Civilian Complaint Board Finds The Public And Their Cell Phones Are Foisting Some Accountability On The NYPD
from the the-camera-is-on-the-other-eye...-or-something dept
There’s probably not much the NYPD will like about the latest CCRB (Civilian Complaint Review Board) report, but then again, the CCRB isn’t really there to serve up the sort of stuff it likes. What it will discover is that some form of accountability is now inevitable, rather than remaining a lofty ideal thrust in its general direction by a handful of activist groups and politicians.
Cameras are changing the way complaints are investigated. The report notes that video footage relevant to CCRB investigations is leading to more substantiated complaints.
Under the preponderance of evidence standard that the CCRB must use in evaluating cases, the increased prevalence of video in force cases has led to an increased percentage of cases where CCRB can substantiate the use of improper or excessive force. The percentage of substantiated force complaints with video evidence increased from 15% in 2012, to 26% in 2013, 34% in 2014, and 45% in the first half of 2015.
Substantiated cases of abuse of authority, discourtesy, and offensive language increasingly have contained video evidence: 6% of such cases in 2012 had video evidence, as compared to 23% during the first half of 2015.
So, not great news for the NYPD. While it is seeing an overall drop in complaints (thanks largely to the scaling back of stop-and-frisk), more and more cases are being decided in favor of citizens, thanks to camera footage, most of which has been obtained by the citizens themselves. (Note that most of what’s detailed in this report occurred before the NYPD’s body cam pilot program began.)
While the ubiquity of cameras has begun to force a certain amount of restraint on police officers, it hasn’t been able to cure them of all their bad habits.
In the first half of 2015, the highest substantiation rate by allegation was for retaliatory summons and retaliatory arrest, which were substantiated at a rate of 70% and 58%, respectively.
And despite everyone and their mother being able to produce footage, officers just keep on lying.
In the first half of 2015, the CCRB closed investigations that noted 19 allegations of false official statement, 18 of which stemmed from incidents that occurred in 2014. Those 19 allegations of false official statement are on pace to far exceed the 26 allegations noted in 2014. The reason for the significant increase is primarily the result of video evidence.
On the bright side, the number of cameras in use at any given time is likely discouraging a few would-be complainants from filing bogus paperwork.
In the first half of 2015, civilian complaints against the police decreased by 22%, as compared to the first half of 2014. The CCRB received 2,092 complaints from January through June 2015, as compared to 2,698 for the same time period in 2014. This is the lowest number of complaints since 2001.
Now for more bad news: the thing about “bad apples?” Not just a stereotype.
More than 80% of NYPD officers have had no complaints in the last 18 months, whereas 14% of officers are responsible for 100% of all complaints. Five percent of officers on the force—about 1,800—are responsible for 80% of the force complaints.
There’s a good chance their fellow officers know who these problematic cops are. And yet, they remain employed. NYPD officials absolutely know who these officers are. And yet, it would appear a great many of them are still employed. If the CCRB is going to be effective, and if the NYPD brass wants to be taken seriously when it claims to care about ensuring New York’s Finest only contains the finest, then these numbers will need to drop by next year’s report — both in terms of overall complaints and the number of still-employed officers generating a majority of complaints.
Filed Under: accountability, ccrb, civilian complaint review board, mobile phones, nypd, police, transparency
Comments on “Civilian Complaint Board Finds The Public And Their Cell Phones Are Foisting Some Accountability On The NYPD”
Authority
Let’s see, what authority does the CCRB have? Oh, none. If the CCRB are going to be effective then they need some authority to act, which they do not now have.
Re: Authority
NYPD is corrupt and can’t be fixed, same as most big city police departments. The Blue-Wall-of-Silence works extremely well overall, including senior NYPD officials.
NYPD is forced to “reform” every 25-30 years as the corruption gets so bad that local pols are reluctantly forced to do something– things quiet down temporarily and then return to ‘normal’.
The fact based movie “Serpico” is a good primer on how ‘good cops’ are handled.
Remember NYPD Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik– he went to Federal prison in 2009 for corruption. He almost became head of Homeland Security before that. Typical angelic NY cop.
Most New Yorkers (like me) would not even consider filing a formal cop complaint with CCRB — it’s a waste of time in most cases, even if your complaint is validated … and you mark yourself for subtle retaliation by the cops. So the CCRB statistics way underestimate the true level of NYPD complaints/corruption.
The
Re: Authority
Neither does the NYT or the Post. The CCRB should ask them to publish it on the 2nd front page. Bet that’ll swing some influence, especially after the local radio and TV stations star looking into the story.
The blue line
Note to the 80%: if you don’t speak up, you’re going to be judged by the actions of the 5%. Maybe, just maybe, if you do speak up, the other 15% are salvageable.
Re: The blue line
at the rate America is turning into an oppressive police state it will be all cops in the crosshairs be they the silent majority or the criminal minority. When people finally say enough is enough and start fighting back.
As I have been saying all along...
Nobody believes me, but I keep saying that having worked with cops, there are literally only 5%-10% bad cops. The other 90%-95% are fine.
