New York Attorney General Seeks Powers to Investigate Killings by the Police


By JESSE McKINLEY and J. DAVID GOODMAN
ALBANY — Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York asked Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday to immediately grant his office the power to investigate and prosecute killings of unarmed civilians by law enforcement officials.
Mr. Schneiderman also challenged state legislators to pass new laws to repair public confidence in the criminal justice system, which he said was badly damaged after grand juries in Missouri and on Staten Island declined to bring criminal charges against officers in fatal encounters with unarmed black men.
But he seemed unwilling to wait for new powers to investigate the police in the event that another killing occurred before new laws were passed. “When the trust between the police and the communities they serve and protect breaks down, everyone is at risk,” he said.
The grand jury’s decision not to indict in the case of Eric Garner, who died after a police chokehold during an arrest on Staten Island in July, has renewed and strengthened calls for special prosecutors to handle such cases.
While Mr. Schneiderman was joined by local and state political leaders during his announcement in Manhattan, the prospects for quick legislative or executive action seem murky at best.
While the Assembly, dominated by Democrats, has passed bills in the past allowing the attorney general to investigate and prosecute alleged police misconduct, similar measures have failed to advance in the Senate, where Republicans were recently elected to a clear majority. On Monday, Scott Reif, a spokesman for the Senate Republican leader, Dean G. Sklelos of Long Island, had no immediate comment on the attorney general’s proposal.
The governor’s office also had a measured response to the attorney general, who has had an often chilly relationship with Mr. Cuomo. In a statement, Melissa DeRosa, Mr. Cuomo’s communications director, said the attorney general’s proposal was being reviewed, even as the governor pursued a “broader approach that seeks to ensure equality and fairness in our justice system.”
The proposal received immediate pushback from police unions and several district attorneys in New York City, particularly in Brooklyn, where a grand jury will soon be impaneled to hear evidence in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by an officer patrolling with his gun drawn.
Describing himself as “adamantly opposed,” the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said in a statement that the voters elected him “to keep them safe from all crimes, including those of police brutality.”
District attorneys in the Bronx and Queens also defended their ability to prosecute cases involving police officers, while the Manhattan district attorney has said, in general, he would remain open to discussing the idea but has expressed reservations about special prosecutors’ lack of accountability.
A spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney, whose office presented Mr. Garner’s death to a grand jury but did not secure an indictment, declined to comment.
Michael J. Palladino, president of the detectives’ union, said the attorney general’s proposal “insulted the intelligence and the integrity of the grand jurors who examined the facts” on Staten Island.
Calls for special prosecutors have often followed fatal police encounters, particularly from relatives of the victims who believe that the close working relationship between local prosecutors and the police prevents them from robustly presenting cases against officers accused of wrongdoing on the job. The calls, however, are seldom answered.
The family of Sean Bell, killed in a volley of 50 police bullets in 2006, urged the state to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the officers. None was appointed. The Queens district attorney secured an indictment against three detectives involved in the shooting, but they were acquitted after a trial on charges of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment.
The debate over the police and prosecutors seems more likely to percolate through the next legislative session and Mr. Cuomo’s second term, both of which begin in January. Senate Democrats planned to meet in Albany this week, and late Monday introduced legislation to create an Office of Special Investigation within the state attorney general’s office, which would “investigate any criminal offense or offenses committed by a police officer” that results in the death of an unarmed civilian.