CCRB RELEASES 2013 ANNUAL STATUS REPORT

CCRB RELEASES 2013 ANNUAL STATUS REPORT

The Civilian Complaint Review Board today released its 12-month status report for 2013.  The report details complaint activity and dispositions, agency productivity, and data on stop-and-frisk complaints.

In 2013, civilians filed 5,410 complaints of police misconduct, a 6% decrease from 2012 and a 29% decrease from 2009 when 7,660 complaints were filed. A small part of the decrease may be attributed to the after-effects of Hurricane Sandy when the CCRB’s toll-free 800 number was out of service and was not restored until March 2013. As a result, during January and February there were 50% fewer complaints than in the same period of 2012.  However, civilian complaints to the CCRB have been steadily declining since the highs of 2006-2009 when there were over 7,000 complaints per year.

The CCRB conducted 2,082 full investigations in 2013, substantiating at least one allegation in 300 complaints or 14.4% and successfully mediated 132 cases.

In 2013, the NYPD disciplined 152 officers in cases that had been previously substantiated by the CCRB. This was a disciplinary action rate of 60%, down from 71% in 2012 and 81% in 2011. 

The CCRB Annual Report highlights statistics regarding stop, question, frisk and search complaints:

• The percentage of CCRB complaints involving stop-and-frisk has decreased by 5 percentage points during the last five years, from 30% in 2009 to 25% of total complaints in 2013. Since 2009, when the agency received 2,269 complaints involving stop-and-frisk, the number of stop-and-frisk complaints has dropped 40%.  This compares to the 29% drop in overall complaints.

• The actual number of stop-and-frisk complaints dropped from 1,496 in 2012 to 1,364 in 2013, a 9% decrease.   The number of documented NYPD street encounters dropped 64% from 533,042 in 2012 to 194,000 in 2013.   

• The board substantiated misconduct in 31% (191) of the stop-and-frisk cases that it investigated. By comparison, in 2010 and 2011 the substantiation rate was 16% and in 2012 the board substantiated misconduct in 27% of stop-and-frisk complaints that were fully investigated.

• Officers failed to complete stop-and-frisk reports as required by the NYPD’s Patrol Guide in 17% of stop-and-frisk cases that the CCRB investigated in 2013.  In 2011, the percentage was 12% and in 2012 it was 19%.

• CCRB data show that people were most likely to complain about a street encounter if they were also searched.  While officers documented searches in 9% of street encounters, 55% (745) of the 1,364 stop-related complaints in 2013 contained an allegation of an improper search and  40% of stop-and-frisk complaints included an allegation of improper force, little changed from 39% in 2012.

The entire report, plus an extensive statistical appendix can be viewed on the CCRB’s web site: www.nyc.gov/ccrb using the link on the News, Reports & Statistics page.