NYPD Deputy Inspector Constantin Tsachas (above) is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by five retired police officers and one currently serving officer

Six black and Hispanic New York police officers are suing their own department and a commander for allegedly instructing them to racially profile minorities in order to meet arrest quotas and then retaliating against them when they objected.

The officers, all but one of whom is retired, allege that they were told not to arrest whites or Asians but instead focus their attention on minorities of color who committed minor offenses like jumping the turnstiles in the subway.

‘You should write more black and Hispanic people,’ one officer, Aaron Diaz, says he was told by his commander, according to The New York Times.

The allegations were made as part of a discrimination lawsuit against the New York Police Department.

The lawsuit, which deals with the period between 2011 and 2015, names as a defendant Constantin Tsachas, a former NYPD captain who was in charge of 100 officers who patrolled subway stations in Brooklyn.

According to several officers, Tsachas would give explicit orders to target blacks and Hispanics for low-level arrests and tickets while telling them to ignore whites and Asians who were suspected of similar minor violations.

They allege that the NYPD retaliated against them when they spoke up and objected to the policy.

Tsachas has since been promoted to the rank of inspector. He is now second-in-command of policing the subways in Brooklyn.

A police union official who represents Tsachas denied allegations of wrongdoing.

The NYPD told DailyMail.com that it would not comment on pending litigation.

The city released a statement through its law department saying: ‘These claims of discrimination have not been substantiated.

‘The NYPD investigated the allegations in Officer [Pierre] Maximilien’s declaration and found them to be meritless.

‘We’ll continue to defend against these baseless accusations.’

Maximilien is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Tsachas has declined comment, but William Bratton, the former NYPD commissioner who promoted him, rejected claims that the then-captain ordered his charges to racially profile minorities.

‘I have full faith and support in him,’ Bratton said three years ago when he promoted Tsachas.

Bratton said Tsachas possessed ‘the requisite skills and comes highly recommended.’

But the former commissioner’s comments clash with sworn statements given by officers who were under Tsachas’ command.

Edwin Raymond (above) alleges that he was denied a promotion by Tsachas because he did not arrest enough black and Hispanics for minor subway offenses

Last year, Raymond, who now holds the rank of sergeant, claimed that the NYPD denied him a promotion because he was outspoken in his support of Colin Kaepernick (right), the former NFL star who led the national anthem protests against police brutality

Christopher LaForce said he decided to retire in 2015 because he ‘got tired of hunting Black and Hispanic people because of arrest quotas.’

LaForce and the other officers alleged that they were told to enforce the law to varying degrees depending on which neighborhood they were patrolling.

That meant transit cops applied different standards of enforcement to neighborhoods like Sunset Park, Brighton Beach, and other areas with Jewish, Asian, and Russian populations.

‘Tsachas would get angry if you tried to patrol subway stations in predominately white or Asian neighborhoods,’ LaForce said in his affidavit.

A now-retired officer, Aaron Diaz, said Tsachas would instruct him to ‘write more black and Hispanic people.’

According to Diaz’s sworn affidavit, Tsachas reprimanded him on one occasion because he stopped several Asian people for fare evasion in the subway.

Tsachas (left) was promoted three years ago to the rank of deputy inspector by then-NYPD Commissioner William Bratton (right). Bratton rejects the accusations against Tsachas

Diaz was assigned at the time to the N Line, which served neighborhoods heavily populated by Asian Americans.

Other officers allege in their sworn affidavits that Tsachas encouraged them to come up with reasons to stop black men, particularly those with tattoos.

Maximilien, echoed allegations by LaForce.

‘We were taught by Tsachas’ closest lieutenants that we could not give summons to what they called … “soft targets”,’ Maximilien says in a sworn affidavit obtained by the New York Post.

‘Instead, it was emphasized that we needed to stop male blacks.

‘Those were the ones Tsachas wanted to go to jail.’

The lawsuit cites statements by a police union official, Corey Grable, who gave a sworn deposition in June.

Grable was asked about his interactions with Tsachas. He said at the time that Tsachas once complained about a subordinate that would arrest ‘soft targets.’

Officer Grable asked Tsachas to clarify what he meant by ‘soft targets.’

He asked Tsachas if he was referring to old ladies guilty of minor offenses.

‘No, Asian,’ Tsachas is alleged to have replied.

Officer Grable, who is black, asked Tsachas: ‘Would you have been more comfortable if these guys were black or Hispanic?’

To which Tsachas is said to have replied: ‘Yes.’

Tsachas joined the NYPD in 2001. He was assigned to patrol public housing developments in Harlem.

Five years after joining the force, he analyzed crime patterns in Queens before he was transferred to the Transit Bureau.

In 2011, he was tasked with commanding Brooklyn’s District 34, a post he held until 2015.

Tsachas was then assigned to neighboring Transit District 32. One of his subordinates at the time was Lt. Edwin Raymond, the only currently serving police officer who is named as plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Raymond alleges that Tsachas blocked his promotion by giving him a low evaluation as punishment for not making enough arrests.

In October 2015, Raymond recorded a conversation he had with Tsachas.

Officer Corey Grable, who is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, testified in a sworn deposition that Tsachas expressed frustration over his officers arresting Asians

Tsachas was recorded telling Raymond that he did not want arrests of a 42-year-old Asian woman with no identification who jumped the subway turnstile, according to The New York Times Magazine.

Raymond, who had the rank of a police officer at the time, told Tsachas that it was unconstitutional to take race into account when deciding on whether to arrest a citizen.

Tsachas apologized and said that his comment ‘didn’t come out the way it’s supposed to.’

In 2016, Raymond was one of 12 minority police officers who filed a lawsuit against the NYPD for allegedly sidestepping the ban on ‘stop-and-frisk’ policing and arrest quotes by urging cops to detain more low-level violators.

Last year, Raymond made news after claiming that he was passed up for a promotion because of his support for Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers football star who protested police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.

In 2016, another transit bureau cop, Michael Birch, recorded Tsachas criticizing him for only stopping and searching two black men on the subway in Brooklyn over a nine-month period.

Birch insisted that during his time on patrol he didn't spot any crime being committed by black men.

Tsachas, however, says he should be targeting them anyway.

In the recording, Tsachas asks Birch who commits the crimes in the city to which he replies that it is mostly male and black Hispanics.

Tsachas then reads out stats which he says that over a nine month period, Birch had only stopped two black men on the subway.

Birch then explains that he doesn't target specific people and only stops and arrests people committing violations such as jumping over the turnstiles.

However, Tsachas replies: 'Here’s what I see. You just described to me who’s committing the crimes. You’re fully aware of it. But you’re not targeting those people.'

The recording, which was made in early 2016, then formed the basis of a lawsuit filed by Birch, who claimed he was denied overtime and given unpleasant assignments because he did not stop enough Hispanic and black teenagers.

However, the case was eventually dismissed by a federal judge as the statute of limitations had passed on many of his claims.