Adrian Schoolcraft

In May 2015, federal judge Robert Sweet ruled that the case could proceed to trial.

In September 2015, the portion of the lawsuit against the NYPD settled, with Schoolcraft to receive $600,000 in compensation. The portion against Jamaica Hospital was settled in November 2015.

In March 2015, a team of filmmakers at the Savannah College of Art and Design began production on a short film entitled Schoolcraft. According to Edinburgh's Nightpiece Film Festival, where the film premiered in August 2015, the film is "based on the true story of former NYPD beat cop Adrian Schoolcraft" and "director Adam Nelson presents a carefully observed social drama and studious examination of recent corruption amongst New York's finest." The short film was nominated for a Student Academy Award and was overwhelmingly well received at the Denver Film Festival, Savannah Film Festival, and others.

Soon after joining the force, Schoolcraft was deployed to Precinct 75 in Brooklyn to join Operation Impact. After 14 months in the NYPD, he was transferred to Precinct 81 in Bedford–Stuyvesant. After a few years on the force, he began to raise issues about understaffing and overtime, saying that the precinct had too few officers to do a good job.

In 2013, a related "Stop-And-Frisk" case went to trial in federal court.

In March 2012, The Village Voice published an article discussing an unpublished report from June 2010 of the NYPD internal investigation of Schoolcraft's case, which vindicated him, finding evidence of quotas and underreporting of crimes. The New York Times also discussed the case, saying that the report concluded there was "a concerted effort to deliberately underreport crime in the 81st Precinct".

In 2011 Rayman's NYPD Tapes series won a "Gold Keyboard" award, the highest honor, from the New York Press Club.

In May 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet ruled that discovery could proceed.

After voicing his concerns, Schoolcraft was reportedly harassed and reassigned to a desk job. After he left work early one day, an ESU unit illegally entered his apartment, physically abducted him and forcibly admitted him to a psychiatric facility, where he was held against his will for six days. In 2010, he released the audio recordings to The Village Voice, leading to the reporting of a multi-part series titled The NYPD Tapes. That same year he filed a lawsuit against the NYPD and Jamaica Hospital. In 2012 The Village Voice reported that a 2010 unpublished report of an internal NYPD investigation found the 81st precinct had evidence of quotas and underreporting.

In 2010, Schoolcraft released his recordings to The Village Voice; its reporter Graham Rayman published them as a series of articles titled "The NYPD Tapes", together with material on Schoolcraft. The suspended officer also discussed the case and his recordings with the Associated Press, which published a lengthy article, including excerpts from the recordings. The New York Times reported Schoolcraft's allegations that "commanders at the 81st Precinct pushed ticket and arrest quotas on officers."

On September 10, 2010, the nationally syndicated radio program This American Life ran a story on Schoolcraft, using his recorded material as well as interviews with him personally. The New York Times had been covering the story as well.

In August 2010 Schoolcraft filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, claiming that they both intimidated and retaliated against him. The action sought $50,000,000 in damages. He said his four-day involuntary hospitalization in Jamaica Hospital Center's psychiatric ward was ordered to "discredit his allegations". Schoolcraft has stated that: "There's not enough money in the state to get me to settle this suit. It's going to trial and there's no way around that – the truth has to come out."

In September 2010, popular podcast This American Life profiled Adrian Schoolcraft in an episode titled, Right to Remain Silent.

The tapes include conversations related to the issues of arrest quotas and investigations. Schoolcraft says an overemphasis on arrests leads to wrongful arrests and bad police work. A recording from 31 October 2009 includes precinct commander Steven Mauriello ordering a raid on 120 Chauncy St.: "Everybody goes. I don’t care. You’re on 120 Chauncey and they’re popping champagne? Yoke ’em. Put them through the system. They got bandannas on, arrest them. Everybody goes tonight. They’re underage? Fuck it." He orders: "Bring 'em in. Lodge them. You're going to go back out and process it later on."

Schoolcraft reports being harassed, particularly in 2009, after he began to voice his concerns within the precinct. He was told he needed to increase arrest numbers and received a bad evaluation. The next day, he found a paper in his locker reading: "If you don't like your job, maybe you should get another job."

In October 2009, Schoolcraft disclosed his allegations to NYPD investigators in a meeting that he understood was to be confidential. He discussed underreporting of crimes and bureaucratic hassles for people who tried to report crimes. His father contacted David Durk, a retired detective who became famous working on similar issues (of NYPD corruption) with whistleblower Frank Serpico. Durk contacted an officer in NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau. On 27 October Schoolcraft was placed under "forced monitoring".

Schoolcraft alleges in the lawsuit that NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne was present at the 31 October 2009 raid. Browne is a "top aide" to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. According to the Village Voice: "If proven true, Browne's presence at Schoolcraft's home on Oct. 31, 2009 suggests that Commissioner Kelly was aware of the decision by Deputy Chief Michael Marino to order Schoolcraft handcuffed and dragged from his own apartment just three weeks after he reported police misconduct to the unit which audits NYPD crime statistics."

Between 1 June 2008 and 15 October 2009, Schoolcraft recorded conversations at the 81st Precinct police station, responsible for the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. Schoolcraft amassed a set of tapes which demonstrated corruption and abuse within New York City's 81st Police Precinct.

He received the Meritorious Police Duty Medal in 2006, and in 2008 was cited for his "dedication to the New York City Police Department and to the City of New York". Brooklynites who lived in the area patrolled by Schoolcraft reported that he was the only officer they knew, because he was the only one interested in conversing with them.

Schoolcraft drove his mother to chemotherapy appointments in Albany until she died in 2003.

In 2002 he moved to New York City, wishing to be closer to his parents (who had moved to New York state), particularly because his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. Driven both by his mother's desire that he become an officer, and by a wish to respond to the September 11 attacks on New York City, he applied to join the NYPD. He passed the entrance exam and joined the force two weeks later.

In the analysis of Graham Rayman, writing for the Voice, this pressure to arrest had major effects in the 81st precinct, including:

Rayman quotes retired NYPD detective Marquez Claxton: "The Police Department is using these numbers to portray themselves as being effective. In portraying that illusion, they have pushed these illegal quotas which force police officers to engage in illegal acts." Rayman said the aggressive tactics were related to understaffing on the force. He wrote: a" typical day in the 81st Precinct had only three to nine officers patrolling the streets in an area of more than 60,000 people." Understaffing also led officers to work more overtime hours, earning more money but also becoming emotionally and physically exhausted.

Adrian Schoolcraft (born 1976) is a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who secretly recorded police conversations from 2008 to 2009. He brought these tapes to NYPD investigators in October 2009 as evidence of corruption and wrongdoing within the department. He used the tapes as evidence that arrest quotas were leading to police abuses such as wrongful arrests, while the emphasis on fighting crime sometimes resulted in underreporting of crimes to keep the numbers down.

Adrian Schoolcraft was born in Killeen, Texas, in 1976. His father was a police officer. Schoolcraft joined the United States Navy at age 17 and served for four years (1993–1997) on the USS Blue Ridge near Japan. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and other decorations while on active duty. He was honorably discharged in 1997 and returned to Texas to work for Motorola.