Scott Bishop is the Don Zimmer of the NYPD. Just like the veteran baseball player, manager, and coach has always liked proclaiming that he never earned a dollar outside the national pastime, the 44-year-old Bishop is very happy to say all his checks have come through Police Plaza. Well, maybe there has been one exception — that store security job he did when he was 19. “But I’ll make up for that one slip,” he laughs. “I could do 30 on this job. I know a lot of cops can’t wait to hand in their papers the day they’re qualified to do so, but I don’t see that. What would I do if I didn’t have the job? I don’t think my wife wants to know, either.”

A native of Rockville Center, Bishop was initially attracted to police work by his father, a Nassau County detective for 30 years. So why didn’t he stick to his own neighborhood, especially in light of the vast discrepancy in pay on and off the Island. “Oh, I took their test, too. I took every test there was, including for Transit and Housing in the city. But the NYPD was the first to get back to me. Should I have waited to see what Nassau had to say? I really didn’t think of that as any great lost opportunity back then. In the early ‘80s, the difference in pay wasn’t all that great.” Pause: “The bad things started happening after that.”

After graduating from the Academy in June 1983, Bishop did six months with NSU2 in Manhattan South, then moved over to Brownsville’s 73 Pct. for the next decade. “That Brooklyn assignment was no honeymoon,” he says. “I did a lot of foot patrol and there were always ugly surprises. About the only thing you can’t say is that the surprises were always around the corner because in a lot of areas there weren’t any corners. Block after block looked like an abandoned lot.”

The married father of three daughters needs no nudging to contrast police work at the 73 Pct. and at the 112 Pct., where he has been since 1993. “It’s no secret most cops consider the 112 a hook command, the kind of place where you need to know somebody to get in. But you would also have to be a little batty not to choose it over a place like the 73.”

So maybe that has something to do with his reluctance to leave the job? “It might have everything to do with it,” he smiles. “Could I imagine doing 30 years in the Brownsville I knew? I’m not saying it’s absolutely impossible, but it would be very, very tough. Do the midnight tour in the 73 and you’re pretty likely to be dealing with all kinds of variations on drugs and guns. In the 112? We get an awful lot of elderly people falling out of bed and needing help to get back into it.”

As for changes in the 112 since he has worked Queens, Bishop has no argument with the statistics showing dramatic drops over the last 15 years in major felonies, even in the precinct’s most conspicuous vulnerability, auto thefts. “When I first came over here, you had four or five cars being lifted during every tour,” he observes. “Now maybe that’s the number of cars lost for the entire week.”

Where he gets a little skeptical, though, is in the face of all the theories about why crime numbers in the 112 Pct. specifically and in the city as a whole have been improving. “I’ve heard everything. Better technology, and sure, that can’t hurt. Gang cycles and leaders all ending up behind bars. Then the politicians saying they had this one great idea and everything else fell into line after it. But the one real cause of the decrease is the work the cops have been doing on the street. Somehow this has gotten lost as a factor while everybody is going around and patting each other on the back. Cops have been responsible for the lower crime rate.”

In somewhat the same vein, Bishop doesn’t have to scratch his head too long to single out the most dissatisfying aspect of his job. “You come to dread contract time,” he says, “because you know it’s going to be another occasion for the city to show you how little they respect you. No one has ever taken a civil service exam expecting it to be a road to riches. If they did, they’d need professional help. But there’s a difference between that and being treated as unfairly as NYPD cops have been treated.”

Not surprisingly, better pay would figure prominently in any list of priorities a Police Commissioner Scott Bishop would draw up. “If I were commissioner for a day,” he says, “I think I might spend a lot of it taking a second look at some of the things that have been taken for granted around here for a while. One example, this emphasis that college-educated cops will necessarily make better cops. Well, I certainly haven’t seen that. The best cops are the ones who know the streets and the people who live, work, and hang out on them. That doesn’t always mean a college degree. Sometimes you get the feel there’s this sudden enthusiasm for some policy because it might look better, not because it’s been analyzed enough.”

Fixed tours is another issue Bishop is hesitant to endorse one hundred percent. “How can anyone say it’s been a pure success when what it’s really done has been to contribute to three commands in every command? Cops just aren’t as close to one another as they used to be. You can go months without seeing somebody.”

But?

“There’s a big but, and I’ve been the first to benefit from it. Because I’ve been fixed on the midnight tour, I’ve really never missed a big family function. I’ve got 21-year-old twins and a 17-year-old and I’ve been able to get involved in coaching their basketball and softball teams. Everybody knows months ahead of time when I am and am not available. So am I going to lead the charge against fixed tours? No way. If one of their objectives was to help family life, they’ve succeeded.”

Making it even easier to stay on the job?

“No question,” is the quick reply. “It’s something I always wanted to do and I see no reason right now to stop doing it.”