Here’s a bit of good news. In a police department that is rife with misconduct and corruption — NYPD — the civilian review board that oversees complaints against officers will now have the ability to prosecute them for violating the law.
The civilian board that reviews complaints of NYPD misconduct will get the power to prosecute those allegations in departmental trials — except in certain cases, officials said Tuesday.
Currently, the Civilian Complaint Review Board investigates complaints it receives, but refers substantiated cases to the NYPD for prosecution.
The change covers cases ranging from excessive force and abuse of authority to foul language.
The CCRB will prosecute substantiated complaints before NYPD tribunals, and will have the power to plea bargain cases.
“I’ve heard a lot of complaints from New Yorkers that they feel the Civilian Complaint Review Board is a toothless tiger,” City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. “This gives teeth to the CCRB.”
This doesn’t go nearly far enough — forget tribunals, they should be charged in criminal court like anyone else when they violate the law — but it’s better than the current system. And the penalties should be higher for police officers than for others. The police union is opposed to even those modest reforms:
“Our problem with CCRB has always been first, their predisposition that police officers are always wrong, second, their inexperienced investigators who conduct faulty investigations that arrive at improper conclusions, and now those wrong conclusions will be prosecuted at these kangaroo trials.”
Which sounds like a great reason to go all the way and have such trials in criminal courts instead of police tribunals. But even that is just a start. The problem is that the only experienced investigators are other cops, who are very reluctant to go against another officer. And prosecutors certainly aren’t much more likely to do it.
3 comments
Gregory in Seattle
April 9, 2012 at 9:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The primary purpose of a police union is to build and maintain the Blue Wall, not fight for fair wages and safe working conditions.
We have a very similar problem here in Seattle, where the FBI had to step in and impose measures to rein in the “pattern and practice” of excessive force that has run rampant in the Seattle Police Department, frequently manifesting in overtly racist behaviors. The Police Guild came very close, several times, to being charged with obstruction of justice because of their lack of cooperation with the FBI’s investigation. The hint of a rumor that the City Council might be considering holding a hearing that might lead to maybe strengthening civilian oversight of the SPD inevitably leads to diatribes in the Guild’s newsletter and the promise of an illegal police strike, so I’m not holding my breath that there will ever be any real change.
jamessweet
April 9, 2012 at 9:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One could argue that this would in fact be a desirable characteristic for such an organization. The police union certainly has a predisposition that police officers are always right (and to be fair, that is not entirely indefensible, since going to bat for their members is a union’s job, after all) and given the importance of what police do and the way it affects civilians so directly, a group that always assumes the opposite may be an important counter-balance.
Tualha
April 9, 2012 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I hope the board members know to surround themselves with cameras at all times to capture the inevitable intimidation attempts.