NYPD officer Adrian Schoolcraft’s description of being taken in handcuffs to a psychiatric ward suggests the nation’s largest police force could have a vindictive underbelly. He claims that cops risk retribution when they try, as he did, to blow the whistle on supervisors’ faking of crime statistics to make the stats look better.

To back up his allegations, Schoolcraft made hundreds of hours of secret tapes while on duty — everything from roll calls to locker room chatter to bosses yelling at him. The tapes, along with medical records and other documents, were supplied to The Associated Press.

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Police officials say Schoolcraft’s allegations about ticket quotas and fudged stats were taken seriously, but he was uncooperative in an investigation of them. They also view his case as an isolated incident, not a brewing corruption scandal.

After what he describes as a frightening, involuntary hospital stay, Schoolcraft was suspended from the force. He’s gone into self-exile in upstate New York while his lawyer pursues a $50 million civil rights lawsuit against the city.

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