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Civil rights advocates in the city note, however, that there has been a cost to the new strategy, revealed by steady citizen complaints against more aggressive NYPD officers during the past several years and continuing impunity for many officers who commit human rights violations despite the recent reorganization of both the civilian review board and the police department's internal affairs bureau. In August 1997, after the alleged torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima by police officers made national headlines and outraged city residents, the anti-crime record of the mayor and police department was tarnished. In uncharacteristic fashion, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir condemned the officers implicated in the incident as well as those who reportedly did nothing to stop it or report it. In the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board's (CCRB) semiannual report for the first half of 1997, African-Americans and Latinos filed 78 percent of complaints against the police.
The police force is 68 percent white. During the independent CCRB's first three-and-a-half years, only 1 percent of all cases disposed of led to the disciplining of a police officer, and out of 18, 336 complaints, there have been just one dismissal of an officer stemming from a CCRB-substantiated case. If the studies by civil rights groups and the Mollen Commission are any indication, officers who commit abuses are not being dealt with adequately. In that incident, after protesters allegedly threw items at mounted police officers attempting to clear the park, police reacted by beating anyone nearby with their nightsticks, including uninvolved restaurant patrons and business owners. In the end, administrative charges were presented in seventeen cases, with officers disciplined in thirteen of them. Officers primarily from the 30 th, 9 th, 46 th, 75 th and 73 rd precincts were caught selling drugs and beating suspects.
Concluded Cawley, "They [residents] hate the police. You'd hate the police too if you lived there. " What emerged was a picture of how everyday brutality corrupted relations among police officers and city residents. Officer Michael Dowd testified, "Brutality is a form of acceptance. It's the other officers begin to accept you more. " In reaction to the Mollen Commission report, then-Police Commissioner William Bratton stated that if officers behaved properly, he would back them absolutely, but if they used unnecessary force, "all bets are off. " The police unions continue to oppose stricter disciplinary measures and the commission's call for changes in the police union's response to allegations of corruption and brutality, such as emphasizing integrity, reportedly have not been heeded. There is often a racial or ethnic component to police abuse cases in New York City, with many incidents also fueled by language barriers and miscommunication in the diverse city.
In the CCRB's January - June 1997 report, African-Americans and Latinos filed more than 78 percent of complaints against the police, while 67 percent of the subject officers were white. Minority-group activists claimed that the shooting demonstrated racial bias because the white officer assumed the black officer was a criminal. In May 1997, a grand jury declined to indict the officers. When former New York Mayor David Dining supported an independent civilian complaint review board in September 1992, police protested violently and engaged in actions, according to a police department report, that were "unruly, mean-spirited and perhaps criminal. " An officers' protest, sponsored by the police union, involved thousands of officers demonstrating at City Hall, blocking traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge, and shouting racial epithets; current Mayor Rudolph Giuliani participated in the protest.
Some officers involved in the protest's offensive acts were disciplined, and the police commissioner stated that the nature of the demonstration "raised serious questions about the department's willingness and ability to police it's self. " As police were leaving the protest, several off-duty officers, all in civilian clothes, assaulted a man on the subway who had stepped on one of the officer's feet. Six officers then reportedly beat and kicked him, and he suffered a broken jaw; several witnesses went directly to the police station to complain. In July 1993, the CCRB was reorganized and made independent from the police department. The CCRB publishes reports with statistical data on the number, type and disposition of complaints. CCRB staff report that they engage in extensive community outreach to inform residents of their rights and about the CCRB's operations. The CCRB claims this new practice has expedited investigations.
If a criminal investigation has begun, the CCRB defers to the relevant district or U. S. attorney. Once CCRB investigators complete a full investigation, a case review panel, made up of three board members or the full board, reviews the findings. The latter are cases that are not investigated or kept on the subject officers record but where the subject officer is required to discuss the complaint with a CCRB staff member who instructs the officer about proper procedures. Fully investigated complaints made up approximately 25 percent of the cases disposed of by the CCRB between July 1993 and December 1996.
The CCRB's regular reports contain information about officers who have been the subject of repeated complaints. For example, there were 126 police officers with four or more complaints lodged against them from July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1997. The report notes that about 40 percent of those officers are assigned to Brooklyn commands, with officers assigned to the 75 th Precinct making up 8 percent of all officers receiving four or more complaints during this time period. The board forwards its recommendation to the police commissioner, who is not bound by the CCRB's findings. If the CCRB recommends disciplinary sanctions against an officer, the police commissioner must report back to the CCRB on the action taken. The CCRB receives a monthly report from the police department, advising the board about police action on CCRB referrals.
Outside police-abuse experts have expressed concern that the internal police department procedures have all but guaranteed that even cases sustained by the CCRB do not lead to adequate discipline, or any at all. Nor is there oversight of CCRB's own competence. In many cases, one complainant may file a complaint detailing more than one allegation against an officer. Further, while the police department must notify the complainant of the final outcome of the complaint, it provides no information about whether or how the officer was disciplined when the board has substantiated the complaint. The CCRB reports that CCRB and the police department's Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigations are often concurrent. CCRB is entirely complaint-driven.
Since the CCRB became independent from the police department in 1993, the total allegations received are as follows: 1993: 5, 487 (excessive force: 2, 173) 1994: 7, 648 (excessive force: 3, 079) 1995: 8, 776 (excessive force: 3, 528) 1996: 8, 869 (excessive force: 3, 139) 1997: 7, 183 (excessive force: 2, 626) Between the initiation of more aggressive policing policies in 1993 and 1996, complaints against the police rose by 56 percent. Following the August 1997 Louima incident, there was a sharp increase in the number of citizen complaints filed with the CCRB. The apparent confusion over the number of complaints stemmed from a February 1997 change in procedures that led to confusion between the CCRB and the police department. Since the CCRB became independent from the police force in 1993 until December 1996, it received 18, 336 complaints against police officers, yet only one officer was dismissed as a result of a CCRB investigation. According to press reports, of 972 cases of alleged brutality and other misconduct since 1993 confirmed by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the department disciplined just 215 of the officers (only one resulting in the officer's dismissal). City and police officials have expressed a lack of confidence in the CCRB.
NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir has explained the department's inaction in CCRB-substantiated cases by stating that the CCRB investigations are of a low quality. Following the Louima case, the City Council held hearings on the CCRB in August 1997. City Council members reportedly criticized the CCRB as inefficient and ineffective. The council members urged the CCRB leaders; in the face of police department resistance to accepting and acting on the board's findings, to at least provide information about patterns and trends in violations around the city.
Many police-abuse experts in New York City believe the mayor has too much control over the CCRB's composition and, as a consequence, may unduly influence its performance. The CCRB has long been disrupted by political disputes among board members and between board members and investigators. Hector Soto, executive director of the CCRB until February 1996, reportedly left his post due to disputes with the police department and CCRB's chair over high-profile cases. In mid- 1996, a senior investigator and others reportedly left the CCRB after they found an officer responsible in a high profile fatal shooting but the board did not substantiate the case. Some police abuse experts in the city have suggested that the NYPD's Advocates' Office, responsible for administratively prosecuting officers accused of serious abuses investigated and substantiated by the CCRB at departmental trials, should be abolished. The bill's sponsors hoped officers would use the new review board to report corruption in the police ranks.
Incidents Case of Abner Louima: In the early morning hours of August 9, 1997, police officers arrested Abner Louima, a legal Haitian immigrant, outside a Brooklyn nightclub following altercations between police and club goers. During the trip to the station house, officers all...
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