COVID restrictions, in part, delayed the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s investigation into misconduct complaints against NYPD officers during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, according to CCRB Interim Chair Arva Rice.
Speaking with “Inside City Hall” anchor Errol Louis Friday night, Rice said that if she were to rewrite history, she would have wanted the investigation to happen at a “quicker pace.”
"There was complications in terms of police officers who were not wearing the correct gear. They also had body-worn cameras that were not being used properly and also the record keeping wasn't at the level that we want it to be," said Rice. "At the same time, our investigators were working from home because of COVID."
A report released by the CCRB found 145 substantiated discipline complaints against NYPD officers during the BLM protests. The CCRB recommended charges against 88 of the 145 police officers, but the NYPD has only disciplined 10 officers.
Rice admitted that the allegations against the department are a “significant number” and that it’s up to the NYPD to hold officers accountable. She told Louis that the NYPD did not follow every recommended charge made by the CCRB and hopes both departments can be more “in sync.”
“We want to make sure that the concurrence rate between what we’re recommending to the police department and what they actually do to discipline these officers is at the highest and most synced number possible,” she said.
Executive Director of the CCRB Jonathan Darche also joined Louis and said that they will use the discipline matrix that ensures greater transparency on police discipline to identify these cases.
“I think the matrix, when it is fully implemented, will allow for there to be a consistent discipline for similar conducts across different members of service, accounting for prior discipline and also for the length of time that members of service have been on the job,” said Darche. “And it should make the process more fair.”
Rice said the CCRB will issue a report on crowd control strategies later this year that will reveal what was learned from the BLM protests of 2020.