Hiring Freeze Hinders a Fight Against Police Misconduct

There were some head-spinning developments on Wednesday at the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s first monthly meeting of 2012.
On the one hand, the board’s chairman, Daniel D. Chu, announced that financing for a new program to empower board lawyers to prosecute police officers in certain misconduct cases will continue to flow. Last summer, Mr. Chu had issued a sober warning that financing to keep the program — known as the Administrative Prosecution Unit — running was set to run out by the end of December.
On the other hand, there is a vacancy for the program’s sole lawyer position, and a hiring freeze on city agencies imposed by City Hall precludes filling that job, officials said.
“It is a perfect Catch-22,” said Christopher T. Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who attended the meeting. “It is bureaucratic perfection; they have a line, it’s funded, but they cannot spend the money because of the hiring freeze.’’
“They can’t do any prosecution because they don’t have any staff,” Mr. Dunn added.
Until recently, Laura Edidin was the staff prosecutor for the board, which is an independent city agency that investigates allegations of officer misconduct. In May, Ms. Edidin carried out the board’s first solo lead prosecution in a police misconduct case – against two officers in the Bronx who faced internal disciplinary charges after the board substantiated a complaint by a man who claimed the police abused their authority.
But Ms. Edidin has since moved on to a new job, as deputy executive director for legal affairs and investigations for the review board, said Linda Sachs, a spokeswoman for the board.
In the case regarding the Bronx officers, Ms. Edidin won.
According to Ms. Sachs, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, last month meted out punishment against the two officers on trial, Richard Rodriguez and Miguel Alvarez. Each officer lost 10 vacation days, Ms. Sachs said, for abusing their authority in issuing a summons for disorderly conduct to Julius Lewis as he tried to cross a busy street with his wife, Yesenia, in February 2009. He said he had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by a police van.
Mr. Chu, in a statement on the case’s disposition, said: “The confidence that the victim and his wife maintained in the complaint process made this guilty finding possible. Without their cooperation and willingness to testify, the officers would not have been held accountable for their actions.”
Mr. Chu also described his hopes for the board’s prosecution unit’s attaining an unimpeachable presence in the city.
“Transformation of the A.P.U. from a pilot project to permanent status is an important milestone in the history of civilian police oversight in New York City,” Mr. Chu said. “Having the C.C.R.B. prosecute misconduct cases can only strengthen public confidence in the disciplinary process.”
O.W.S. TALLIES
So far, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have generated around 850 contacts to the Civilian Complaint Review Board from people around the country who have lodged complaints about the city’s policing efforts – via e-mail or telephone calls or letters – about things they have seen on television or the Internet.
The board is keeping careful track of what has shaped up to be a sort of social media phenomenon, and is digesting who sent the complaints, as well as their insights into behavior by the nation’s largest police force in dealing with large-scale civil disobedience.
More narrowly, however, the demonstrations have generated a smaller number of actual cases for the board, an official said.
So far, there are 37 cases of alleged wrongdoing by officers stemming from the protests, said Ms. Sachs, the board spokeswoman. Those cases involve 78 protesters, she said, and involve allegations against 41 police officers.
“The majority of the allegations are for the use of force,” said Ms. Sachs, who said they encompass officers’ use of pepper spray or batons and cover issues like allegations that officers kept handcuffs on too tight or improperly used a vehicle or an animal, presumably a police horse.
Mr. Dunn, of the civil liberties group, who has been tallying the numbers, said that while 29 complaints had to do with force, 12 others had to do with officers allegedly abusing their authority. One case, Mr. Dunn said, was for an officer’s alleged offensive language.