BY SAL GRECO
Internal messages and assignment sheets reviewed by The Sal Greco Show show officers being moved onto new tours and assignments. A Queens North source alleges the changes are part of a broader pattern of micromanagement under Deputy Chief Joseph Hayward and Sgt. Andrzej Babiuch. The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
QUEENS, NY — Officers who spent the Mets season assigned to the NYPD’s Citi Field detail are now facing a major reshuffling inside Patrol Borough Queens North, with a source alleging that selected cops are being bounced between tours and assignments, denied overtime opportunities and prevented from transferring out of the borough.
Internal group-chat messages and assignment documents obtained and reviewed by SalGreco.com confirm that officers from the detail were recently directed to choose between new off-season tours and that groups of officers were subsequently assigned to different operations throughout Queens North.
But according to a source familiar with the situation, those documents tell only part of the story.
Sources allege the problems began last year after Deputy Chief Joseph Hayward placed Sgt. Andrzej Babiuch with the Citi Field detail. The source claims that what followed was a dramatic change in how the unit operated: tours were repeatedly changed, members were “watched like hawks,” and the MOS parking lot previously available to members was taken away.
Sources further allege that the situation escalated during the 2026 Mets season when temporary transfers supporting the Citi Field operation began coming directly from One Police Plaza, limiting Queens North’s ability to retain officers who wanted to remain with the detail.
Now, with the baseball season ending, sources allege Hayward and Babiuch have developed what members themselves are calling a “shit list” — a group of officers selected for permanent and temporary assignments elsewhere in Queens North and potentially subjected to differing tours from week to week.
Internal messages show the tour changes
The communications obtained by SalGreco.com provide direct evidence that significant scheduling and assignment changes are occurring.
In one group-chat poll, members were told:
“Please select which tour you would prefer to work going forward for the off season. You will be assigned to one of these tours.”
The choices were 1100 x 1935 and 1900 x 0335.
Another message accompanying an assignment sheet subsequently informed members:
“Tours starting Wednesday. RDOs are still Fri/Sat.”
The accompanying roster divides officers between those two tours.
A separate assignment document goes even further, dividing members into several different operations. It lists officers assigned to a Robbery Squad deployed to the 108th and 114th Precincts on an 1100 x 1935 tour, a Roosevelt Avenue Task Force covering the 110th and 115th Precincts on a 1900 x 0335 tour, and 108th Precinct third-platoon patrol coverage on a 1400 x 2235 tour.
That document lists Babiuch among the supervisors assigned to the Robbery Squad.
When one member asked when the changes would begin, the response in the group chat was blunt: “Please read the above list, this starts tomorrow.”
Those documents substantiate that officers are being moved into new tours and assignments. They do not, by themselves, establish why particular officers were selected or whether the decisions were punitive.
That is where the allegations from inside the borough become considerably more serious.
Source: Decisions based on one sergeant’s opinions
A Queens North source alleges the officers placed on the list were selected largely on the basis of Babiuch’s statements and personal assessments, rather than measurable performance statistics or documented disciplinary or operational criteria.
The source describes Hayward as having effectively micromanaged the Citi Field operation and alleges that the current reshuffling reflects the opinions of one supervisor about individual cops rather than an objective review of their work.
SalGreco.com has not independently established what criteria Hayward or Babiuch used to select individual officers.
That question was among those put to the NYPD before publication.
Overtime and transfers allegedly being restricted
Perhaps the most consequential allegations involve officers’ money and careers.
According to sources, transfers out of Patrol Borough Queens North to other units have been halted, preventing affected officers from pursuing assignments elsewhere.
One source further alleges that officers appearing on the disputed list are being prevented from working overtime regardless of whether they have reached an applicable overtime cap.
The assignment documents reviewed by SalGreco.com do not independently prove either allegation. The Department was specifically asked whether transfers out of Queens North have been restricted, whether officers on the list have been barred from overtime, who authorized any such restrictions and what operational justification exists.
No response was received before publication.
The overtime allegation is significant because NYPD overtime remains an enormous part of the Department’s operations. The New York City Comptroller reported in June that uniformed NYPD overtime was projected at approximately $890 million for FY2026, while also identifying recurring planned deployments and details as major overtime drivers. The Comptroller has additionally criticized the absence of mandatory rest periods and other fatigue protections in NYPD overtime policies.
Citi Field itself has previously been specifically identified by the Comptroller as one of the locations generating NYPD “details overtime.”
Questions surrounding repeated tour changes
Another source alleges that the seasonal arrangement governing Citi Field allows management to repeatedly change officers’ tours without those changes being treated in the same manner as ordinary rescheduling.
The source characterized the issue as circumventing a “20-tour-change rule.”
That specific characterization has not been independently confirmed.
The publicly available PBA memorandum covering the Department’s extended-tour program states that officers working 10-hour tours may be rescheduled up to 17 times per year, while officers working 12-hour tours may be rescheduled 15 times per year.
It remains unclear whether there is a separate Citi Field agreement, side agreement, established practice or what the source described as a seasonal “gentlemen’s agreement” that governs these members differently.
The NYPD was asked specifically to identify any such agreement and explain how it affects tour-change protections.
Again, no response was received.
“You work around the clock — and this is the reward?”
Beyond the contractual and management questions is another issue increasingly raised by cops behind the scenes: morale.
Police officers can be called upon to work extended hours, changing tours, court appearances, details, emergencies and mandatory overtime while still being expected to report for their regularly scheduled assignments.
Police officers, whether retired or actively working, raising concerns about the Queens North situation say treatment like this sends precisely the wrong message to cops who believe they have already sacrificed nights, weekends and family time for the Department.
Their frustration is not simply about whether an officer works days or midnights.
It is the perception that top brass can demand enormous flexibility from rank-and-file cops, repeatedly disrupt their schedules and control access to assignments and overtime, while those same officers see little recognition for years of hard work.
Another source argues that capable, hardworking cops can watch promotional and desirable-assignment opportunities pass them by while decisions affecting their careers are made through relationships and subjective opinions rather than transparent performance standards.
Those are allegations and perceptions — not findings that SalGreco.com can independently establish from the documents currently in its possession. But they illustrate why what may appear on paper to be nothing more than a tour change can become deeply demoralizing to the people affected by it.
When officers already believe they are expected to be available around the clock, an unexplained assignment list that suddenly changes where and when they work can create the impression that hard work is not being rewarded — and that management discretion can instead be used against them.
That is precisely why transparency over who created this list, why each officer was selected, what criteria were used and whether overtime or transfer opportunities are being withheld matters.
NYPD given opportunity to respond
Before publication, SalGreco.com contacted NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information seeking the Department’s response to the allegations and asking for explanations concerning the assignments, tour changes, overtime restrictions, transfer restrictions and criteria used to select officers.
We also requested comment from Chief Hayward and Sgt. Babiuch concerning the allegations made about their roles in the Citi Field detail and subsequent assignments.
No response was received prior to publication.
The absence of a response does not establish that the allegations are true. However, the internal communications and assignment sheets reviewed by SalGreco.com establish that the underlying tour and assignment changes are real — leaving unanswered the larger questions about why these particular officers were selected and what happens to them next.