AP News, September 5th, 2007
An independent panel formed to investigate and discourage police misconduct has failed miserably, the New York Civil Liberties Union said in a report Wednesday. But police and the civilian panel said the findings were unfair and used old data.
The civil liberties group accused the New York Police Department of purposely undermining the authority of the Civilian Complaint Review Board by ignoring its findings and recommendations for punishing unruly officers.
"As an independent arbiter working on the sensitive issue of police misconduct, the CCRB has long received criticism from police advocates who feel it pursues officers too aggressively and from civil liberties advocates who feel it does not pursue them aggressively enough," the civilian panel said in a statement. "By staying fair and independent, it cannot avoid these criticisms."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly accused the NYCLU of "distorting the facts."
According to the report, the review board saw a 60 percent increase in complaints between 2000 and 2005, from 4,251 to 6,796. The report said the board investigated fewer than half of the allegations and typically found the complaints valid only about 5 percent of the time.
Of the most serious cases referred to the NYPD for disciplinary action between 2000 and 2004, Kelly rejected the board's recommendations in 63 percent of the cases. "When discipline was imposed, it was strikingly lenient in light of the severity of the misconduct that has been documented by the CCRB," the report said.
Police officials attribute the spike in reports of misconduct to the introduction of the city's 311 complaint hot line. They said excessive force complaints actually have declined, thus, the corresponding decrease in suspensions or firings.
The NYCLU recommended more stringent City Council oversight of the board along with increased funding for investigators and support staff.
The civilian panel was formed in 1993 after the city experimented for years with oversight panels composed of civilians and police officers. Of the all-civilian board's 13 current members, five are appointed by the City Council, five by the mayor and three by the police commissioner.
