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First Female Head: Tap Stone to Chair Cop Review Board First Female
Head
Former Prosecutor Before joining the CCRB, Ms. Stone was a partner at the law firm Hunton and Williams, where she specialized in commercial litigation and repeatedly won the firm's pro bono service award. She served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1987. "I'm delighted to lead the committee for the next few years," Ms. Stone said during a Sept. 15 phone interview. "It will be fun to get involved in the issues." Ms. Stone, who is also involved with several Brooklyn-based community groups, takes over the board as it struggles to maintain its funding while dealing with an increasing number of complaints. According to the board's January to December 2005 Status Report, the CCRB received 6,796 complaints in 2005 and closed a total of 6,522 cases, 12 percent more than it completed in 2004. "Even with the rise in complaints, we were able to close out more cases that came in, which is a statistic that we are very proud of," Ms. Stone remarked. Fewer Substantiations Most of the complaints, however, weren't substantiated. In all, only 260 of the 2,679 full investigations conducted were substantiated, below the 16-percent of substantiated cases against officers in 2004. The NYPD has maintained that the rise in complaints is mainly due to the city's 311 information line, which has made it easier for people to file grievances. The police unions have long assailed the CCRB, charging that criminal suspects often file false complaints of abuse or misconduct against officers. Those unsubstantiated grievances, the unions contend, permanently scar officers' records. "A lot of the anecdotes that the police unions cite stem from the very early days when the agency was underfunded," Ms. Stone asserted. "Our investigations are extremely thorough now; we are just not the same agency that we were in those early days." Despite the increased caseload, the Bloomberg administration initially proposed cutting $1.2 million from the board's budget this year. That cut, which was later rescinded by the City Council, would have eliminated 24 Investigator positions. "We are concerned that the New York City Police Department is making concerted efforts to undermine the effectiveness and independence of the CCRB, and that the CCRB is acquiescing in those efforts," said Chris Dunn, the New York Civil Liberties Union's Associate Legal Director, after the proposed cuts were announced. Ms. Stone emphatically denied that was the case. "Both Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg have been very supportive of our efforts, and I don't think we are in a position to complain," she said. "There are always staffing and monetary challenges. We are trying to do the job that we do with the resources that we have available." Mixed Feelings Anthony Garvey, president of the Lieutenants' Benevolent Association, commented that the police unions have always had a strained relationship with the board. "It has its flaws," he said during a Sept. 14 phone interview. "While at the same time it serves a role for the citizens of this town ... it's here to stay, and we have to work within the structure." The NYPD carefully monitors how many complaints officers have in their files and that information and other data is used to decide if cops should be placed in the department's disciplinary Performance Monitoring Unit. Cops in the unit are often transferred and denied overtime opportunities. Phil Karasyk, an attorney who handles CCRB cases and other legal matters for several police unions, suggested that the board develop a better way to screen obviously baseless cases. According to Mr. Karasyk, there has been a sharp rise in complaints against officers conducting home searches which are carried out with lawful search warrants. "We take all complaints," Ms. Stone responded. She noted that officers conducting no-knock searches weren't obligated to show the suspects that they had a search warrant. "We recommended to the Police Department that they close that loop, because the people being searched didn't realize the officers had a warrant," she said, noting that the policy has since been amended. After the Republican National Convention, this newspaper reported that the NYPD created an internal panel to re-investigate substantiated cases of alleged police misconduct during the protests. The move was supported by the police unions, which asserted the CCRB had solicited convention-related complaints. But the NYCLU was highly critical of the decision, contending in a letter to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly that it marked "a substantial step backwards in civilian oversight of alleged police misconduct." Has Power to Subpoena The civil rights group was instrumental in the board's creation as an all-civilian review panel formed by former Mayor David Dinkins and the City Council. The CCRB has subpoena power and has the authority to recommend discipline in cases that the board substantiates. Mr. Garvey noted that there have been several cases involving his members where CCRB investigators concluded there wasn't a violation, only to have the board's Commissioners overturn that finding and substantiate the complaint. Many officers in those situations, he said, then move to have their disciplinary cases adjudicated in the NYPD's internal Trial Room. According to Mr. Garvey, those cases are often decided in the officer's favor, regardless of the CCRB ruling. "It may be a more stressful process, but you're better off doing that then taking a command discipline for something you didn't do," Mr. Garvey remarked. The union president suggested that civilians who are found to have made blatantly false complaints should be penalized. "People would think twice about making a false complaint," he asserted. Ms. Stone replied, "I don't think that's in the mandate of our agency."
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