How Two Rogue CCRB Members Made a Police Misconduct Complaint Disappear

Earlier this summer, Hell Gate broke the news of some disturbing goings-on at the Civilian Complaint Review Board: Two particular board members have been, in recent months, undermining the CCRB's police oversight by overruling the findings of the board's investigators at extremely high rates, taking cases where investigators have found enough evidence to recommend discipline and instead letting the officers off scot-free. 

Those two board members are Joe Fox, who was appointed to the board by the NYPD, and Pat Smith, a Mayor Adams appointee and former New York Post columnist who has been on a crusade to discourage people from filing misconduct complaints against police. While board panels have historically reversed about 10 percent of the cases where investigators found evidence of police misconduct, recent panels, led by Smith and Fox, have been flipping between 40 and 50 percent of the substantiated charges presented to them, effectively making more than 100 instances of alleged police misconduct disappear.

Shortly after our first story about Smith and Fox tossing large numbers of cases where investigators had found misconduct, they did it again. When we asked them about it to their faces at a public CCRB hearing, they refused to defend their actions.

Since our last reporting, CCRB leadership has restricted access to the panel reports, making it more difficult for Hell Gate to track how often board members are reversing investigator's recommendations. But Hell Gate has confirmed that Smith and Fox continue to flip unusually large percentages of the substantiated allegations they review—more than a third of the allegations in a recent panel that took place in June. 

The CCRB did not respond to a request for comment. Asked if Mayor Adams believes it's appropriate for his appointees to erase cases of likely police misconduct in this way, his office did not respond.

It can be hard to explain the internal workings of the CCRB, mired as they are in the technical jargon of panels, substantiated allegations, and flip rates. But the bureaucratic language belies the real effect the board's tossing of cases has on the New Yorkers who look to the CCRB for redress when they experience police misconduct. Hell Gate spoke to one such person, whose experience of disturbing police misconduct was validated by investigators but whitewashed by Smith and Fox when they reviewed the case in March.