The Toothless Apparatus That Investigates NYC's Cops

What’s it like working for the Civilian Complaint Review Board of New York City, which investigates complaints against the NYPD? Not so fulfilling, it turns out, as one of its investigators confesses.

I often saw a deliberate short-­circuiting of investigations, “fast-tracking” cases, or exonerating them without statements from all or even any of the officers involved. Often the rationale was that officers would likely repeat information conveyed by other officers in testimony or reports — ­essentially granting the police a presumption of consistency that fundamentally undercuts the CCRB’s ostensible neutrality, given that inconsistent witness testimony undermines the case of complainants. After I became a supervisor, the agency’s fundamental problem came into clearer view for me: The large majority of decisions made within the CCRB, by investigators and supervisors alike, were driven not by the goal of conducting full and fair investigations but by the desire to avoid more work.