Two longtime NYPD officers allege City Hall backroom dealing, racial bias blocked promotions

Police Officer Brian Larkin received the Mayor’s Excellence in Customer Service Award at Police Headquarters on Wednesday for his excellent work in community affairs in the 19th Precinct.

On social media, the New York Police Department called the award “a testament to his dedication, professionalism and unwavering commitment to the residents of the Upper East Side.”

Despite public recognition, Larkin was repeatedly passed over for promotion to detective during the Adams administration, while 11 other community affairs officers he said had less experience and fewer accomplishments were promoted.

The promotion — worth about $50,000 more per year in salary and overtime and $25,000 in post-retirement pension per year — would be worth much more than the award, which came with only a certificate.

“It’s not a good feeling to be applauded by the NYPD one day and ignored the next,” Larkin said. “If they truly appreciated the work I did, I still wouldn’t watch others beat me out for promotions.”

Larkin and another white community affairs official with a similar history, Stephen Jones, allege in a new lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan state court that the two top community affairs officials, Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart and Deputy Commissioner Alden Foster, sidelined merit and promoted cops based on bias favoring black and Hispanic cops and their ties to the Guardians, an influential fraternal association of black officers.

As background, the lawsuit claims that former senior advisor to Mayor Tim Pearson, long active in the Guardians, and former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, acting with the tacit approval of Mayor Adams, deprived the NYPD and the police commissioner of their independence in promotions and created a “shadow power structure” that is not publicly accountable, according to the suit.

“Banks and Pearson altered the lists based on discrimination, loyalty, favoritism and personal agendas,” the lawsuit claims. “The NYPD was no longer a paramilitary institution governed by a chain of command. It had become a machine of political patronage, serving the personal interests of City Hall.”

Banks and Pearson each resigned from their positions last fall after their phones were seized as part of the federal corruption investigation into the Adams administration. Neither man has been charged with criminal wrongdoing, although a city watchdog report accused Pearson of falsely accusing migrant shelter security guards of shoving him. Pearson was also sued four times for abusing his promotional power and retaliating against police officers who filed complaints. These proceedings are still ongoing.

While the NYPD has long been sued for discrimination in promotions by black and Hispanic officers, the Jones and Larkin lawsuit is a less common example of white cops suing for discrimination due to their lack of promotion.

“Detectives Larkin and Jones have dedicated their careers to protecting New Yorkers and are now fighting to restore the dignity and fairness they and all officers deserve,” said their attorney John Scola.

The NYPD declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Patrick Gordon, the Guardians’ president, said the organization had no influence over the promotions of the community affairs cited in the lawsuit. “As fraternal presidents, one of our duties is to advocate for the overlooked and offer recommendations for consideration. I can say with certainty that that was not the case here,” he said.

A long track record

Jones joined the NYPD in 2007 and was appointed community affairs officer in the 24th Precinct on the Upper West Side in 2011. Larkin joined the NYPD in 2008 and became community affairs officer in the 19th Precinct in 2015.

The job has a wide range of responsibilities from parades and protests to lower-level community issues.

Despite their more than a decade of experience in community affairs, they were repeatedly passed over for promotion from 2023 to 2025, while 11 Black and Hispanic community affairs officers were promoted to detectives — all with significantly less experience, according to details laid out in the lawsuit.

Six of the 11 officers were promoted after eight months or less in community affairs, the lawsuit says. Three of them had six years or less as police officers. One of them is an administrator of the Guardians.

“We have a lot of things to do in community affairs,” Jones said. “It takes a long time to build that reputation in the precinct. You can’t do it in eight months.”

According to the lawsuit, one of the factors behind the flurry of promotions was that in February 2023, Community Affairs became a centralized citywide unit under the leadership of Deputy Commissioner Stewart. According to the lawsuit, during a citywide meeting of community affairs officers, Stewart referred to “the grid,” a process by which commanders recommend discretionary promotions to cops each year.

“There is no grid. I am the grid,” Stewart reportedly said during the meeting, suggesting he would decide who gets promoted, not according to a specific process or procedure.

“It was immediately deflating to hear that,” Jones said. “What it was before Mayor Adams, we were nominated for specialty shields and names were selected. Stewart took any level, order or process out of that.”

After a Black female officer was promoted 12 months into Community Affairs, a lieutenant allegedly told Larkin, “It’s the Watchmen” who are stopping her from being promoted, according to the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, after being ignored again, Larkin complained to Deputy Head of Community Affairs Victoria Perry. He later was informally reprimanded for speaking to a boss, according to the lawsuit.

For both cops, the cost was in money but also in reputation. “Any time someone gets promoted above us, it’s tough,” Jones said. “It feels like I’m not doing when I’m doing as much, if not more, than these other people. Where is the fairness? These promotions should be based on merit.”

Larkin added, “Other cops ask me why you’re not ‘Detective’ Larkin,” Larkin said. “Our women see the promotions, and they see everything we do. It’s really hurt our careers. And all because we’re not in the circle.”