The New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”) issued a Report today examining the New York City Police
Department’s (“NYPD”) implementation of, and compliance with, NYPD’s new rules on use-of-force reporting. The
Report revealed that while NYPD has made notable improvements in certain aspects of use-of-force reporting, officers
are still not properly documenting all reportable use-of-force incidents, including an under-reporting of force incidents in
arrest reports. In October 2015 DOI issued a report that focused on use of force by members of NYPD, which
recommended, among other things, a comprehensive system for tracking force. The following year, NYPD implemented
new policies on the tracking of use-of-force encounters. Considering the critical importance of the new reporting system
implemented by NYPD, DOI investigated NYPD’s compliance with the new rules, finding gaps in the force-reporting
process and practices, including a failure to consistently report the use of force in all required instances, the absence
of a deadline for use-of-force documentation to be completed, insufficient training and guidance for officers, and
lingering confusion at the precinct-level regarding the new policies.
Commissioner Mark G. Peters said, “In 2015, DOI’s investigation pointed out demonstrable issues with NYPD’s
policies on force, leading NYPD, for the first time, to begin comprehensively tracking incidents of force with the public.
The Police Department pledged to do better and has made some progress, but as we start 2018, this Report
demonstrates there is still more work to do towards making the NYPD fully accountable on this issue.”
DOI’s Inspector General for the NYPD Philip K. Eure said, “A healthy relationship between the public and NYPD
requires transparency and accountability—especially when it comes to police use of force. Failures to comprehensively
and accurately document the use of force by police officers are not only missed opportunities to improve policing, but
risk jeopardizing the trust NYPD has worked to build with communities across the City.”
A central finding of DOI’s previous 2015 use-of-force report was NYPD’s inability to capture, track, and report on
every force incident involving an officer. Instead, NYPD was using a patchwork set of forms that only captured a limited
set of force incidents. NYPD largely accepted these findings and, consistent with DOI’s recommendations, in 2016
implemented new force-reporting policies and procedures, requiring any officer involved in force against a member of
the public (or has forced used against the officer) to complete a “Threat, Resistance, or Injury” (T.R.I.) form. The T.R.I.
form is then reviewed by a supervisor, and, if appropriate under the circumstances, referred for further investigation,
corrective action, and/or discipline. If used properly, the T.R.I. will enhance departmental supervision and accountability
of officer use of force, while also providing NYPD with a better understanding of why and under what conditions NYPD
officers use force.
For its 2018 follow-up Report, DOI reviewed incidents during two three-month periods (September through
November of 2016, and again in May through July of 2017) in which an NYPD officer used force against a member of
the public and failed to complete a T.R.I form. When officers affirmatively stated on arrest reports that they had used force, DOI’s review found that officers failed to submit required T.R.I. forms only 10% of the time in 2017, as compared
to 36.2% in 2016 – a notable improvement. However, in some cases when officers stated on arrest reports that they
did not use force, DOI found evidence of officers having used force without submitting a T.R.I. For example, DOI
identified Medical Treatment of Prisoner forms in which an officer described using force, but did not complete the
required T.R.I. or indicate on the arrest report that force was used. The investigation demonstrated that NYPD does
not have sufficient controls in place to ensure that T.R.I. forms are being completed when arrest reports say that no
force was used but the officers in fact used force.
In addition to problems with T.R.I. compliance, DOI found that officers were not accurately stating whether force
was used when completing arrest reports. In at least 30% of arrest reports with a resisting arrest charge, officers stated
on arrest reports that they did not use force yet filed T.R.I. forms declaring that they had in fact used force. This
represents a critical breakdown in NYPD’s force-reporting system because the Department relies on arrest report data
to calculate its use-of-force statistics.
The Report also found that NYPD has no established deadline for completing T.R.I. forms, creating potential
accountability issues for officers who fail to document uses of force. Further, through interviews with precinct-level
supervisors, DOI found that officers and supervisors remain confused by the new force-reporting system, including what
types of incidents to report and how to report them. Additionally, the T.R.I. form contains no narrative field for officers
to explain their force encounter, only checkboxes that do not allow for detail and could be considered vague.
The Report makes a series of recommendations covering compliance, accountability, training, discipline, and
public reporting, including proposals that:
NYPD should enhance supervisory review of all arrest-related documentation by imposing a set of
standardized, on-going quality-control procedures at the local command level. In high-volume commands,
NYPD should assign specially-trained supervisors at the rank of sergeant or above to carefully review such
documents during arrest processing to ensure that all uses of reportable force are properly documented.
NYPD should impose an “end of tour” deadline by which police officers must complete required T.R.I. forms,
and impose appropriate discipline against officers who fail to meet the deadline.
NYPD should add a narrative section to the T.R.I. form and require officers to provide a full account of the force
incident, including specific details on the force used by the officer and/or member of the public, as well as any
injuries sustained by either.
NYPD should establish a clear written policy that requires arresting officers to select “Yes” on the arrest report
in response to the “Force Used” section if any officer used force during the encounter. NYPD should impose,
after proper training on this issue, discipline against arresting officers who fail to select “Yes” when reportable
force is used.
NYPD should use data from T.R.I. forms to publish annual Use-of-Force reports that identify and analyze trends
in all force categories. The report should contain all information currently mandated by law and include
additional trend analyses such as demographic characteristics of members of the public involved in force
incidents (age, gender, race, national origin, etc.).
The investigation was conducted by DOI’s Office of the Inspector General for NYPD.