I’m glad they finally came out with these numbers so people can see how easy this is to fix.
It’s the same everywhere. The 5% give you a bad name.
Re: As I have been saying all along...
Yeah, having only 1,700 – 3,400 bad cops in NYC is just par for the course. Just a few thousand bad apples.
Re: Re: As I have been saying all along...
Yes, but they know who they all are.
Just let cops with multiple complaints go (3 strikes) and hire new ones.
Re: Re: As I have been saying all along...
And like bad apples in any barrel, they’re spoiling the whole bushel. 🙁
Re: As I have been saying all along...
No-one believes you because the 90-95% appear to do nothing about the “bad cops”.
Inaction when action is required is almost as bad as the bad actions themselves. We view the 90-95% almost as culpable as the 5-10% because of their inaction.
Re: Re: This is actually different than the impression I had before
…which was that the brass was defending the bad apples and upholding brutality as proper protocol.
The question that’s raised with these numbers is, yeah, why haven’t the 80% been able to pressure the bad apples to shape up or ship out?
Why have the bad apples gotten away with it so long, if it’s just bad apples?
The deeper problem is how this went from a few loose cannons to a systemic problem, and that’s not going to be resolved by pointing fingers at just the ones throwing the punches.
Re: Re: Re: This is actually different than the impression I had before
“Why have the bad apples gotten away with it so long, if it’s just bad apples?”
It is a systemic problem, based on the fact this sort of behavior was condoned in the past. Social systems, ways of doing things, and long standing traditions, do not change overnight unless you fire everyone and start fresh.
Re: As I have been saying all along...
“easy this is to fix”
If that was the case, wouldn’t they have already done so?
I suspect it’s not easy when you have unions involved. It’s pretty likely that terminating this cops will end in some sort of legal battle, and probably end with a lot of money still going into the pockets of these “bad cops”. They’ll probably all get pensions regardless, and likely some fully-paid administrative leave for a while – substantial severance pay, and maybe even some other perks. Once said and done, they’ll likely just go join some other law enforcement agency without so much as a sniff test.
Re: Re: As I have been saying all along...
Or, they can send them to jail for assault. Unions don’t have as much pull in those cases.
Re: A good cop who covers for a bad cop isn't a good cop
Nobody believes me, but I keep saying that having worked with cops, there are literally only 5%-10% bad cops. The other 90%-95% are fine.
And I say that no, they are not. The blatantly corrupt ones may be in the minority, but the ones who know of the blatantly corrupt and do nothing are the majority.
The problem isn’t just confined to the small minority, the fact that that ‘small minority’ continues to remain employed, despite there being little to no doubt who they are means that the majority is willing to look the other way regarding their actions, showing that they are all corrupt, even if not to the same degree.
When police start going after their own, and show a willingness to hold their own accountable, then I might believe that only a handful are really bad, with the majority good. Until then though, as far as I’m concerned they are all just as bad as the worst among them, because they could have done something about them, but chose not to.
Re: As I have been saying all along...
Perhaps you dont get the part about ‘spoiling the bunch’
Re: As I have been saying all along...
That’s just NYC how about 5 – 15% of the entire nations police forces , It’s an Army of bad cops and another army of look the other way cops, the fact is this should never have been in the first place.
Re: As I have been saying all along...
there are literally only 5%-10% bad cops. The other 90%-95% are fine.
Except for the fact noted in the article that there are literally (as in literally, not figuratively) 14% bad cops.
Nice way to rationalize and minimize and be an apologist for a group of people who literally can destroy just about anyone’s life and have next to no accountability. If you weren’t so busy licking your master’s boots you might realize that even 1% of a group like that is entirely unacceptable.
Re: As I have been saying all along...
“Nobody believes me, but I keep saying that having worked with cops, there are literally only 5%-10% bad cops. The other 90%-95% are fine.”
In any other profession a 5% corruption rate might be understandable. But it’s law enforcement’s job to enforce the law and to counter corruption. If they can’t counter corruption that’s openly visible to them within their own organization how could they reasonably be expected to counter corruption outside of their organization as they are expected to do as part of their job. There shouldn’t be a 5% corruption rate among cops because that implies the other 95% aren’t doing their jobs to stop it when it is their exact job to stop corruption (both within and outside of their organization). If they can’t stop it within their organization, if they can’t even stop their own corruption, how could they be expected to counter the corruption of others outside.
Make the boys in blue pay
Every time a payout goes to a victim of police brutality, make it come from the retirement fund of the NYPD. Within months, they would bend the forces of nature into changing things to prevent their future income from vanishing.
Word Knowledge Fail Blares From Headline
This from site which earlier today claimed “The Internet Is Not Making Us Dumber”, misusing that instead of “stupid”. Sheesh. Lurbles.
Seventh attempt. Is definitely more trouble to get these in during 3-6PM PST, hours I guess Masnick is paying attention.
Re: Word Knowledge Fail Blares From Headline
And yet again, putting the horiz ruler tag and note on DOES seem to help!
