Highest-ranking woman in NYPD suffered ‘offensive,’ ‘inappropriate’ episodes: judge
An NYPD chief who was once the department’s highest-ranking woman endured a series of “offensive” and “inappropriate” episodes after being demoted, a judge has ruled, allowing the ex-cop’s gender discrimination lawsuit to proceed.
After getting moved from being the first woman to serve as the NYPD’s chief of crime control strategies to chief of collaborative policing, a less desirable job, former NYPD veteran Lori Pollock claims she suffered a series of enraging incidents with her male colleagues.
Pollock claims NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea was distracted and looking at his phone when she gave her first presentation to the newly appointed top cop.
Then, after her job change, she was forced to sit at the end of a long table for a meeting attended by 30 other high-ranking NYPD executives, she claims.
“Hey Lori, how do you like it at the other end of the table?” Shea allegedly yelled to her.
She also says she was forced to perform clerical duties for another high-ranking cop that he would not have forced a male three-star chief to do.
“Pollock has sufficiently alleged that she was subjected to two adverse employment actions: the defendants’ failure to promote her to... Chief of Detectives... and her demotion to Chief of Collaborative Policing,” Manhattan Federal Court Judge John Koeltl wrote Tuesday.
Despite the three “offensive” and “inappropriate” incidents, Koeltl dismissed Pollock’s claim she was forced to leave the department due to the sexist treatment.
She resigned in July 2020, a month before filing suit against Shea and the city.
“While the episodes Pollock alleges are inappropriate, they do not constitute the sort of intentionally oppressive working conditions that courts have found necessary to establish a constructive discharge,” he wrote.
Pollock can still move forward with her employment discrimination claim, Koeltl ruled.
The NYPD has argued Pollock was not demoted but “laterally” moved to the chief of collaborative policing, which the judge dismissed.
“Her transfer led to a reduction in her staff (from overseeing a staff of over 300 to a staff of nine), as well as a decrease in management responsibilities and prestige,” Koeltl wrote.
