Structure
The CCRB exists today as a fully independent civil department, staffed with 142 civilian investigators and about a dozen miscellaneous employees. Additionally, three officers from the NYPD's Monitoring and Analysis Section of the Department Advocate's Office work with the CCRB at their office at 100 Church Street, whose role is to provide the Investigators with access to certain restricted NYPD documentation. The agency is headed by the 15 member board, 5 appointed by the city council, 5 by the mayor, 1 by the public advocate, 3 designated by the Police Commissioner, and finally, the Chair, jointly appointed by the speaker and the mayor; none may be current public employees. Rev. Frederick Davie served as Chair until January 2022, at which point Arva Rice was appointed Interim Chair. Jonathan Darche, after having served as Interim Executive Director and Chief Prosecutor, was appointed Executive Director in May 2017. The agency is divided into several divisions, the largest being the Investigations Division. The Investigations Division is headed by two chiefs of investigations who oversee 16 investigative squads. The agency also contains an Administrative Division, which includes Human Resources, Information Management Unit and the Case Management Unit (which stores all records of past cases), among others, which is led by the deputy executive director of administration. There are then four other directorships, including the new "Research and Strategic Initiatives Director", as well as the Mediation Unit Director. There is also legal counsel. These units complement and serve the Investigations Unit, which acts as the main focal point of the Agency.Handling complaints
Investigation
Jurisdiction
Each complaint the agency receives is assessed by one of the investigative managers on a daily rotating basis and has its merits checked for proper jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is first assessed by type of allegations. Only allegations that fall under the jurisdiction of the CCRB are investigated by the CCRB. They include Force (whetherCivilian contact
The cases are then assigned to one of 142 civilian investigators, who are members of one of 16 squads, who then attempts to contact the civilian who initially complained. After initial assignment, there are four dispositions that result only from a full investigation: Substantiated, Unsubstantiated, Exonerated, and Unfounded. There are five other "miscellaneous", or inconclusive dispositions: Complainant Uncooperative, Complainant Unavailable, Officer Unidentified, Miscellaneous (i.e. the MOS has retired since the incident occurred) and Mediated. If contact with the civilian complainant is not achieved after five contact attempts by telephone and two letters by mail, and the contact information is confirmed the case is automatically closed with a disposition of, "Complainant Uncooperative". If the civilian cannot be located after a diligent search and/or did not provide accurate or correct contact information, the case is closed as "Complainant Unavailable". These types of cases are not considered "full investigations", but are tallied together with the total number of complaints for statistical purposes. If the civilian is contacted, a statement is initially taken over the phone by the investigator to further ensure proper jurisdiction and to gain a basic understanding of the broad facts within the complaint. An in-person interview is then scheduled at the CCRB's office at 100 Church Street, at which point, the investigator meets with the civilian and any witnesses s/he brings with them that were present at the time of the incident and interviews each person separately. The investigator then transcribes the interview, submits a "case plan" to one of their three supervisors (each team having an Assistant Supervising Investigator, a Supervising Investigator and an Investigative Manager).Officer contact
Once the case plan is approved, the investigator must then begin their investigation, which involves identifying all subject and witness officers involved. If the investigator fails to identify the officers, the case is closed as "Officers Unidentified". Once the officers are identified, which is done by obtaining a variety of NYPD documents, including SPRINTS/911 tapes to identify which officer(s) responded to the call in question, roll calls from specific commands, to see which officers were working in the area of question during the time of the incident, Command Logs from respective commands, to determine if the incident was logged and which officer logged it, Memo Books of Officers or DD5s of Detectives, to search for possible notes about the incident, along with arrest records, court records, photographs, Complaint Reports, Accident Reports, AIDED reports, Stop, Question and Possibly Frisk Reports (UF-250s), to name only a few. Once the officer is identified, s/he is then scheduled to give a statement to the investigator and must attend, according to Patrol Guide 211.13. An officer failing to appear or lying to an investigator is, in itself, a violation that could result in severe discipline up to and including suspension and possibly termination. Each officer and their partner at the time, along with any witness officers are interviewed and questioned about the incident by the investigator. This interview is also taped and transcribed, and based upon the officer's testimony, further information is obtained by the investigator, including subpoenaed medical records, further department documentation, field canvasses and their resulting information, and so on.Mediation
Mediation is an option for certain complaints provided the officer does not have an extensive CCRB or NYPD disciplinary history, there was no arrest made and severe force or abuse of authority were not involved. In mediation, the officer and civilian both voluntarily bypass the investigative process and meet each other one-on-one with a third-party mediator to discuss the incident. This results in no disciplinary action being taken against the officer and often results in a more satisfied civilian as an outcome.Recommendation
