Opinion
May 27, 1999
Determination of respondent Police Commissioner dated September 15, 1997, terminating petitioner's employment as a police officer, unanimously confirmed, the petition denied and the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78 (tranferred to this Court by order of the Supreme Court, New York County [Beatrice Shainswit, J.], entered March 30, 1998) dismissed, without costs.
The results of the random drug test constitute substantial evidence of petitioner's possession and use of cocaine, and no basis exists for disturbing respondent's rejection of petitioner's explanation of unwitting ingestion "as self-serving and implausible" (see, Matter of Green v. Sielaff, 198 A.D.2d 113). The computerized process by which respondent periodically generates a list of officers for testing has been sustained as random (see, Worrel v. Brown, 177 A.D.2d 446, lv denied 79 N.Y.2d 755), and petitioner's claim to the contrary is pure speculation. The penalty of dismissal does not shock our sense of fairness (see, Matter of Gordon v. Brown, 84 N.Y.2d 574, 580).
Concur — Sullivan, J. P., Tom, Wallach, Lerner and Andrias, JJ.