Agency that probes cops defunded 4%

A city agency that investigates police misconduct and use of excessive force — such as in the Eric Garner case — will have to lay off staff to cover a $726,000 budget cut, its top official said Wednesday.

The roughly 4% trim to the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s $20 million budget comes on the heels of city budget watchdogs’ findings that it lacks enough staff to oversee the NYPD.

CCRB chairman Fredrick Davie said he learned of the cut on Tuesday night.

“Knowing how hardworking, smart, and dedicated this team of public servants is, we saw layoffs as an absolute last resort,” Davie said at a meeting Wednesday.

The CCRB investigates misconduct complaints and acts as prosecutors in NYPD disciplinary hearings. CCRB staff prosecuted the 2019 disciplinary trial of Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold on Staten Island in 2014.

The news comes just two months after the city’s Independent Budget Office found that the CCRB’s staff shortage violates the City Charter.

As of June, the CCRB had 203 employees — well below the 236 currently required under the charter and 219 below what was budgeted for the current fiscal year, the IBO found.

Nevertheless, the Charter revision allows the mayor to cite “unforeseen financial circumstances” if the city cannot maintain CCRB staffing at roughly one employee per 154 uniformed cops.

Molly Griffard of the Cop Accountability Project at the Legal Aid Society echoed calls for more funding — and said it should come “by cutting the NYPD budget.”

“If anything, City Hall should increase funding for the 200person agency to ensure proper oversight of such a large police department rife with misconduct,” she said. “But even if City Hall disagrees, an overwhelming majority of New York City voters mandated more funding for the CCRB in last November’s charter revisions. City Hall should make up the difference by cutting the NYPD budget to fully fund the CCRB.”