‘Every officer will be held accountable’: New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announces new disciplinary database for NYPD cops that will publicly list names and charges of 1,100 pending cases and all new ones
- On Wednesday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of a disciplinary database that will be avaialble to the public online
- The database will list out the names, charges, and case details of every officer facing disciplinary action in an effort to provide transparency and accountability
- By July it will list information on all 1,100 pending cases within the NYPD
- He said Police Commissioner must decide on whether to suspend or modify officers involved in incidents resulting in substantial injury within 48 hours
- Internal Affairs investigations will also have to wrap up their probes into officer misconduct in incidents resulting in injury within two weeks
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced New York City will create a new disciplinary database for the NYPD that will publicly list out the names, charges, and cases of every force member facing punitive action.
The New York City Mayor laid out new plans to reform the police system on Wednesday, including new measures to expedite disciplinary actions and investigations into officer-involved incidents that result in civilian harm and injury.
A big untertaking in the plan is to launch a disciplinary database that will be available online to the public and will denote all pending cases against members of the NYPD.
It will include all new cases, the names of officers involved in incidents, the charges, hearing dates and ultimate resolution in an effort to provide transparency and accountability within the police force.
On Wednesday Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the creation of a disciplinary database that will be avaialble to the public online. By July it will list information on all 1,100 pending cases within the NYPD
He announced several measures to improve police accountability in handling officer-involved incidents that result in substantial injury. Firstly, the Police commissioner must decide whether to suspend or modify officers within 48 hours after the incident. Secondly, Internal Affairs must wrap up their investigations into the cases within two weeks
‘Today we’re going to start a massive effort to make public information regarding police discipline,’ De Blasio said at a Wednesday morning press conference, adding the database will be launched in three phases.
‘First, as immediate action, all trial decisions will be published,’ he said.
‘Second by July we will publish information on every pending case within the NYPD. Every case where charges have been filed, that is 1,100 cases. Those in the pipeline now we will publish the officers name, charges, hearing date and the ultimate resolution when it occurs.
‘Third phase…All records for every active member available in one place, publicly. All past trial decisions and any other formal actions that came out of those disciplinary proceedings will be online and easy to access.
‘This is a longer term phase but it’ll allow us to do something historic to create a comprehensive, publicly available set of disciplinary records. This is historic it’ll cover every member of the police force,’ he added.
The new efforts to address police violence and accountability comes after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the repeal of bill 50-a into law last week, a piece of legislature that previously allowed law enforcement to shield police misconduct records from the public.
Now all disciplinary records will be publicly disclosed.
Furthermore Cuomo signed to ban police officers from holding civilians in chokeholds and signed a law to prohibit false race-based 911 calls, that has seen escalations of violence between officers and victims.
On Wednesday De Blasio touted the new disciplinary database as a way to bring transparency and accountability into the police force.
‘For the nations largest police force to take these actions sends a message, not only to the people of this city but people all over this country that we can do things very differently. Transparency is not something to fear but to embrace, because that’s where trust and faith will deepen,’ he said.
‘Every officer will be held accountable. And for so many officers who every single day do the hard work and do the right thing, they will know that the work that they out there protecting people will be honoured and respected. For folks that do the wrong thing, they’ll know the consequences will be clear,’ he added.