Local Boy Makes Good - Robert Lappe
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:53 pmBy Patrice O'Shaughnessy - Daily News 4/7/11
They were a few guys working behind the scenes at Police Headquarters, in a cramped office called the SWAMP.
It got the name because they were swamped by work, and because of decor that included wires hanging out of the ceiling and a cop's ponytail - cut off when he lost a bet - tacked to a wall.
Because of the sometimes clandestine jobs they performed for police brass, they made SWAMP an acronym for "Secret Works And Mysterious Projects."
Robert Lappe went to the unit back in 1989, when the narcotics trade and its attendant violence had cops scrambling for different, creative ways to nab bad guys.
Stuff that you see now in movies and TV shows about cops originated with what was really going on in the streets.
Lappe, 56, grew up around Archer St. and went to St. Raymond's Boys High School. He joined the NYPD in 1982 and worked in the 41st Precinct.
He studied writing and got a degree from Empire State College, and was sent to the then-Narcotics Intelligence and ~~ unit "to write speeches for the police commissioner, Benjamin Ward," Lappe said.
He stayed for 22 years.
He became sergeant and was made commanding officer, with eight detectives working for him.
They had a sting operation to net people wanted on felony warrants. They hand-delivered letters to the fugitives telling them they'd won a TV, to come and pick it up on a certain day.
"We set up a storefront and everything, and when they showed up to claim their TV the detectives arrested them," said Lappe, noting that the Al Pacino movie, "Sea of Love," mimicked the scam.
He retired last month and, tomorrow night, some of the old SWAMP guys will get together at Lappe's retirement party to reminisce, and mark the end of an era.
"We were like the doctors in MASH - very irreverent, we didn't care about rank," Lappe recalled. "We got the job done."
The SWAMP, according to Lappe, was the place the department's top brass and other bureaus turned to when a project had to be done in an expeditious, professional and often-times confidential manner.
They'd produce computer-generated charts of organized crime infrastructures, and create fictitious business documents and logos for "sting" operations.
They'd use less technical methods.
When they set up a phony auto body business for a mob investigation, "we poured coffee on the signs in the shop to make them look weathered," Lappe said.
His brother, William, an NYPD detective who was studying filmmaking, was recruited to put makeup on undercover narcs so they'd look like ravaged junkies.
After 9/11, the unit was called on to perform sensitive assignments related to security planning for large-scale events like the United Nations General Assembly, the 2004 Republican National Convention, the World Economic Forum in 2002 and New Year's Eve.
After Hurricane Katrina, they created maps to facilitate resource deployment to the devastated areas, employing a state-of-the-art digital mapping program using actual topographical satellite images.
They assisted the investigation into the murders of Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin by altering the appearance of the killer, who had been on an old Wanted poster wearing dreadlocks and a beard.
"We gave him a computer-generated shave and haircut to reflect how he looked at the time he committed the crime," said Lappe.
He stressed that, for all his time in the SWAMP, "we were behind the scenes, we just supported the investigators who did a great job out there."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bro ... z1IxlyiYtn
They were a few guys working behind the scenes at Police Headquarters, in a cramped office called the SWAMP.
It got the name because they were swamped by work, and because of decor that included wires hanging out of the ceiling and a cop's ponytail - cut off when he lost a bet - tacked to a wall.
Because of the sometimes clandestine jobs they performed for police brass, they made SWAMP an acronym for "Secret Works And Mysterious Projects."
Robert Lappe went to the unit back in 1989, when the narcotics trade and its attendant violence had cops scrambling for different, creative ways to nab bad guys.
Stuff that you see now in movies and TV shows about cops originated with what was really going on in the streets.
Lappe, 56, grew up around Archer St. and went to St. Raymond's Boys High School. He joined the NYPD in 1982 and worked in the 41st Precinct.
He studied writing and got a degree from Empire State College, and was sent to the then-Narcotics Intelligence and ~~ unit "to write speeches for the police commissioner, Benjamin Ward," Lappe said.
He stayed for 22 years.
He became sergeant and was made commanding officer, with eight detectives working for him.
They had a sting operation to net people wanted on felony warrants. They hand-delivered letters to the fugitives telling them they'd won a TV, to come and pick it up on a certain day.
"We set up a storefront and everything, and when they showed up to claim their TV the detectives arrested them," said Lappe, noting that the Al Pacino movie, "Sea of Love," mimicked the scam.
He retired last month and, tomorrow night, some of the old SWAMP guys will get together at Lappe's retirement party to reminisce, and mark the end of an era.
"We were like the doctors in MASH - very irreverent, we didn't care about rank," Lappe recalled. "We got the job done."
The SWAMP, according to Lappe, was the place the department's top brass and other bureaus turned to when a project had to be done in an expeditious, professional and often-times confidential manner.
They'd produce computer-generated charts of organized crime infrastructures, and create fictitious business documents and logos for "sting" operations.
They'd use less technical methods.
When they set up a phony auto body business for a mob investigation, "we poured coffee on the signs in the shop to make them look weathered," Lappe said.
His brother, William, an NYPD detective who was studying filmmaking, was recruited to put makeup on undercover narcs so they'd look like ravaged junkies.
After 9/11, the unit was called on to perform sensitive assignments related to security planning for large-scale events like the United Nations General Assembly, the 2004 Republican National Convention, the World Economic Forum in 2002 and New Year's Eve.
After Hurricane Katrina, they created maps to facilitate resource deployment to the devastated areas, employing a state-of-the-art digital mapping program using actual topographical satellite images.
They assisted the investigation into the murders of Detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin by altering the appearance of the killer, who had been on an old Wanted poster wearing dreadlocks and a beard.
"We gave him a computer-generated shave and haircut to reflect how he looked at the time he committed the crime," said Lappe.
He stressed that, for all his time in the SWAMP, "we were behind the scenes, we just supported the investigators who did a great job out there."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/bro ... z1IxlyiYtn