In the Media

Watchdog: NYPD needs more transparency on misconduct cases

08/15/2016
Newsday

A government watchdog laid out a proposal Monday for greater transparency of NYPD operations and accountability for officer actions.

Citizens Union released an 18-point policy statement that, among other goals, seeks to establish consistency across the police oversight system and expand the range of disciplinary options for cases of officer misconduct.

The group’s executive director, Dick Dadey, said the introduction of a new police commissioner, James O’Neill, next month opens a door to improved NYPD-community relations.

Good-government groups blast backroom deal that sank police-reform bills

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito mothballed two police-reform bills after reaching a private agreement with police leaders last month
08/15/2016
Crain's New York

Good-government and police-reform groups blasted the City Council’s “handshake agreement”with the Police Department Monday as “irresponsible” and “not how the City Council should act,” in the words of Citizens Union’s Dick Dadey.

Looking at the Bratton Era in NYC Through a Clear Lens

The outgoing police commissioner is seen by the community he leaves behind as a mixed bag when it comes to law enforcement and civilian relations
08/12/2016
Ebony

A flood of predictable reactions — from police and protest circles — greeted the announcement Tuesday that New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton is leaving the post in September. The 68-year-old is the most influential American law enforcement executive in modern times, the author of policing strategies that have shaped relations between police and the communities they serve, for better and for worse.

Procedural Move Could Lead to Vote on Right to Know Act

08/12/2016
Gotham Gazette

Last week, City Council Members Ritchie Torres and Antonio Reynoso sent out a joint statement in which they addressed the ramifications of the impending retirement of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. “With the departure of William Bratton,” the statement reads, “we are reminded that administrative agreements are every bit as short-lived as commissioners themselves, coming and going in the moments we least expect.”

New NYPD Commissioner's Focus on Community Policing is a Distraction, Not a Solution

08/11/2016
The Intercept_

WHEN NEW YORK MAYOR Bill de Blasio introduced incoming Police Commissioner James O’Neill last week, he praised him as the “architect” of neighborhood policing — the city’s version of the “community policing” approach being implemented across the country as a solution to the increasingly contentious relationship between law enforcement and people of color.

NYPD body camera program delayed by several months, court document shows

08/09/2016
amNewYork

The NYPD is taking longer than expected to get its body camera pilot program going, according to a court document filed Tuesday, because the department has yet to pick a contractor for the equipment, which could mean another six months before officers are outfitted.

The pilot program will feature 1,000 cameras in 20 precincts, and will be compared to 20 control precincts. The yearlong pilot program was ordered in August 2013.

State of siege: What Bratton’s legacy looks like to a kid from Flatbush

08/09/2016
New York Daily News

Growing up in Flatbush in the 2000s, I fell in love with the vibrancy of my community. I loved the way we gelled together — different cultures, with different layers of broken English sprouting from mouth to mouth, speaker to speaker.

One of the most vivid images I still hold on to, however, is the way police patrolled parties and community gatherings. They looked more like corrections officers walking down aisles of prison blocks than the agents of community safety they professed to be.

As Mayor Touts 'Neighborhood Policing,' Questions Remain About What It Is

08/08/2016
DNAinfo

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — The NYPD's incoming commissioner James O'Neill is the perfect person for the job because he helped develop the city's expanding neighborhood policing program, where officers spend more time getting to know the communities they patrol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said when announcing O'Neill's promotion last week.

Change of Commissioner Spotlights De Blasio’s Record on Police Reform

08/05/2016
Gotham Gazette

Many believe that the biggest responsibility of the Mayor of New York City is to keep people safe and Bill de Blasio has largely done that, in no small part by letting his lightning-rod police commissioner, Bill Bratton, call the shots on public safety policy. The mayor has focused on pre-kindergarten and affordable housing while Bratton has governed the streets, helping bring crime down to historic lows.

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