"The Office of the Inspector General revealed today that the NYPD has substantiated ZERO of nearly 2,500 complaints of discriminatory policing in the last several years. We doubt this is what's meant when the department claims 'zero tolerance' for bias.
"The NYPD has shown, over and over again, that it is both unable and unwilling to police itself. While it's unclear how many of these complaints could have been substantiated, it seems clear there is a reluctance to find out. The department's failure to adequately investigate and address complaints of bias and racism experienced by members of the public at the hands of the police shows a clear disregard for the rights and safety of communities of more color. If the department is serious about building trust with these communities, it has failed to show it.
"We created the Office of the Inspector General in 2013 to be an external set of eyes and ears to investigate the policies and practices of the NYPD. We echo the IG's call for the NYPD to begin publicly releasing statistics on the complaints of biased-based policing, and for CCRB to expand its own efforts to investigate these complaints. Any positive progress toward better police-community relations is undercut by a failure to fully address the core issues of police accountability and transparency under this administration."
