Press Release
CSS Commends AG James for Lawsuit Seeking Systemic Reforms and External Monitor of NYPD
The Community Service Society (CSS) and its CEO David R. Jones commend New York State Attorney General Letitia James for filing suit to correct very troubling, violent, and indeed racist behavior on the part of the NYPD and those who lead it. We have seen excessive force used at all levels of NYPD engagement with the public it allegedly protects and serves, all the way from wrestling people to the ground during fare evasion stops to violence at racial justice demonstrations. Leaders from all sectors of New York City have worked long and hard to get the NYPD to change deep-seated problems and culture that condones this kind of violence and allows it to continue. But change has not happened, bringing us to the extraordinary position of having these issues decided by a federal court.
Unfortunately, the NYPD is no stranger to litigation, ranging from individual lawsuits concerning severe injuries sustained at the hands of individual police officers to proceedings seeking release of documents the agency is required by law to provide. The lack of accountability and transparency at all levels have been consistent themes for this agency. CSS’s experience with the NYPD’s refusing to comply with Local law 147, which requires that the agency publish demographic information about fare evasion enforcement across the subway system – information the public should know, particularly because of the NYPD’s heretofore dismal race-based enforcement record – is certainly not unique. Two lawsuits and several trips to court were required before the agency was ordered to comply with the law.
The situation we face here – and that the Attorney General has rightly brought to the courts – is the result of failures of leadership at all levels of the NYPD. The Mayor also shares in the blame. Following the brutal and very public death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last year, Governor Cuomo issued an executive order requiring every municipal police department in the state, including the NYPD, to implement reforms consistent with local community priorities by April 2021. Municipal governments that do not comply with the governor’s mandate risk the loss of state funds. The prime goal of the order is to ensure that abusive, inappropriate, and dangerous police practices are eliminated. But New York City’s response to this order has been to form yet another commission, which appears to have been ineffective in truly involving public input.
We support the Attorney General’s lawsuit, which calls for systemic reforms and the appointment of an external monitor to oversee changes to the NYPD. While litigation is always the last resort when seeking change, we are confident the federal court will do what is necessary toward ending abusive treatment and indeed violence that has been directed at Black and brown New Yorkers for much too long.