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A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Retired Detective Suing NYPD for Failure to Provide a Smoke-free Work Environment [04/26-3]
Excerpts from: Ex-cop suing over smoky precinct
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA NY Newsday [04/24/04]
A retired NYPD detective with a rare lung disease says he was forced to quit because the department would not provide a smoke-free environment, and he wants a chunk of pension money he stands to lose due to early retirement.
At the least, said Peter Leslie, 50, he hopes to recover about $700,000 he would not otherwise get because he retired before he reached the 20-year mark. He has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan under terms of the Americans With Disabilities Act, contending in part that the department was required to accommodate his medical condition.
Leslie's lawyer, Rosemary Carroll, said the Police Department has offered Leslie a settlement of about $103,000. A trial date for the suit has not been set.
But in a city that now has one of the nation's most sweeping bans on smoking in restaurants, bars, offices and even the jail on Rikers Island, the lawsuit shines a light on police precincts. The department has 76 precincts in the five boroughs, as well as its headquarters at the multistory One Police Plaza in lower Manhattan, many specialized units, and offices of the Transit Bureau and Housing Bureau.
Today, smoking in police precincts and other department buildings still is common, according to several police sources, even though the department banned smoking in all its facilities in October 1998. But it is far less common than when Leslie was on active duty and, he asserts, had to choose between his career and his health.
Now, whenever a Police Department employee is accused of smoking or caught smoking inside a police building, a Smoking Complaint Form is completed, according to the NYPD's official smoking policy. An attempt is made to resolve the complaint "on an informal basis" with precinct supervisors, according to the policy. If that fails, the matter is handled by borough supervisors. If someone had as many as five complaints filed against him or her in two years, the matter would be handled by the department's chief of personnel.
Leslie's disease does not prevent him from living a normal life. In fact, he said in a telephone interview last week, he runs nearly every day and regularly plays racquetball.
But exposure to smoke and other pollutants, particularly in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time, makes it likely that the dizziness and breathing irregularities that are symptomatic of sarcoidosis will flare up.
"The Police Department was fully aware of my situation," Leslie said. "I explained to them that I would need to be in a smoke-free environment and if they couldn't do it, could they get me into a smoke-free environment."
Leslie, who joined the department in 1982, was diagnosed with sarcoidosis during a routine screening before hernia surgery. He was out of work for about a year, during which time doctors used steroids to treat the illness and knock it into submission.
When Leslie returned to work in late 1997, he went back to the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills, where he had been assigned before his illness. At that time, the NYPD's policy was that smokers in police facilities had to be near open windows to light up.
When he went back to the 112th precinct house, Leslie said, it was as if no one cared about his condition. Fellow cops routinely smoked in his presence, he said, and he had shortness of breath and dizzy spells.
"It was business as usual," he said. "My medical problem was my medical problem."
"The department was not really concerned with my condition."
Leslie, who said that he spoke to an estimated 30 supervisors about his situation, eventually wound up with a transfer to the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill.
There, he said, it was more of the same: "a typical detective squad - cigars, cigarette smoke."
Worse, he said, a chief told him, "There's absolutely nothing I can do for you." Leslie asked that the chief's name not be made public.
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