TWO TOP COPS RAPPED

The New York Post by PHILIP MESSING and SAMUEL GOLDSMITH

May 16, 2008 -- Two high-ranking NYPD commanders were disciplined this week in separate instances of misconduct. Inspector Michael Phipps, a 26-year NYPD veteran who commands the housing unit in Manhattan, forfeited 30 days' pay after using an NYPD vehicle for "personal business" while off-duty. He also abused a city E-ZPass and department gas card to drive an unauthorized person, police sources said. Separately, Deputy Inspector Joseph Hoch, a 22-year veteran, was docked eight days' pay for failing to properly investigate an incident at his Bronx station house. Hoch was the commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct when cops there scrawled the word "rat" on the locker of a sergeant who encouraged a suspect roughed up by cops to file a complaint. Instead of reporting the incident, Hoch had the cops involved clean the graffiti. Roy Richter, head of the Captain's Endowment Association, said Phipps was a highly regarded commander and said that Hoch's precinct had just been honored for outstanding performance. "Precinct commanders are held to very high levels of accountability and with that level of accountability, a hazard of the job is that you receive discipline," he said. philip.messing@nypost.com