Gothamist Sues Bronx DA For Failure To Release Database On NYPD Officers With Credibility Issues
arrow Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark attends Reverend Al Sharpton birthday celebration at NAN headquarters in October 2020 Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
After nearly two years of waiting for a response to a public records request, Gothamist/WNYC is suing the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for its failure to release an internal database the agency created to track NYPD officers flagged for credibility concerns. The database includes a variety of records, which have not been made public before, including NYPD misconduct findings, determinations by judges that officers may have lied on the stand, and prosecutors’ assessments about court rulings that could cast doubt on police testimony.
Report Finds NYPD s Response To George Floyd Protests Was Deeply Flawed, De Blasio Says He Is Sorry
arrow Scenes from the June 4, 2020 demonstration in the Bronx C.S. Muncy / Gothamist
Senior NYPD officials committed a number of serious errors in their response to this summer’s protests against racist police violence, including deploying officers without proper training, and relying on faulty intelligence that undermined the rights of New Yorkers to peacefully assemble, according to an independent report from the city’s Department of Investigation.
The report calls on the NYPD to clarify and expand on its protest policing guidelines by reevaluating the role of the notorious Strategic Response Group, while consolidating existing police oversight into a single agency. It stops short of faulting specific police leaders, including Commissioner Dermot Shea, for any role in the documented “deficiencies.”
Dec. 10, 2020 12:17 p.m.
A Black Lives Matter protester won a judgment this week against New York City in a lawsuit over two police officers who lied in official paperwork and on the witness stand after her arrest during a 2016 march in Manhattan.
Ironically, the judgement, which will cost the city more than $52,000, arises out of a now-discontinued NYPD scheme to reduce the amount of money the city pays out to protesters who sue over false arrests – not by reducing the number of false arrests, but by coercing protesters into signing away their rights to sue.
The lawsuit, brought by Cristina Winsor, a 43-year-old artist and activist, alleged that her arrest and prosecution was part of a larger “pattern and practice” on the part of the NYPD that deprives protesters of their constitutional rights.