‘The police should not police themselves’
Attorney General Letitia James recommends NYPD reform in preliminary report
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
New York Attorney General
Letitia James recommended
sweeping police reform in
a preliminary report released
Wednesday on police actions
during last month’s George
Floyd protests.
After a video of Minneapolis
man George Floyd’s
death went viral in May protests
against police brutality
erupted across the country.
Protesters first took to the
streets in New York City on
May 28 at Union Square. The
initially peaceful protest took
a violent turn after demonstrators
and officers scuffled
as the protesters marched
toward City Hall, ending in
dozens of arrests. Violent
clashes would continue to
mark protests over the following
weeks.
After daily reports of officers
using batons, pepper
spray and charging at peaceful
protesters without provocation,
James, the state’s most
powerful law enforcement officer,
announced in mid-June
that she would conduct an
investigation into police conduct
during the protests under
the direction of Governor
Andrew Cuomo.
The preliminary report
comes after 30 days of “intense
scrutiny” and a twoday
long virtual public
hearing where over 300 New
Yorkers registered to speak
about their experiences with
officers during protests. Dozens
of protesters and activists
retold stories of officers
charging at peaceful protesters,
arresting legal observers,
trapping protesters in narrow
streets with a tactic called
“kettling,” shoving protesters
off of bicycles, arresting
essential workers traveling
past a citywide 8 p.m. curfew,
using pepper spray without
provocation and arbitrarily
throwing protesters to the
ground and arresting them
during demonstrations.
“It is impossible to deny
that many New Yorkers have
lost faith in law enforcement,”
said Attorney General James
during a conference call
ahead of the preliminary reports’
release. Between May
28 and June 7, officers made
2,087 protest-related arrests
in New York City, according
to the Attorney General’s office.
Forty-four percent of
State Attorney General Letitia Jamess Photo by Todd Maisel
those arrested were white;
39 percent were Black; and 13
percent were Latino. Out of
those 2,087 who were arrested,
16 percent of Black protesters
were charged with a
felony and 8 percent of Latino
protesters were charged with
a felony. Less than 4 percent
of white protesters and less
than 4 percent of Asian protesters
arrested were charged
with a felony.
The bulk of felony charges
were made on May 31, during
a night of citywide looting following
protests, according to
James. Most arrests though
were made between June 2
and 6 after Governor Andrew
Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio
instituted an 8 p.m curfew,
suggesting the curfew ” was a
significant driver of arrests,”
the report found.
Even though the Office of
the Attorney General is still
conducting its investigation
into police conduct during the
protests, James issued five
recommendations to reform
policing in her preliminary
report. The first suggestion
is to allow for public insight
and overview of police policies
and leadership. In order
to do this, James suggests
that the NYPD be overseen
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.22 COM | JULY 17-JULY 23, 2020
by a commission that has the
authority to hire and fire department
leadership, including
the commissioner, and
also has complete access to
records and the authority to
approve the NYPD budget.
The NYPD should also be required
to seek public input on
rule changes.
The second suggestion
is to reexamine and change
the role of the NYPD in New
York City. Minor offenses
should be decriminalized to
lower the number of negative
interactions between officers
and civilians. Officers
should no longer be the “de
facto” response to issues like
mental illness, homelessness
and school safety, the report
says. This transformation
should be led by a commission
equipped with a full-time
staff and resources to determine
how to remove armed
officers from these situations
and replace them with professionals
with specialized
training. The commission
should be given 12 months to
plan the transition with the
goal of implementing changes
by 2023, James said.
The third area of reform
is in the area of accountability
and transparency. The
Office of the Attorney General
recommends the city
expand the authority of Civilian
Complaint Review Board
to have final disciplinary
power over holding officers
accountable for misconduct.
Officers should also be certified
through a system that
allows for “decertifying” officers
guilty of misconduct
in order to prevent bad apples
from being rehired by another
department in the state,
the report says. The NYPD
should also create an open
data portal where the public
could easily access body camera
footage.
James’ fourth recommendation
calls for the Office of
Inspector General to become
a fully independent agency
that reports to the mayor instead
of to the Commissioner
of the Department of Investigation.
The final recommendation
is for a use-of-force
standard to be codified into
state law. Many of the standards
related to officers’ use
of force in the NYPD’s Patrol
Guide are not codified in law
placing the responsibility of
disciplinary actions on the
Police Commissioner. Creating
a use-of-force standard
into law would obviously establish
legal consequences
for abusive use.
“The police cannot police
themselves,” said James. “At
this point in time why is this
agency treated so differently
than all the others? That is the
question we need to address.”
Shortly after the release of
James’ preliminary report,
City Hall quickly squashed
the idea of having a commission
oversee the NYPD.
“While we thank the Attorney
General for her investigation
and look forward to
reviewing the report in full
and working together to further
reform policing in this
city, we do not believe creating
a commission to oversee
the NYPD does that,” wrote
top de Blasio spokesperson
Freddi Goldstein in an
email. “Over the last seven
years, stop-and-frisk became
a thing of the past, all officers
were trained in implicit
bias and de-escalation and
outfitted with body cameras,
and neighborhood policing
improved trust in communities.
Change comes from
accountability, something a
commission lacks. If we want
to continue moving forward,
more bureaucracy is not the
answer.”