Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Williamsburg) wrote a letter — signed by him and eight other Hispanic Council members — making the demand after scrutinizing NYPD demographic data.
A group of City Council members are pushing Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to appoint a Latino person as first deputy commissioner after Rafael Piñeiro was pushed out earlier this month.
Councilman Antonio Reynoso (D-Williamsburg) wrote a letter — signed by him and eight other Hispanic Council members — making the demand after scrutinizing NYPD demographic data.
About 30% of New Yorkers are Hispanic — and they make up about 27% of the Police Department. But Latinos make up only 10% of police at the level of captain and above, Reynoso complained in the letter.
“Considering the demographics of the city and the department, this is a glaring problem,” Reynoso wrote. “We are also disappointed that there are not Latina chiefs, while there are female chiefs of every other race.”
More than a dozen groups also signed the letter, including Make the Road New York and the NYC Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Piñeiro, a 45-year NYPD veteran and the department’s highest-ranking Hispanic, has served as the NYPD’s No. 2 since January 2010.
Born in Spain and raised in Cuba, he made headlines in November when he made a public push to be appointed the city’s first Hispanic police commissioner. Mayor de Blasio gave the job to Bratton.
Piñeiro filed for retirement Sept. 15 after Bratton told him he planned to replace him as part of his fine-tuning of the force. His retirement takes effect at the end of October.
Piñeiro has not commented on his departure.
“What we would hope is in our city we would have several Latinos in high places — so that if one is let go we don’t have to make a stink,” Reynoso told the Daily News Friday.
Bratton pointed out that several more Hispanic cops will be promoted Monday to the upper echelon of the department.
“I am very conscious of attempting to find, within all minority ranks of the department, good people, capable people,” Bratton said.
Reynoso didn’t appear convinced.
“We have all of the soldiers and none of the generals,” he said.
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