NYPD Unions Respond To CCRB’s Expanded Oversight Coverage Files Lawsuit Challenging Changes

The largest NYPD union has pointedly accused the civilian complaints review board of trespassing in a new lawsuit aimed at limiting the agency’s newly expanded investigative powers.

The union, in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday, criticized the CCRB’s growing gaffe as “another shameless power grab” in challenging the city agency’s new jurisdiction over policing issues, including camera misuse, racial profiling and biased police work.

“The Court must invalidate the CCRB’s use of the 2022 rule change to expand its jurisdiction against the plain language of the New York City Bylaws and years of past practice and interpretation,” said the Police Benevolent Association, which was joined by the Judicial Sergeants Benevolent Association. process.

“By changing the rules, the CCRB also violated the bylaws in several other ways and made changes that are clearly detrimental to officers,” the 45-page lawsuit alleged. “… The rule changes in question should be repealed.”

The PBA represents the NYPD’s 24,000 enlisted members, while the SBA includes approximately 12,000 active and retired sergeants.

The CCRB’s new powers began in October when the agency announced changes that also include the ability to initiate complaints on its own, rather than relying solely on public allegations. CCRB Interim Chair Arva Rice called the new guidelines “a key step forward towards greater accountability.”

The representative of the CCRB, responding to the lawsuit, did not see any special grounds in the union’s complaint.

“Following a formal rule development process, the CCRB board voted to change the agency’s rules,” a spokesperson said. “We are confident that we will win in court, as before.”

PBA head Patrick Lynch responded by criticizing the CCRB as “anti-police activists”.

“The CCRB no longer even claims to be fair and impartial in its investigations of police officers,” Lynch said. “They can’t even bring themselves to say the word ‘rehabilitated’ about a cop who didn’t do anything wrong.”

The union’s lawsuit cited two previous PBA victories in a lawsuit against an agency set up in 1993 to deal with citizens’ complaints against the police: the first after the passage of rule changes in 2018, the second three years later.

“By creating the CCRB as an agency of limited jurisdiction, the City Council recognized that other police disciplinary matters properly fall under the jurisdiction of other bodies, such as the NYPD Bureau of Internal Affairs,” the union court documents said.

Police Commissioner Kichant Sewell said in December that she had overturned more than 70 disciplinary recommendations from the independent Civilian Complaints Board in 2022.

The union was particularly annoyed by the expansion of the misuse of body cameras added to the role of the CCRB.

“Enforcement measures are already covered by the NYPD’s comprehensive monitoring and disciplinary scheme,” the lawsuit says. “… The vast majority of problems with non-compliance with the BWC are unintentional and often arise from an officer in good faith attempting to comply with patrol guide procedures.”