You know that thing where some people say policing is systemically rotten and others insist it's "just a few bad apples" (dude, "one bad apple spoils the bunch!"). If only there was some way to empirically resolve this dispute!

1/
Turns out, there is. For decades, the discipline records of #NYPD officers were a secret, thanks to state law 50-a. That was repealed after the murder of George Floyd, in response to the #BlackLivesMatter uprising.

2/
Now, @Propublica has organized these records in a searchable database: "The database lists active-duty officers who’ve had at least one allegation against them substantiated by the CCRB: That’s about 4000 officers out of the 36000-member force."

https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-civilian-complaint-review-board-editors-note

3/
We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades

ProPublica obtained these police records from New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. NYPD unions are suing to halt the city from making the data public.

https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-civilian-complaint-review-board-editors-note
Propublica's release comes as other entities with access to the data- the @NYCLU, the CCRB and the city - have been barred from publishing the same data after a temporary restraining order following a suit by the police union (they forgot to name Propublica in the suit!).

4/
Propublica is not publishing the full database: they have confined themselves to SUBSTANTIATED claims that were upheld by the CCRB, a limited, anemic agency that doubtless misses countless instances of wrongdoing (they investigated 3000 cases in 2018 and substantiated 73).

5/
Even that subset is grotesque - and militates for forcing the NYPD to fulfill its legal obligation (routinely flouted) to cooperated with CCRB investigations: "I exonerated tons of cases that involved awful conduct...It’s kind of haunting. -Former CCRB investigator Dan Bodah

6/
Some stats:

* 303 officers have 5 or more substantiated allegations and are still on the job

* 5000 substantiated instances of "physical abuse"

* 2000 "frisk"s

* 600 "gun pointed"s

Image:
Teresa Shen
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tshen91/8393203038

CC BY
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

eof/
NYPD

These cops later formed a barricade of batons and tried to force protesters back, almost crushing my camera.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tshen91/8393203038
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