Story at a glance
- New York repealed a law keeping records of police misconduct sealed, making them public.
- An Intercept analysis of more than 323,000 accusations of misconduct against current and former New York City police officers reveals the cost of lawsuits on the city.
- NYPD officers were accused of racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia in 70 lawsuits between January 2015 and June 2018, according to the database CAPstat.
Most of the 70 lawsuits against New York Police Department (NYPD) officers accused of racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia between January 2015 and June 2018 are still pending, according to CAPstat, a database that tracks federal civil rights lawsuits. But a new analysis of the data revealed that the 14 that have been settled have already cost the city more than $500,000.
The data was made public in summer of 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests brought scrutiny on law enforcement agencies, including the NYPD. More than 323,000 accusations of misconduct against current and former New York City police officers were published online in August by the New York Civil Liberties Union after lawmakers repealed a law keeping police disciplinary records secret.
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Among the data is tens of thousands of claims of offensive language filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is responsible for investigating these allegations. An analysis conducted by The Intercept revealed that, over three decades, almost no officers faced serious consequences in more than 500 substantiated claims of using offensive language.
“The abusive language, that’s a function of the culture of the department, and it starts with the leadership,” Christopher Dunn, the legal director of the NYCLU, told The Intercept. “There has to be a fundamental shift in the way NYPD and officers think about their behavior, inside and outside the department. If you’re a person of color in the police department or a woman, you are treated quite differently than white men. There’s rampant sexism and racism, not unrelated in what we see when they deal with the public.”
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In a statement, a spokesperson for the NYPD emphasized the reforms the department has made since 2014, including advocating for the change that allowed for the release of such records. After an independent audit of the agency’s internal disciplinary system by former prosecutors and judges, NYPD said it would publish annual data on discipline, increase penalties, require counseling for officers involved in DWI incidents and domestic violence incidents and dismiss repeat offenders.
“All of this advances the NYPD’s priority to make its internal disciplinary system as fair, effective, and transparent as it can for an agency privileged to manage a vast number of interactions with the public,” said Sergeant Jessica McRorie in an email.
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