Complaints About NYPD Abuse to CCRB "Disappear Like Smoke"

The Civilian Complaint Review Board might as well change its name to the Civilian Complaint Review Ignored. Complaints about police misconduct will hit a record high this year, but the CCRB's budget has been slashed. 26 investigators are being cut from the payroll, so half of the cases will be dropped because investigators can't meet the 18-month statute of limitations. It gets worse.

Even when they do meet the statute of limitations, nothing much happens. Today the Times puts a human face on the CCRB's shortcomings, interviewing one Joseph Diaz, who filed a complaint back in 2007 accusing a cop of harassment and racial profiling. Diaz was sitting outside his Bronx building when, he says, an officer demanded to see his ID. Diaz, 58, refused, telling the officer, "For 40 years, I live in this building. Did you see me do something? Did you get a call on me? You can’t profile me." A week later the cop returned, and when Diaz again refused to show ID, he says the officer "used force" to handcuff and frisk him before ultimately letting him go.

Ten months after submitting a formal complaint to the CCRB, the board sent Diaz a letter that said their investigators substantiated that the officer "had abused his authority by stopping and detaining" him. The case was referred to the NYPD for disciplinary action, and they ~~got right on that~~ sent Diaz a letter a year later saying no disciplinary action would be taken. No explanation was given. Diaz fumes, "They waited like two years and nothing happened and it just disappeared. It just disappeared like smoke."

Some say Diaz's case is indicative of CCRB impotence and are calling for reform. For instance, in 2005, the Police Department declined to prosecute just 2 percent of the cases that the review board referred to it, but so far this year the department has declined to prosecute 40 percent of the cases. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne maintains that department prosecutors are simply being more selective about what cases to pursue, and the conviction rate at departmental trials had risen to 60 percent from 30 percent in 2004. He tells the Times, "It would be unfair and counterproductive, and a waste of scarce police resources, to move forward with a case which is incapable of being proven in the trial room."

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By John Del Signore in News on October 5, 2009 5:21 PM

Comments [rss]

frederick

THE OVERSIGHT OF POLIC SERVICE, INCLUDING MISCONDUCT, IS ARBITRARILY RATIONED OR DENIED.

Indeed, on 13 October 2009, a supermarket manager did falsely pretend that computer problems allowed him and his cashier to obtain PIN numbers, withhold fully purchased groceries, withhold EBT cards, deny transaction receipts, and brazenly extort forty dollars or more from myself and other customers. Fear had been instilled in such customers : They had to return with cash money in order to obtain their purchases.

The 79th Police Precinct Station House Desk Officer told me that all matters relating to food stamps must be handled by the NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs. That was a lie. The HRA and the USDA insisted that this extremely urgent matter had to be handled by the police. I called 911. Then, I called 311 : I had to be certain of the procedure. The responding police were constantly intimidating. They refused to make a report, allow me to know their identities, allow me to know the name of the manager, and to make an arrest (See, sect.s 155.25 [Petit Larceny] and 110/155.30 [6][Att. Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, NYS Penal Law). Moreover, forcing me out of the store (NSA Food Store [VACA MEAT CORP. 830 Lafayette Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11221]) without the aforesaid receipt was routine and a very serious violation (See, 7 C.F.R. 274.12[f][3]). Moreover, the officer that I spoke to had his back towards me partly or fully all of the time. He plainly intended to be an intimidating, offensive, and unidentified police officer. I WAS FORCED TO MAKE A COMPLAINT WITH CCRB (CASE NUMBER : 200916222, INVESTIGATOR JONATHAN CIOSCHI, TEL.#: 1-212-442-8792). Conclusive proof of the account activity was given to him. He took a picture of me, informed me that my Northface Triclimate Parker was actually a raincoat, and informed me that he had made efforts to get the Chief of Police (Joseph J. Esposito, Tel.#: 1-718-834-3390)to act upon my aforesaid complaint to CCRB. On Friday 7 November 2009, the Office of the Chief of the NYC Police Department insisted that no one made such a complaint to that office. I can, also, easily prove that on 9 October 1984 I was arrested upon very brazenly and irrefutably false evidence : POLICE MISCONDUCT AND INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL. Today, no one in NYC or the Country even wants to know.

It is the hideous rationing and denials of protection for the citizens of New York City that has been described.

Wza

Yep. ^

potsmoker

this is business as usual, no matter who is in charge.

alot of people are arrested when attempting to file a complaint at the precinct. on you tube theres a great hidden camera expose of a guy walking into precints and 100% refused, stopped, questioned and intimidated every single time he asked how to file a complaint against a police officer.