New York Makes Complaint Records of 83,000 Police Officers Available to Public |
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=52792"><span class="small">Zack Linly, The Root</span></a> |
Monday, 22 March 2021 12:24 |
Linly writes: "The New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board published a new searchable database this month that allows people to view the records of tens of thousands of police officers."
New York Makes Complaint Records of 83,000 Police Officers Available to Public22 March 21
Insider reports that the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board published a new searchable database this month that allows people to view the records of tens of thousands of police officers. The NYPD also provided a database of its own shortly after. A professor of criminal justice law at the University of California, Berkeley, Jonathan Simon, sat down for an interview with Insider to talk about the benefits of data dumps like these saying they could “help people feel more empowered and get more accountability out of the system.” From Insider: Simon said one of the biggest reasons people don’t make legal claims when they feel their rights have been violated by police is because they doubt their experience. They question whether what happened may have been their fault or if they are overreacting. One can only wonder why police officers who tend to live by an “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about” creed never seem to want to apply that same logic to themselves. Allowing the public to see the records of officers in their communities shouldn’t be a thing cops would want to fight, especially if they’re serious about weeding out the bunch-spoiling “bad apples” we keep hearing so much about. If the criminal records of civilians are made accessible to the public, why shouldn’t the disciplinary records of police officers? Anyway, the database published by the CCRB excludes “open allegations, successfully mediated allegations,” or “allegations referred to NYPD or other investigative units,” Insider reports. Exposing misconduct records is only a drop in the bucket of what needs to be done in the way of bringing true police reform to America—but it is a step in the right direction. Currently, there are around a dozen U.S. states that have made police disciplinary records public. It’s a policy that needs to be adopted across the nation. |