Civilian complaints against the New York Police Department have reached a five-year high. The New York City Mayor’s Management Report showed 5,236 public complaints against NYPD officers for the fiscal year ending in June. That was an increase of 20 percent from the 4,392 filed in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reports. The total was 4,165 in 2015, the baseline for the five-year comparison. Mayor Bill de Blasio attributed the rise to increased activity by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the agency tasked with receiving and investigating complaints against police. People can file complaints alleging disrespectful behavior or abuse of power on the part of officers.
“The CCRB has been going out in communities more and encouraging people that have a concern to come forward. And that’s good,” said de Blasio, who rejected the notion that an increase in complaints indicated increased dissatisfaction on the part of the public. CCRB spokesman Ethan Teicher said the agency delivered 1,070 presentations in 2018, the highest number for a single year in the agency’s history. Police spokesman Al Baker said the increase in complaints coincided with a policy enacted last October requiring officers to provide a contact card with their names as well as info on how to file a complaint with the CCRB.