Retiring NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea’s Tenure Marked by Routine Failure to Discipline and Fire Officers for Misconduct

Yesterday, it was reported that NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea filed for retirement from the NYPD, effective December 31, 2021. Below is a response from Anthonine Pierre (she/her) of the Brooklyn Movement Center and spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform: 

“New Yorkers will remember Commissioner Shea as someone who allowed NYPD misconduct and impunity to grow while communities were demanding accountability and an end to the NYPD’s violence and abuse,” said Anthonine Pierre (she/her), of the Brooklyn Movement Center and spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform. “For two years, Commissioner Shea refused to fire the officers who killed Delrawn Small, Kawaski Trawick, and Antonio Williams, and officers and NYPD officials who engaged in misconduct in Eric Garner’s killing. He routinely allowed the NYPD to obstruct and delay disciplinary processes and doubled down on his praise of the NYPD’s violent handling of the 2020 protests in defense of Black Lives, after which hundreds of misconduct complaints were filed and a Department of Investigation report determined the NYPD violated New Yorkers’ First Amendment rights. Commissioner Shea has emboldened the NYPD’s violence through the implementation of a discipline matrix that incentivizes misconduct and when New Yorkers faced a global health pandemic, his officers’ enforcement of COVID protocols was discriminatory and violent. In his last days as Commissioner, he and Mayor de Blasio must fire all the officers who have killed New Yorkers and release all the disciplinary and misconduct records allowed under the repeal of 50a, not just the narrow sliver of records in the NYPD’s database.”

About Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory and abusive policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and reduces reliance on policing. CPR runs coalitions of over 200 local, statewide and national organizations, bringing together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change. The partners in this campaign come from all 5 boroughs, from all walks of life and represent many of those most unfairly targeted by the NYPD.