"Dear sirs,Maybe you can explain to me what qualifications a civilian member of CCRB must have in order to obtain their position. They are termed "Investigators" yet are unfamilar with standard NYPD policies and procedures. As a veteran of the NYPD and a New York city resident, I was shocked at some of the questions I was recently asked just for the fact that the "Investigator" had no clue as to what I was talking about when I spoke about standard police dept. practices.For example:Stop,Question and Frisk, or transportation of prisoners to central booking. I was outraged at the sheer ignorance and wondered if these "investigators" are taught about policies or are they simply handed a job? Another very interesting point is How often are the compaintants arrested after the complaint is determined to be unfounded or false? I would guess never. Furthermore what recourse does a Police Officer have when knowing the allegation is false and yet it is determined founded. For example if a defendant made an allegation that his handcuffs were to tight?And the investigator found this to be true based soley on the defendants word,with no injury,no doumentation? It was not to long ago that two detectives were killed on the Grand central Pwky in Queens when a perp wrestled out of his cuffs? Were they to tight? Could any cop face these Detectives children and tell them their partner was killed because of the same reason? or they were afraid what a CCRB civilian "Investigator "might find? Please tell me their is some recourse for Officers falsely accused, the PBA and ther attorneys cannot provide an answer. I am not a disgrunteled cop just one who is tired of the nonsense of situations like the above. Please help"
This letter is the echo of thousands of NYPD officers!
Technically, the CCRB investigators are required to have a college degree, some investigative experience, etc., etc. However, one other qualification is to have some "law enforcement " experience, a qualification that the hiring agency tends to overlook when hiring someone. The other problem is that the "residency requirment" requires the applicant to be a NYC resident within 90 days of appointment. So, anyone that may have been an investigator, let's say, in a County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey, and is not willing to move into the city, dispite his qualifications, would not be hired. This certainly limits the field of applicants to recent graduates from John Jay College.
But, let's face it: this is what they want! They don't want someone that may, in any way, be knowledgeable of normal police procedures or problems, because that would force the CCRB to constantly overturn their own investigators in order to present the numbers of "abusive cops" that must have to maintain their political agenda!. How would it look if a criminal investigator from a Police Agency outside of NYC was employed by the CCRB and was to continually present his investigations as "unfounded," or that the force used was "lawful under the circumstances..." The confict between the CCRB and the investigator(s) would become public, and the political agenda of the Board would be uncovered.
Readers of Police Review know quite well that Prosay is NOT a big fan of Howard Safir. But we will say this: He has come out on a (rare) occassion to say that an officer, dispite CCRB findings, was not disciplined because the findings of the CCRB was contrary to what a cop has to do. If Safir wasn't such a political animal, imagine how many MORE he would determine this same way, considering the inability of the CCRB investigators.
Remember: the purpose of the CCRB investigators is not to find the truth, but to justify the complaint of the "complainant"!
P.S.: regarding the detectives that were shot on the GCP: if Prosay remembers correctly, that shooting had a number of flaws. One was that the detectives were forced to interview the perp in their own locker room,, which gave the perp access to a gun. The second was that the perp was FRONT CUFFED in the back of the car for his trip back to Rikers Island...both serious mistakes.
