Despite protests, beefs vs. Finest are down

Americans are hitting the streets to protest police violence, but complaints against the NYPD have plummeted, dropping 20 percent since January and even 4 percent in the two months since the George Floyd demonstrations, data provided to The Post shows.

The Civilian Complaint Review

Board, the city’s police watchdog, received 814 complaints alleging cop misconduct from May 26 through July 19. Complaints stood at 852 for the same period last year. January-through-July 28 complaints totaled 2,534, compared with 3,151 for the first seven months of 2019.

But the decrease doesn’t mean cops and civilians are suddenly breaking bread.

“We are in the height of antipolice rhetoric,” Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter, told The Post.

Imperatrice attributes the decline primarily to “[fewer] interpersonal interactions during the coronavirus outbreak,” the reduction to “zero proactive police units on a precinct level” and the disbanding of the 600-cop anticrime unit in mid-June.

He contends the cops against whom complaints were filed were targeted because they “consistently make arrests.” A complaint, he said, “is a retaliatory instrument that has been used as a tactic by the bad guys.”

A spokesman for the board wouldn’t speculate on the reasons for the decline.

“It is difficult to know what exactly causes the numbers to fluctuate year-to-year or prompts civilians to file complaints, without further analysis,” he said.