Eric Adams defends firing of top internal jails cop after union pressure

Mayor Eric Adams defended the firing of the top internal cop in city jails after an outcry from the union, claiming NYC residents want him to fix the problems on Rikers Island.

“The people of this city will judge me at the completion of my time as mayor to determine that I lived up to my campaign promise,” Adams said at a press appearance Wednesday afternoon.

“They are not going to look at who was, as you said, sacked or who was no longer there. They’re gonna ask me one question, ‘Did you fix the problem?’ That is all I’m focusing on.”

The comments came in response to the termination of Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Investigation Sarena Townsend, who has been lauded for her progress on the internal use-of-force case under the federal monitor.

Townsend, whose firing was first reported by The City, processed nearly 10,000 backlogged use-of-force cases over her three-year tenure — but had been with odds with the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

The firing followed newly Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina’s rollback of a strict sick leave policy that was implemented to stop corrections officers from calling out when not sick — a widespread issue that contributed to a staffing crisis.

Adams defended the changes, which were a series of easy victories handed to the jails’ largest union, as part of his plan with Molina to revamp the beleaguered city jail system.

“I told him what I wanted done and the conditions I want on Rikers Island, and all of the [DOC] facilities … and he is going to execute that plan,” Adams said.

Union president Benny Boscio told The Post he had asked Molina to kick her to the curb because “she was killing morale.”

“We basically told the new commissioner what the problems were out of the gate that we saw morale-wise. He basically took our issues, the issues that we brought to him, and he made his own assessment,” Boscio said. “But we absolutely pushed for that.”

“She was not fair in negotiating with us when it came to discipline and we’re not sad to see her go,” Boscio added.

The former DOC head called the moves a “very disturbing sign.”

“Almost as if saying ‘We’ll make it easier to cheat and investigate you less,’” Vincent Schiraldi wrote on Twitter, adding that “2500 out of 7700 uniformed staff were ‘sick’ on” New Year’s Eve.

“Form the beginning COBA pledged to fight that policy and we never stopped,” the union wrote to its members about the new sick policy that only requires a doctor’s visit after your third consecutive sick day.

Corrections officers have unlimited sick time under their contract.

This post first appeared on Nypost.com

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