Brooklyn DA to probe allegations of NYPD officers planting guns, newspaper reports

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson is launching a probe into allegations that New York City police officers have been planning weapons on suspects, the New York Daily News reported Thursday (Jan. 15). (Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

By Helen Freund, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
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on January 15, 2015 at 2:13 PM, updated January 15, 2015 at 2:15 PM

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson is launching a probe into allegations that New York City police officers have been planting weapons on suspects, the New York Daily News reported Thursday (Jan. 15).

The probe was announced after Thompson's office dropped a weapons case in which the defendant was accused of having a gun outside his East Flatbush home in 2013, the report said. When prosecutors were asked to produce a confidential informant who police said aided their investigation, they were unable to produce him, according to the story.

A public defender for the man facing the weapons charge came up with several past cases in which the same group of detectives had made similar accusations using an informant who was never identified or testified, the story said.