Tapes recorded by probers investigating the ticket-fixing scandal picked up cops using ugly racist language to describe the people they’re sworn to protect, The Post has learned,

The investigation caught conversations between officers suspected of fixing tickets for friends and relatives and 17 cops have been indicted. And they also recorded officers — some of them not involved in the ticket scandal — using racial epithets about the neighborhoods they patrol, a source said.

If the tapes are used in the trials of indicted cops, it could prove a huge embarrassment to the NYPD. So far the recordings have not been made public.