipments of drugs or money.
Their arsenal included tactical vests, police scanners, bolt cutters, a hydraulic battering ram for breaking down doors and a Ford Crown Victoria with emergency lights.
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A button allowed the driver to raise a piece of steel to cover the rear license plate.
These are two of the three perps without masks.
These are two of the three perps without masks. (TSmith)
Another similarly equipped gang targeted major drug dealers, invading their apartments, beating or torturing the dealers or their families, and making off with a stash of drugs, money or both.
Prosecutors estimated the gang hit more than 100 dealers in New York and other cities along the East Coast for a take of about $4 million.
According to Campisi, IAB stages heavily armed showdowns twice a year in which it’s not always clear whether the bureau is in pursuit of dirty real cops or criminals posing as cops.
A typical example took place in Long Island City, Queens. Investigators acted on a tip from a career criminal, who confessed he’d been working for a crew of NYPD cops hijacking trucks carrying cocaine.
An elaborate sting was put in place. The informant told the leader of the thieving cop crew that a van holding 3 kilos of cocaine would be parked outside an empty warehouse. Two tractor-trailers, loaded with Emergency Service Unit A-team cops in full combat gear, waited nearby.
An ESU armored car was positioned behind a garage door.
Two cars pulled up just before midnight. When the perps failed to heed an order to halt, an ESU armored car burst through the garage door. An officer jumped out and hurled flash-bang grenades (since banned), delivering nothing more than sound and smoke.
The haul that night was five unarmed men wearing silver badges stamped “Security Officer.”
Blue on Blue: An Insider’s Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops book jacket
November 11, 2013: NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau Chief Charles Campisi attends a press conference with Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson to announce the indictment of sixteen people, including four New York City police officers, on charges of bribery, grand larceny, and other offenses in scams to defraud automobile insurance companies.
(Chevrestt, Angel)
Former Internal Affairs Bureau chief Campisi wrote "Blue on Blue: An Insider’s Story of Good Cops Catching Bad Cops."
Campisi writes that old-fashioned detective work is usually the lot of the IAB Police Impersonation Group.
On Valentine’s Day 2012, a woman working at a 24-hour Pay-O-Matic check-cashing joint on South Conduit Ave. in Queens was stopped in the parking lot by a guy wearing an NYPD raid jacket with a gold shield hanging around his neck.
Heading to work at 8 a.m., she admitted to working as a teller at the store. The “detective” then showed her a series of pictures and asked if she recognized anything.
One of the photos showed her house.
Intimidated, she told him there was only one other teller inside the Pay-O-Matic. Two other men in NYPD jackets followed them inside.
After ordering the two employees to the floor, the robbers stuffed $200,755 inside a bag, spread bleach around to eradicate any lingering DNA, and bolted with the cash.
Since real cops would have hidden their faces from the security cameras, the case fell to the IAB Police Impersonation Group, working alongside the FBI.
On one hand, the crew seemed liked pros, casing the heist in detail. On the other hand, the “detective” dropped the photo of the teller’s house at the scene.
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The fake gear gives criminals access to opportunities for crimes. (KarenMower/Getty Images)
It bore a Walgreens stamp.
The photo traced back to a 24-year-old black man from Queens named Edward Byam. The real cops connected two of his friends, also black, to the robbery as well.
But the tellers who had seen the robbers’ faces up close insisted all three were white.
Early on, investigators released the surveillance photos to the media and put them on the NYPD Crime Stoppers website. Only one anonymous tip panned out.
The caller said he recognized one of the faces as a mask. Not a Halloween mask, but a Hollywood-grade silicone mask that fit fully over the head.
“So these guys aren’t just cop impersonators. They’re also race impersonators,” Campisi writes.
A Louisiana company, CFX Composite Effects, produced records showing that Byam bought three “Mac the Guy” masks for $1,800 each shortly before the robbery. He’d sent the company an email promising more business in the future.
It was then that one of the IAB investigators picked up on another intriguing detail.
The Queens robbery echoed a heist in the 2010 Ben Affleck movie “The Town.” In it, professional robbers in Boston dress up as cops, pull on silicone masks and spread bleach around the crime scene. The movie crooks also gathered personal info on the victims to intimidate them into cooperating.
The three Queens robbers used their haul to play out their Hollywood dreams, spending it on expensive resorts and sprees at designer stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton.
They also splurged on $12,000 diamond-encrusted Rolex watches for themselves and their girlfriends.
But when the credits rolled, Byam, Akeem Monsalvatge and Derrick Dunkley found themselves before a judge in 2014. Each was convicted of robbing two Pay-O-Matics and sentenced to 32 years in prison.
