New York, NY – Head Of NYPD C.C.R.B. Resigns

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    New York, NY – The chairwoman of the city agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct has resigned at a time when some critics say the agency has fallen short of its mission.

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    Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has named Ernest F. Hart to replace the chairwoman, Franklin H. Stone, at the agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

    Mr. Hart has been on the board of the city’s Equal Employment Practices Commission. He is associate dean and chief operating officer of Columbia University Medical Center’s affiliation with Harlem Hospital Center, responsible for the management of a $70 million academic and clinical organization.

    “I had things to do; there were ongoing projects and testimony I was giving and doing,” she said in a phone interview.

    The board was established more than 50 years ago as a unit of the Police Department. In 1993 it became an independent, all-civilian board with the power to investigate complaints against the police. It has 13 members.

    In effect, the agency is limited to investigations. The Police Department is not obligated to act when the board substantiates a complaint against an officer.

    Ms. Stone told a City Council committee in January that too few of the agency’s substantiated cases were making it to trial within the department.

    She said yesterday that the biggest challenge facing the review board was that the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, had pursued disciplinary action in fewer than two-thirds of the cases the agency had referred to the department.
    In January, Ms. Stone testified that the Police Department had charged officers in only 7 percent of the cases sent to it by the review board in 2007, down from 47 percent in 2003.

    Numbers supplied by the Police Department were slightly different. The department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said that last year the department had pursued charges against 181 of the 267 police officers recommended for charges. “And in all cases, the N.Y.P.D. moved aggressively against officers when the facts supported it,” he said.

    Stone said yesterday that the agency’s structure was outdated and should be re-examined to allow the review board a greater role in analyzing police data and to make recommendations. “That is not to say the organization is not doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing,” she added. “‘Everyone there is working very hard.”

    Mr. Hart, a former chief of staff and counsel to Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott, said in a statement, “I look forward to taking on this challenge and will continue to ensure that the C.C.R.B. operates with integrity and independence.”


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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    The CCRB is a joke. I brought charges against a cop and they were dismissed as ‘unsubstantiated’. Subsequently I sued and won. Had the cop been charged and disciplined I would have been satisfied and not sued. In effect their poor judgement cost the city money.