DE BLASIO CONTINUES HIS WAR ON NY COPS

NYC to create ‘massive’ public database of NYPD disciplinary records 

 

By Craig McCarthy

 

New York Post

June 17, 2020

 

NYPD members’ disciplinary records will be published in a public database, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday — in what he called a “massive” measure to peel back the curtain and shine more light on the department.

First, the city will publish trial details and information on the 1,100 pending internal cases, which are prosecuted by the department’s oversight agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the mayor said.

“We’re going to start a massive effort to make public information regarding complete discipline,” de Blasio said. “This is historic because it will cover every active member of the police force, all records, all records for every active member available in one place, online publicly.”

The “long-term” plan is for the NYPD to publish a database of all current and former cops’ discipline. That effort will start over the next few weeks — but officials couldn’t say how long it would take to compile the data.

“We’ll get you constant updates on the timing,” the mayor responded when asked about the release time. “The point is that I want you to know everything we have to be put online as rapidly as it can.”

In addition, Hizzoner set a timeline for the NYPD’s internal review of high-profile encounters — requiring the police commissioner to decide whether to modify or suspend an officer within 48 hours and setting a two-week limit for the Internal Affairs Bureau to make its initial recommendation.

The changes, however, do not speed up the department’s internal trial process — a point of contention in the case of Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was internally tried, and ultimately fired, five years after killing Eric Garner with a chokehold during his arrests in Staten Island in July 2014.

IAB previously had 18 months to bring charges against an officer.

In the coming weeks, the NYPD will also release all the body-worn camera footage from high-profile encounters that happened prior to the mayor’s expansion of the release policy Tuesday.

The NYPD has not yet set a schedule for releasing the footage. It is expected to be hosted on the department’s YouTube page.

The Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, attacked the new policies, calling them “arbitrary.”

City Comptroller Scott Stringer hailed the “long overdue” plan and called on the City Council to codify it in law.