Communities United for Police Reform Responds to Damning OIG Report on NYPD Community Response Teams

New York, NY

In response to a new report released by the Office of Inspector General for the NYPD on the Community Response Team (CRT), Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) released the following statement on behalf of CPR Spokesperson, Loyda Colon (they/them), Executive Director, Justice Committee.

“The new OIG report exposes yet another alarming example of the NYPD’s entrenched culture of secrecy and impunity under Mayor Adams. During his administration, the mayor has relentlessly expanded policing while systematically dismantling transparency and oversight, enabling increased harassment and abuse by the NYPD. The CRT’s aggressive enforcement of low-level offenses disproportionately harms Black, Latinx, and other communities of color, perpetuating harm rather than delivering safety. This kind of unchecked over-policing goes hand and hand with the mayor and his NYPD’s practice of shielding officers who commit misconduct, even in cases of deadly violence like the NYPD killings of Kawaski Trawick, Allan Feliz, and Delrawn Small.

“It’s more urgent than ever that the NYPD fully comply with current transparency laws, including the How Many Stops Laws, which are meant to shine a light on the most common interactions police have in our communities, including investigative encounters frequently used by CRT officers. New Yorkers deserve real transparency, accountability and safety, not more criminalization at the hands of dangerous and secretive units like the CRT.”

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BACKGROUND

Under Mayor Adams:

Unjustified police stops have skyrocketed, NYPD misconduct claims have increased by over 50% and the NYPD is increasingly burying and blocking discipline in police brutality cases.
The mayor and now multiple NYPD Commissioners under his watch have refused to fire NYPD officers who killed Kawaski Trawick, Delrawn Small, Allan Feliz, Win Rozario, Antonio Williams, Ronald Anthony Smith and others. Furthermore, Mayor Adams has supported NYPD’s delay tactics, lies, and cover-up attempts following incidents of police misconduct and killings.
Adams cut the budget of the Civilian Complaint Review Board and pushed out its chair, Arva Rice, after she sought more funding and criticized the NYPD for its routine delay tactics after officers kill New Yorkers.

He vetoed police transparency legislation and rewrote the city’s charter (essentially our constitution) to give himself more power after the Council overrode his veto;
Increased the NYPD budget to a record-breaking $12 billion and earmarked $225 million for a local Cop City;
Allowed officers to violently respond to student protests and even shoot a gun in a university building without consequence;
Overseen the number of discriminatory stop-and-frisks climb to the highest levels in more than a decade.

About Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory 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.