Re: Word Knowledge Fail Blares From Headline
Oh yes, I’m sure the fact that you make regular attacks rather than saying anything worth listening to has absolutely nothing to do with it. /s
Well obviously it is the fault of the citizens for not showing the respect these dirty cops demand. Otherwise the police would clean house.
In their hearts they just cannot seem to call out their fellow cops for breaking the law and prefer to blame the average citizen instead.
NYPD,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4LYZC97hmM
Re: NYPD,
Really you edit out LAPD?
missing
80% with 0 complaints
14% with all the complaints
6% are in a box with a cat?
Re: missing
Look at the wording closer.
“More than 80% of NYPD officers have had no complaints in the past 18 months, …”
If you add the missing 6%, you get 86% which is “More than 80%”. Also given the specification of “past 18 months”, it may be that 6% have never had any complaints, 80% have no complaints in the last 18 months, etc. But that is just speculation. In any case, as someone else had noted earlier, there are no “good” cops if they’re not willing to police their own and get rid of the bad apples.
lawsuits
why cannot a civilian start a civil lawsuit against individual policeman? Is everyone worried about getting accidentally shot?
Re: lawsuits
or they end up dead in a jail cell by “suicide”
Re: lawsuits
They can, but it isn’t much use. A civil lawsuit isn’t going to get the cop fired, individual cops tend not to be particularly wealthy so you’ll probably lose money even if you win, and in courts the cops tend to get a lot of leniency.
Re: lawsuits
Is there a lawyer in the house?
I’ve always been under the (vague) impression that a victim can start a civil suit against the department as a whole, but not against the individual LEOs involved unless they’ve done something so egregious as to lose qualified immunity… or something like that.
5 Percent of police are Criminals
5 Percent of police are Criminals, and the other 95% are stuffing their faces with sauerkraut and bacon bits. It’s disgusting.
Hey you ridiculous good apples out there, like do you think its time you police the police.
see forbes dot com virginia's casual disregard for the constitution
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the brain initiative are the worst scams ever perpetrated on the American people. Former U. S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin Warns: Biochips Hazardous to Your Health: Warning, biochips may cause behavioral changes and high suicide rates. State Attorney Generals are to revoke the licenses of doctors and dentists that implant chips in patients. Chip used illegally for GPS, tracking, organized crime, communication and torture. Virginia state police have been implanting citizens without their knowledge and consent for years and they are dying! Check out William and Mary’s site to see the torture enabled by the biochip and the Active Denial System. See Terrorism and Mental Health by Amin Gadit or A Note on Uberveillance by MG & Katina Michael or Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence by Springer or Mind Control, Microchip Implants and Cybernetics. Check out the audio spotlight by Holosonics.
“Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director and now Google Executive, Regina E. Dugan, has unveiled a super small, ingestible microchip that we can all be expected to swallow by 2017. “A means of authentication,” she calls it, also called an electronic tattoo, which takes NSA spying to whole new levels. She talks of the ‘mechanical mismatch problem between machines and humans,’ and specifically targets 10 – 20 year olds in her rant about the wonderful qualities of this new technology that can stretch in the human body and still be functional. Hailed as a ‘critical shift for research and medicine,’ these biochips would not only allow full access to insurance companies and government agencies to our pharmaceutical med-taking compliancy (or lack thereof), but also a host of other aspects of our lives which are truly none of their business, and certainly an extension of the removal of our freedoms and rights.” Google News
The ARRA authorizes payments to the states in an effort to encourage Medicaid Providers to adopt and use “certified EHR technology” aka biochips. ARRA will match Medicaid $5 for every $1 a state provides. Hospitals are paid $2 million to create “crisis stabilization wards” (Gitmo’s) where state police torture people – even unto death. They stopped my heart 90 times in 6 hours. Virginia Beach EMT’s were called to the scene.
Mary E. Schloendorff, v. The Society of New York Hospital 105 N. E. 92, 93 (N. Y. 1914) Justice Cardozo states, “every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent, commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages. (Pratt v Davis, 224 Ill. 300; Mohr v Williams, 95 Minn. 261.)
This case precedent requires police to falsely arrest you or kidnap you and call you a mental health patient in order to force the implant on you. You can also be forced to have a biochip if you have an infectious disease – like Eboli or Aids. Coalition of Justice vs the City of Hampton, VA settled a case out of court for $500,000 and removal of the biochip. Torture is punishable by $1,000 per day up to $2 million; Medical battery is worth $2.05 million.
They told my family it was the brain initiative. This requires informed, knowledgeable consent. Mark Warner told me it was research with the Active Denial System by the College of William and Mary, the USAF, and state and local law enforcement. It is called IBEX and it is excruciating. If you are an organ donor, they volunteer you.
complaints
I think all complaint cops need to be assigned to permanent desk security duties no internet usage. The under cop that assaulted former Tennis player Mr.Blake is a prime example.Crazy does what crazy is instructed to do.Reform the entire government in ny.