The union that represents city detectives is set to unveil a first-in-the-country program to provide NYPD investigators a ride home if they’re too drunk to drive, The Post has learned.
The Detectives’ Endowment Association plans to launch an app this month in partnership with Uber that will use union funds to pick up gumshoes who have had one too many, officials said.
“We have so many issues with DWIs and coming home from parties and different events,” a 37-year-old NYPD detective who lives in Long Island told The Post. “It’s a great benefit to not have to worry, to just to use the app and get a ride home.”
Detectives will call the DEA’s toll free help line to reach a duty officer who’s on call 24-7, according to the app’s developer Lee Reeves, of New Jersey-based Intelligent Design.
An on-duty officer will take the call and then schedule the pickup, he added.
The union can watch the car’s progress to make sure the detective gets home safely. The service will be available from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.
The app will be available to all 5,500 active members and the union will monitor usage to make sure the service isn’t being abused, DEA President Scott Munro said.
“Our first DEA responsibility is to assist in any way possible the greatest detectives in the world,” said Munro, who came up with the idea. “This innovative program is part of that effort.”
The union will track usage since it’s unclear how much the program will cost yet, he added.
The initiative comes after a trio of police officers were busted for DWI last month. Fifteen detectives have been arrested for DWI in the past four years, according to union data.
One 38-year-old detective who was previously arrested for DWI said he would have used the app if it had been available.
“It’s too much work to go about trying to get a cab when you don’t have the app, so you make the decision that’s more convenient, which is your own car,” the detective said. “But if it was something that you already had through the union, and they were footing the bill, I think guys would use it.”
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