Angelica Parker was headed toward Grand Central Station last month in Midtown when she says a police vehicle in a bus lane hit her as she crossed a busy avenue — leaving her in pain with bulging discs in her neck. What followed, police experts say, was a textbook case on how not to deal with the public. The cops, by Parker’s account, drove off after lurching into her Dec. 27 at 47th and Madison Ave. without getting out of their SUV to take a report as per police procedure. Later, she says she became frustrated trying to navigate an epic runaround as she tried to file her own report. “They shouldn’t leave it to a citizen to try to guess what a police officer’s duties are,” she said. “They should have insisted I get help. They should have called a supervisor. Meanwhile, I have to take time off work to deal with this and I get pushed around from precinct to precinct.” Angelica Parker at W. 50th St. and 6th Ave in Manhattan, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Parker sustained severe neck and arm pain after being hit by a police SUV near Grand Central Station on her way home. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News) An NYPD spokesperson confirmed an Internal Affairs investigation into the sequence of events was underway but declined further comment. “This is a case where the department failed to serve the public in the way it should have,” said Wilbur Chapman, a retired NYPD Chief of Patrol who also oversaw the Police Academy. Gridlock in Midtown On Dec. 27, Parker, 46, who works as an executive assistant for the CEO of a real estate investment firm, finished work near 6th Ave. and 49th St. and was walking to Grand Central to catch her usual train home to Orange County. At 47th St., she crossed with the light from the west side of Madison Ave. to the east side. There was rush-hour gridlock. Taxis blocked the crosswalk, slowing her progress, she said. Just after she passed a bus, she recalled, a marked NYPD vehicle in the easternmost bus lane lurched forward and banged into her. The impact stunned her but she did not fall to the ground. 383 Madison Ave where Angelica Parker sustained severe neck and arm pain after being hit by a police SUV near Grand Central Station on her way home, in Manhattan, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News) “The police car came out of nowhere. No sirens, no lights,” she said. “He sideswiped my right side, his side mirror folded and sprung back. “It was loud enough so the people on the sidewalk heard it.” Concerned passersby stopped and shouted “‘You just hit her” and asked Parker if she was ok. “Where did you come from?” the officer at the wheel said to Parker through a closed window. “Are you ok?”  “He rolled his window down a bit and said, ‘Walk in front of me,’” Parker said. “He asked again if I was ok, but didn’t offer assistance.” The officer and a second cop in the passenger seat then drove off, Parker said. ER visits The officers appear to have ignored longstanding police procedure. 383 Madison Ave where Angelica Parker sustained severe neck and arm pain after being hit by a police SUV near Grand Central Station on her way home, in Manhattan, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News) Under NYPD Patrol Guide section 217-06, a cop involved in a crash with a department vehicle is required to render aid – call an ambulance if necessary – request a supervisor to the scene, get the personal information of the victim and witnesses, and file a report. “They are supposed to call a supervisor,” said John Eterno, a retired NYPD captain and professor of criminal justice at Molloy University. “You don’t just say ‘Are you ok.’ That’s not good enough. You need to get out of the car. You don’t just drive away.” Meanwhile, Parker’s arm was sore but she got on her train and went home, thinking it would go away. “That night, I couldn’t sleep and I had shooting pains in my body,” she said. She went to Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital in Newburgh and reported her right arm was numb. The staff told her to take a couple of days off. She reluctantly went ahead with a holiday trip to California. The pain and sleep issues persisted. She had to go to an emergency room in Santa Rosa, Calif. There, doctors told her an MRI revealed four bulging discs in her neck. “They gave me four little pills which last only a day and a half, and since then I’ve been trying to manage the pain with ice and rest,” Parker said. A friend advised her to report the incident. But that turned out to be not so simple. Angelica Parker at W. 50th St. and 6th Ave in Manhattan, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. Parker sustained severe neck and arm pain after being hit by a police SUV near Grand Central Station on her way home. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News) Where to go? On Dec. 30, Parker says she called the 17th Precinct which covers Midtown East where she assumed the incident took place. A male officer told her she had to return to the intersection, call 911, wait for police to show up and then ask for a supervisor to respond. Then, the officer suggested she should go to a different precinct, Midtown North. Parker called Midtown North. No one answered the phone. She then did some research and called the Midtown South precinct. An officer there told her she had the wrong command. She called Midtown South again on Jan. 3. Finally after some resistance, a sergeant put her on the phone with an Internal Affairs sergeant. She explained that the IAB sergeant told her he would record a complaint, but she had to go back to Midtown North and file a collision report. “I felt like I was being interrogated,” Parker said. 383 Madison Ave where Angelica Parker sustained severe neck and arm pain after being hit by a police SUV near Grand Central Station on her way home, in Manhattan, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. (Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News) On Jan. 7, Parker went to Midtown North to file the collision report. As she waited, she said a young man who had lost his wallet tried to file a report. He told the desk officer he couldn’t remember exactly where he lost it, Parker said. The officer told the young man he would have to retrace his steps and figure out which precinct he lost it in, then go to that precinct – an apparent violation of longstanding police policy which requires cops to take a report and then refer it internally to the proper command. That policy is so old that Chapman remembers it from his rookie year in the NYPD as a young patrolman in East Harlem in 1968. “It’s Policing 101. You don’t refer the complainant. You take the complaint,” he said. “This bureaucratic shuffle is just unacceptable.” When Parker’s turn came, the first thing a female officer told her was she didn’t have to file a collision report because she had already filed the IAB complaint. Parker insisted on filing the report. On Wednesday, Parker told The News she’s still in pain, though she has been able to return to work. She has consulted two lawyers. “The first one told me since I wasn’t dismembered or dead, it basically wasn’t worth his time,” she said. “The second told me to call him after I filed the collision report.”