Public Safety

During the 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City arrested 1,821 protesters and innocent bystanders, holding them in a former bus depot with asbestos fibers and chemical runoff for an average of thirty three hours in violation of the State's requirement that detainees be arraigned within twenty four hours. A 2005 estimate placed the City government's legal exposure at $859 million, with $8.2 million spent on defending eighty seven lawsuits and 557 claims remaining as of 2008. There should be steps in place for our City to automatically compensate individuals whose rights are trampled through statutory damages and a policy of automatic settlement offers. Let's start by paying individuals who are held for more than 24 hours without arraignment $1000 for every additional day they spend in detention. The individual would have the option of taking the settlement sum and forego suing the City in the future. Were this program in place for the 2004 RNC, the City could have minimized its almost billion dollar exposure and would have had incentive not to violate the law.

We must ensure that civilians are aware of their ability to file complaints with the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) and that they are actually able to do so. CCRB information should be pervasive through NYPD materials, appearing on summonses, vehicles (like a “How am I driving?” sticker), literature, infocards and letterheads. Along these lines we must integrate CCRB complaints into 311 so that operators can take complaints over the phone. Community outreach by the Public Advocate and the CCRB would help make the process more approachable for local residents and will help the CCRB to better know each area’s specific problems. Through a commitment to the CCRB, the City can help improve the NYPD and its reputation.

All five of the suspects – including four juveniles – who faced trial in the Central Park Jogger case spent between 14 to 30 hours in interrogation and ended up confessing to and being convicted of a crime that they did not commit, only to have their convictions vacated twelve years later after DNA evidence was found identifying the true culprit. Many police departments across the nation have adopted the practice of videotaping interrogations while the District of Columbia has passed a law requiring them. We can prevent future miscarriages of justice, protect the innocent as well as good police officers from false allegations by requiring all interrogations be videotaped.