Communities United for Police Reform Responds to NYPD Release of Discipline Matrix

New York, NY - In response to today’s release of the NYPD discipline matrix that makes public the department’s disciplinary system penalty guidelines, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) released the following statement from CPR spokesperson Mark Winston Griffith.

"The NYPD discipline matrix that was forced public by the City Council is part fairy tale and part blatant disregard for the lives of Black, Latinx and other New Yorkers of color who face daily police violence," said Mark Winston Griffith, spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform. "It's important to understand that what the NYPD is portraying as policy for disciplining officers is both inadequate and far from reality. What happens over the next 30 days in terms of community input will be important, but will be meaningless if the NYPD's fairy tale isn't dismantled to ensure that officers are fired — not "presumptively terminated.” This is fancy talk for the NYPD choosing to continue to keep abusive officers on the force whenever it wants to, which history has shown is the vast majority of cases where New Yorkers are harmed by police violence."

"The NYPD just made public that officers who break the law with unlawful arrests, illegal searches, unconstitutional stops, and who refuse to give their identification as part of the Right To Know Law won't lose their jobs — they just might lose some vacation days. Cops who cause serious physical injury, sexually harass, refuse to intervene in excessive force, don't supervise officers, or interfere with body camera footage might lose some vacation days, not their jobs.

"At the same time, when the NYPD lists termination as the so-called ‘presumptive penalty’ for specific misconduct, history has shown that ‘presumptive’ is a fairy tale since the NYPD refuses to fire officers without tremendous public outcry and organizing. In fact, the officers who unjustly killed Delrawn Small, Antonio Williams, Kawaski Trawick, and too many others are still on the force.

"It's insulting to list racial profiling as misconduct that can result in termination when over the past few years, ZERO of the thousands of racial and other discriminatory profiling complaints have been substantiated by the NYPD — which shows how the NYPD's discipline system is rigged. Zero officers were fired for harming New Yorkers.

"The NYPD is finally under serious scrutiny for widespread violence and misconduct. There's nothing a paper policy will do to reduce harm from police violence unless the mayor and City Council implement the public's call for the immediate firing of abusive officers and reduce the NYPD's bloated budget to reallocate those funds to critical community needs that will improve safety," said Mark Winston Griffith, spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform.

###

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.