New NYPD policy sets cop romance regulations, police sources said
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The new NYPD motto is courtesy, professionalism — but no romance.
The department quietly issued orders banning steamy relationships between bosses and subordinates, weeks after a lap-dance scandal rocked the department, The Post has learned.
The change, which was made to the NYPD’s Patrol Guide for officers, specifically puts the kibosh on dating between supervisors and staff whom they regularly supervise.
The new regulations dictate that affairs between supervisors and subordinates will result in the transfer of “one of the involved parties” and that cops should notify the job of such entanglements.
“Members of the service are strongly encouraged to make a notification requesting a transfer in order to avoid workplace disruption,” the new rules state.
A high-ranking source said the change went into effect on April 4, and insisted it had nothing to do with any specific incident.
“No connection to anything but standard practice in most professional environments and overdue here,” the source said.
Nevertheless, the change comes months after The Post broke a story about a video that circulated, showing a male supervisor getting a lap dance from an underling at a bar.
The Bronx rookie and lieutenant were at a raucous holiday bash at a Yonkers bar in December when the steamy incident was filmed.
The incident infuriated department higher-ups, who booted the boss to Transit, according to sources. It wasn’t clear if the female officer was disciplined.
In another case that seemed to cross a line, a NYPD sergeant got his rookie cop driver pregnant — while his own wife was pregnant.
Sgt. Marcy Velez, 44, of the Bronx’s 45th Precinct, had the affair with his subordinate officer starting in 2019 when she was in her early 20s and fresh out of the police academy, sources familiar with the matter said. The romance was probed by the Internal Affairs Bureau.
The order also forbids relationships beyond official duties “with confidential informants, witnesses or victims while on or off duty” and any “youth/young adult assigned to the various programs the department operates.”
A police source with more than two decades on the job said the new rules were long overdue.
“I think it’s great,” the source said. “It lets the supervisors be supervisors instead of fraternizing with their underlings. Now you can’t abuse your power because that’s what they do. They abuse their power and play on the weak. Now if the allegation comes out, your ass is grass and who wants to risk their career for that?”
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