Valid cop gripes at new high

Nearly 25 percent of the complaints filed against the NYPD and fully investigated last year were substantiated — a record rate, new statistics show.

While the number of allegations against cops has continued to decline, there are still several thousand complaints made each year, and the percentage of those substantiated has soared, according to an annual report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board released Monday.

Video evidence is a primary reason that the cases are being proven against the cops, CCRB officials said.

“The rise in the number of substantiations is mainly due to faster investigations and the impact of increasing video evidence,” the report states.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton recently complained that cellphone footage can lead the public to rush to judgment against cops.

According to the CCRB report, there were 4,460 grievances filed against cops last year, the lowest number since 2001.

But the percentage of substantiated complaints in cases that the CCRB has fully investigated and “closed’’ has jumped, from 14 percent in 2012 to 17 percent in 2014 and finally, 24 percent last year — the highest rate in the board’s 23-year history, it said.

In 2015, the CCRB closed 2,177 cases, of which 528 were substantiated.

Those substantiated cases included 19 chokeholds, the CCRB said. Last year, seven chokehold cases were substantiated.

In 2014, Staten Island resident Eric Garner died after he was put in a police chokehold.

Cops also were found to have lied in 60 cases last year, as opposed to 25 times in 2014 and once in 2010, the report states.

“Improving trust between the New York Police Department and the communities it serves is critical both to improving public safety and building a more just and equitable city,” said CCRB’s acting chair, Deborah Archer.