Federal monitor puts NYPD on notice, giving it 2 weeks it to turn over documents to CCRB — or face court order
The NYPD’s federal monitor has put the department on notice — giving it two weeks to turn over dozens of datasets and documents to the city’s police watchdog tasked with investigating claims of racial bias.
The monitor, Mylan Denerstein, sent a letter to the NYPD Wednesday telling the department if it doesn’t corporate with requests from the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the court will have to step in.
The warning came a week after CCRB Chair Arva Rice said at the board’s monthly meeting that the agency will be forced to stop its investigations into racial profiling and police bias at the end of the fiscal year unless it gets additional funding in its upcoming budget.
Rice made no mention of lack of cooperation from the NYPD, but the CCRB said two months ago that the department had been dragging its feet in providing the records needed for the probes.
CCRB Executive Director Jonathan Darche testified before the City Council and squarely blamed the department for its stalled investigations.
“Since beginning to investigate profiling cases under Section 440 in October 2022, the CCRB submitted well over 100 data and document requests to the NYPD — all of which have been rejected — that are key to our current racial profiling and bias-based policing investigations,” Darche said.
The police datasets and documents requested by the board would allow CCRB investigators to determine whether one officer’s record proved to be an outlier.
Instead, the department has only provided individual arrest details, making it impossible for the agency to close its cases, according to the agency.
The board began probing allegations of racial profiling in October 2022 as a result of a City Council amendment to its charter to expand its investigatory powers the year prior.
Denerstein gave the NYPD until June 1 to give the CCRB access, or she will ask Manhattan federal Judge Analisa Torres to force the department’s hand with a court order.
The end of the fiscal year is June 30.
“The NYPD shall provide the CCRB timely, complete and direct access to all documents and data the CCRB reasonably deems to be necessary to complete its investigations of profiling and bias-based policing,” the proposed order filed by Denerstein reads.
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If signed, the court would require the department to release an “officer’s Central Personnel Index, prior civilian complaints, whether substantiated or not, disciplinary records, when appropriate, lawsuits filed against the subject officer, and prior performance evaluations with an eye towards identifying patterns of bias/misconduct on the part of the subject officer.”
A CCRB spokesperson said the agency was “pleased that the Monitor’s letter recognizes the CCRB’s right, and need, for access to NYPD data to thoroughly investigate cases of racial profiling.”
The spokesperson added that City Hall has stepped in to try to resolve the quarrel by arranging a meeting between both sides.
“The NYPD and CCRB have an ongoing dialogue regarding these records requests, with the goal of addressing points of disagreement,” a police spokesperson said, adding, “The Department received the Federal Monitor’s letter and the proposed order last evening and is currently reviewing them.
The police watchdog has often blasted the department for dragging its feet in handing over records to complete misconduct probes.
Most recently, the issue sparked a shouting match between a CCRB prosecutor and a department judge in the trial of two cops over the death of 32-year-old Kawaski Trawick.
