1/ Earlier this week, I wrote about how my family saw an NYPD car *hit a kid* The police denied it.

The car didn’t hit the kid, they said. *The kid hit the car.*

Legally, there are checks on NYPD abuses. But in reality, impunity is built into the system.

This is how...

2/ Like many cities, NYC has a civilian board to dig into police abuse.

The @CCRB_nyc gets about 7,000 complaints per year, about 3,00 for police allegedly hurting people. It does its best to investigate.

But the NYPD can kill both investigations and proposed penalties.

3/ Also: Only the NYPD commissioner (currently @NYPDShea) can decide if and how an officer is disciplined for abuse. Doesn’t matter what civilian investigators find.

As one report put it, the commish has “complete authority” and “complete discretion.”

https://www.independentpanelreportnypd.net/assets/report.pdf

4/ The NYPD overrules the civilian oversight *a lot.*

Here’s a case where an officer used a barred chokehold

The NYPD “retained” the case, aka they took it back from @ccrb_nyc & imposed its own punishment: 30 lost vacation days, the harshest discipline NYPD allowed that year

5/ The NYPD has decided *not* to follow through on the civilian board’s proposed discipline most of the time.

This chart is a little funky, but see those blue boxes? That’s the % of time the NYPD *agreed* w/ the oversight board’s proposed punishment

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/annual_bi-annual/2018CCRB_AnnualReport.pdf

6/ So the NYPD usually overrules the civilian board’s proposed punishment for abuses.

And officers with bad records stay on the force.

As of 2018, the NYPD had 545 officers on the force w/ two *substantiated* complaints, and 208 with *three or more.*

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/annual_bi-annual/2018CCRB_AnnualReport.pdf

7/ This chart is also striking. Many officers have had no complaints against them. But then look how many have had ***six or more***

A small portion of officers are getting a disproportionate number of complaints — and staying on the force.

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/annual_bi-annual/2018CCRB_AnnualReport.pdf

8/ Meanwhile,the civilian board can only propose discipline when it's finished investigations. Most cases don’t get to that point, in part because the NYPD makes the @CCRB_nyc’s job hard...

9/ Unlike other cities, NYC’s civilian oversight board doesn’t have direct access to body cam footage. They have to *ask* the NYPD for it.

Last year, the NYPD and @CCRB_nyc hashed out a new deal. It’s nine pages of rules.

Here are some stipulations.

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/about_pdf/bwc_mou.pdf

10/ So now you know how the NYPD controls discipline. But what does the discipline for sig. abuse actually look like?

The CCRB looked at about 3k such complaints in 2018. The NYPD’s harshest discipline was: 9 officers who lost vacation days

https://www.propublica.org/article/my-family-saw-a-police-car-hit-a-kid-on-halloween-then-i-learned-how-nypd-impunity-works

11/ And let’s remember, there are *people* behind these cases. Including kids.

Like Devrin, a 9th grader my family saw on Halloween. Police tackled, handcuffed, and arrested him.

He was trick-or-treating.

https://www.propublica.org/article/my-family-saw-a-police-car-hit-a-kid-on-halloween-then-i-learned-how-nypd-impunity-works

12/ Devrin’s mom, Deeveka. She *works* for the NYPD. But the NYPD won’t give her any answers.

“All I have is a story,” she told me.

13/ Civilian oversight is something police have long fought. NYC’s first civilian board had *no civilians on it.*

When Mayor John Lindsay moved to change that, a union prez said, “I’m sick and tired of giving in to minority groups.”

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/ccrb/about/history.page

14/ The NYPD’s complete discretion over discipline is written *into the law.*

Here is New York City’s charter.

But, of course, it doesn’t *have* to be this way...

http://www.nyc.gov/html/ccrb/downloads/pdf/enabling_legislation.pdf

15/ In New York, and many other cities, police get to blow off their civilian “oversight.” But in some cities, it’s different.

In Detroit, for instance, a civilian board creates police policies, approves budgets, and *imposes discipline*

16/ I asked Mayor @BilldeBlasio’s office, repeatedly, about the NYPD’s complete control over NYPD discipline.

They didn’t answer that.

17/ I also asked the police, @NYPDnews, their complete power over discipline.

I detailed both the specific cases I was citing and the overarching issue.

I still would very much like to hear their perspective.

They haven’t responded.

18/ @ProPublica and I would also like to hear from *you.* We’re particularly interested in learning about interactions between the NYPD and youths:

https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/has-the-nypd-stopped-a-child-or-teen-you-know-are-you-a-young-person-with-a-story-to-share-wed-like-to-hear-from-you
—

19/ And if you have tips about police discipline systems, whether in NYC or elsewhere, please send ‘em our way.

And please share this.

https://www.propublica.org/tips/ 

https://www.propublica.org/people/eric-umansky

20/ When people share their stories with us via forms like that , it helps inform and shape our journalism.

Speaking of, here’s how you can get *only our best stories* https://go.propublica.org/bigstory-social 

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