NYPD brass are using department cars to evade tolls while driving to work — even as thousands of furious commuters are forced to pay steep congestion-pricing fees, according to a whistleblower lawsuit.
An NYPD boss claims many cops are pulling the scam, according to court papers.
Lt. Joseph Abdelmessih names nine department bosses he says have been using NYPD vehicles for their personal commutes — enabling them to dodge the same congestion-pricing tolls that everyday New Yorkers can’t escape — in the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Abdelmessih himself was the subject of a February Post exposé detailing his shady commuting practices — parking his Mercedes at his Staten Island home and commuting to Manhattan in a department vehicle on job time.
It helped him duck roughly $20,000 in tolls.
Following the report, he was told to stop, and was questioned by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, according to the suit filed by by lawyer John Scola. He was then hit with department charges of improper use of a department vehicle and misuse of time and transferred to Brooklyn.
He claims in the suit that Deputy Chief Richie Taylor gave him permission to use the NYPD car to perform his duties overseeing clergy.
The bosses he names in the suit, who are all with the NYPD’s Community Affairs Bureau, leave their own cars at police facilities near their homes and use department cars to commute while on the clock after signing in, according to the lawsuit.
They are not only able to avoid the tolls, they get taxpayer-paid gas, parking benefits and the use of police lights and sirens to get through traffic, an outraged police source said.
“These are bosses and they’ve been getting away with murder for the longest time,” the source said.
They also commute while they’re on the clock, even if the trip takes hours, the source said.
“What work are you doing while you’re commuting?” the enraged cop said. “Taxpayers are paying you to do this. It’s a scam.”
The highest ranking cop in the suit is Capt. Jackeline Bodden, who used an NYPD car as a lieutenant to commute 18 miles from her home in Harlem to the NYPD Community Center on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, according to the source. Bodden was promoted to captain in August 2024.
“Boden is now a captain despite doing the exact same alleged infractions as plaintiff,” Abdelmessih argues in court papers.
Lt. Anthony Miolan, who works out of the NYPD’s 13th Precinct in Chelsea, used a city vehicle to commute about 30 miles each way to and from Merrick, LI, the source said.
And Lt. Duran Mclean commuted about five miles to a Brooklyn community center using an NYPD car from home in Flatlands.
Other bosses named in the suit are Lts. Shane Sanders, Gesner Charles and Daniel Schmelter; Sgt. Sesame James, and Detectives Tanya Duhaney and Tanesha Facey.
“Toll evasion stiffs all of us who pay taxes to support our infrastructure,” said Danny Pearlstein of the safe-streets advocacy group Riders Alliance. “Whether with ghost plates or through abuses of the public trust, there’s no place for these scams in New York.”
It’s unclear how many cops commute in NYPD cars that weren’t assigned to them. But many are avoiding Manhattan’s $9 congestion pricing fee.
The alleged scofflaws outed in the lawsuit are not part of a much larger group of city employees who are officially assigned agency cars — which allows them to legally avoid paying for gas and tolls.
The city had 2,857 vehicles that were officially assigned to city employees for take-home use heading into 2022, city records show. The NYPD has more cars than any other department with 754 top cops and other select personnel receiving the perk.
Cash strapped commuters were outraged by the Free-Z Pass.
“They should pay for everything out of their own pocket like every single person who goes to work,” said Karen Guevara, a Brooklyn resident and biomedical engineer who says she paid up to $400 for tolls, congestion pricing, gas, parking — and tickets — when she drove into Manhattan every week. “They are using police cars illegally.”
“On top of this the police are always parking illegally, using emergency lights to avoid traffic, and we are paying for everything,” she said.
Christal Hilton, a 38-year-old financial advisor from New Jersey, thinks it’s unfair if police were driving into Manhattan without paying congestion pricing.
“There are other people like medical personnel and firefighters that work in the city and should not have to pay, but they do,” Hilton said. “They are in the same position of serving the people.”
The suit seeks punitive damages for discrimination and names the city, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Dawit Fikru, an inspector at IAB, as defendants.
A second police source said the majority of cops used their own cars to commute to work.
“I’m sure people take advantage of it,” the source said. “Then you have detectives and police officers who would never do something like that. You have most of the job doing it the right way.”
The NYPD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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