Boosting Faith in the NYPD
One of the most scrutinized police forces in America— the NYPD— is facing yet more-oversight: An outside panel is launching a 120-day review of the department’s discipline policies. This time, for a change, it’s warranted. The task force, made up of former federal prosecutors Mary Jo White and Robert Capers and exfederal judge Barbara Jones, will check the cops’ procedures for punishing officer misconduct, with an eye on their consistency and transparency. And note: The department itself, to its credit, called for the review.
Why is it needed? Because it’s critical that the public be assured that wrongdoing by police officers is punished, consistently and appropriately. And New Yorkers need to know that in specific cases.
Yet that doesn’t happen now: In 2016, the city stopped releasing information about disciplinary action against specific officers, citing a state civilrights law. Bad idea.
As City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Donovan Richards notes, a lack of transparency sows distrust. It also gives the department’s many eager-to-criticize enemies more ammo.
The NYPD disciplinary system is “broken and dysfunctional, and [that] has served to protect abusive cops rather than the public,” Communities United for Police Reform charged.
Fact is, critics will never stop badgering the department and looking for new areas to criticize, all in the hopes of tying its hands as it attempts to enforce the law.
Remember, cops already must answer to an independent monitor; an independent inspector general; the Civilian Complaint Review Board; periodic task forces; local, state and federal prosecutors and City Council committees, among others.
They’ve been accused — even by their own boss, Mayor de Blasio — of racism and bashed for stopping suspicious characters, using excessive force, even keeping a database on gangs. Most times, the criticisms prove to be unfounded.
But if top brass are handling police-punishment procedures properly, they have nothing to hide. And the review will sort that out.
Once it does, maybe the department’s foes will finally give their criticism a rest.