After all the civilians and members of service are interviewed and all possible relevant documentation has been received and analyzed, the investigator then collects any relevant case law and begins their "recommendation", which is their report, averaging about 10-12 pages, on the case in question. The report is broken down into relatively strict (each team has their own "style", dictated by the Team Managers and Supervisors, and even then, can and often does vary between internal team supervision), template of investigative analysis. The report includes a summary of all complaints made, an explanation of the circumstances of the case, a summation of the statements by the officers and civilians, a credibility assessment of the officers and the civilians (at which point, the investigator is supposed to weigh in criminal history of civilians and CCRB history of officers, as well as inconsistencies between accounts, motivation of the civilian and the overall possibility of an incident occurring), a summation of criminal and CCRB history of the civilians and officers respectively and finally a recommendation for disposition on each complaint. A recommendation for disposition on each complaint breaks down into four main categories (beyond the technical variants mentioned in part earlier): Substantiated, meaning the officer committed the act in question and it consisted of misconduct; Unsubstantiated, meaning that there is not a preponderance of evidence, either way, to determine if the incident occurred as described and/or the incident consisted of misconduct; Exonerated meaning that the incident occurred but did not consist of misconduct, either because the officers actions were justified or did not actually consist of misconduct; Unfounded meaning that the incident did not occur as described and no misconduct occurred.Board action
The recommendations are then reviewed by at least two team level supervisors who then approve or instruct the investigator to "correct" their findings, and upon approval submit the case to the Board. Once the Board receives the complaint, either as a full board, or, more likely, as a three-member sub-unit, they meet to discuss the case and then vote on the recommendations of the investigator. Public meetings are held to communicate recent statistics and "snapshots", of some of the more straightforward cases are published as examples for the public's understanding and announced at the meeting.Prosecution
Historically, when the board substantiated a complaint and found that an officer committed misconduct, it forwarded the case to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), in most cases with a disciplinary recommendation. While the CCRB has the authority to investigate complaints and to determine if misconduct occurred, under the law only the police commissioner has the authority to impose discipline and decide the appropriate penalty. However, on April 2, 2012, the NYPD and the CCRB signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which conferred on the CCRB the power to prosecute substantiated cases where the board recommended "charges and specifications," the most serious discipline. As a result, the CCRB's Administrative Prosecution Unit (APU) now prosecutes nearly all the cases where the Board recommended the subject officer receive charges and specifications, with limited exceptions. The trials are almost always held at the police department, before an administrative law judge, either the Deputy Commissioner for Trials or an Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Trials. If an officer is found guilty, the penalty can be a warning and admonishment, loss of vacation days, suspension without pay, dismissal probation, or termination from the NYPD. The police commissioner retains the authority to decide whether the discipline is imposed, what level of discipline is imposed, and the penalty imposed.Number of complaints
In 2006, the CCRB received 7,669 complaints from civilians, and closed 7,399 cases, of which 2,680 were full investigations (meaning that the civilian participated, the officer(s) were identified and an investigation was closed after a full investigation). Approximately 6% of the full investigations resulted in a Substantiated disposition. 262 cases were mediated. The CCRB remains the only completely civilian oversight of the New York Police Department in the city, and is complemented by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau, and the Mayor's Task Force on Police Corruption, each charged with investigating different types of allegations. The CCRB and its acronym FADO (for the first letter of the allegations it investigates) has permeated all ranks of the NYPD and is part of all officers' training at the Police Academy. Additionally, the number of complaints has risen steadily since 2002 as the 311 system was implemented and public awareness of the program grew.History
Over the years, NYPD officers have come under public scrutiny with allegations of corruption, brutality, excessive use of force, and poor firearm discipline. Individual incidents have tended to receive more publicity; a portion of which have been substantiated while others have not (e.g. Lt. Charles Becker, the only NYPD officer sentenced to death by electric chair). Citizens have wanted participation in reviewing complaints against the police as early as the Progressive Era. However, little progress was achieved in the first half of the twentieth century. When citizens do make a complaint, they may face reprisal from the police. Citizens might be arrested, accused of falsifying charges against them, and there was no oversight to substantiate any complaints or accusations of police misconduct. During 1953, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) was created. In 1950, eighteen organizations formed the "Permanent Coordination Committee on Police and Minority Groups" to lobby the city to address overall police misconduct and "police misconduct in their relations with Puerto Ricans and Negros specifically." The NYPD established the CCRB in response to the coalition's demands. A committee of three deputy police commissioners was tasked to investigate into civilian complaints. The board was given greater authority under Mayor Robert Wagner in 1955, but the board remained governed within the NYPD; police officers investigated into the complaints and the deputy commissioners decided upon recommendation of discipline based on the investigation. The CCRB remained under NYPD jurisdiction without civilian oversight. In 1965, Mayor John Lindsay appointed former federal judgeSee also
* New York City Office of Administrative Trials and HearingsReferences
Further reading
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