City Council Probes the NYPD’s Posting Disease

The NYPD rarely has to answer to anyone but itself, especially under our current mayor, who has thrown his full-bodied support behind the leaders of the agency and in particular behind those leaders' rather incendiary social media posts. 

This week, the City's Department of Investigation launched an inquiry into why exactly the NYPD's top officials have posters' disease, at the urging of Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. On Thursday, during a budget hearing focused on the NYPD, Adams again attempted to get some answers on what, exactly, the police department's social media policy allows. 

"These posts can often contain inaccurate or misleading information, and can potentially incite threats of violence," Adams said, before noting that they have "in some cases incited threats of violence." She added, "This conduct is dangerous, unethical, unprofessional."

The speaker had a list of questions: Does NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell's now-deleted post attacking Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, for example, violate any policy? Is that kind of rhetoric appropriate? Did anyone tell Chell to delete that post? What exactly was the message the NYPD was trying to communicate? 

Chell himself, unfortunately, wasn't present at the hearing to answer those questions himself, despite being scheduled to attend. The Daily News reported that he (as well as Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry) were told by the Mayor's Office at 7 a.m. that morning to skip the hearing, "fearing that the hearing would turn into a 'circus' over their tweets."

But NYPD brass, including Commissioner Edward Caban, dodged those questions for him, bringing up the just-launched DOI investigation as their reason for being tight-lipped. (Would it surprise you to learn that's not a valid excuse? "DOI has not instructed NYPD to refrain from speaking about its social media use during our ongoing investigation," DOI spokesperson Diane Struzzi told the Daily News.)

"I give my executives autonomy to speak to the public," Caban said, describing them as "passionate."

A more illuminating exchange occurred shortly after, however, when Speaker Adams asked how many public relations staff the NYPD has on its payroll—and it was revealed that the NYPD has dozens of people in its propaganda shop—excuse me—press shop, commonly referred to as DCPI. 

"Right now we have 86 headcount budgeted for the public relations division, so in that ballpark," the NYPD's Deirdre Snyder replied, including six staff who handle the police department's social media. There's also, apparently, a "creative services unit," with a director and "six or seven" underlings that produce videos, including, presumably, this one. 

Based on the quality of this video, maybe the NYPD needs a few dozen more people in the video production unit.

And some links, courtesy of Hell Gate's "creative services unit":

• Oh, and the NYPD has spent millions in overtime policing protests since October 7. 
• Comptroller Brad Lander released a scathing report on the Adams administration's implementation of its 60-day shelter limit for migrant families. Via NY1: "'The Adams administration announced that they would exempt women in their last trimester of pregnancy or families with newborns from being evicted under the policy,' he said. 'The policy was never established.' The report laid out additional findings, including: While the 60-day eviction rule exempts families in Department of Homeless Services shelters, there’s no system to determine who is placed in those shelters; Families with kids in kindergarten through sixth grade who apply for re-intake after reaching the 60-day shelter limit are not placed in DHS shelters, allowing them to avoid eviction; Very little intensive case management is offered to migrant families to track their well-being."
• It's been quite a week for diners at Eric Adams's Table of Success—disgraced mayoral aide Winnie Greco is not only back at work—she got a raise. And Adams's brother Bernard is now "leveraging his relationship with the mayor to launch a foray into philanthropy" with Alisa Roever, an Ivanka Trump bud and Eric Adams associate. As the New York Times notes, Bernard's "leadership role raises the potential that donors to the mayor’s campaign, which is currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation, will contribute to the organization as a way to curry favor with him."
• "Looking Up an NYPD Officer's Discipline Record? Many Are There One Day, Gone the Next."
• Wondering how much your landlord can raise your rent under the state's new Good Cause Eviction law (that is, if you're even covered)? Check out City Limits's handy new calculator. 
• "Union Theological Seminary trustees endorse divestment from 'companies profiting from the war in Palestine'"
• Meanwhile, alumni are pledging to withhold donations:

• And the New York Times has an illuminating look at how donors wield power and influence at Columbia.
• "The New School won't pursue charges after student protest arrests" 
• Lower speed limits are coming.
• When are we going to ban SUVs?
• Via City & State: "The future of state ethics is in jeopardy after a state appellate court upheld a lower court decision finding that New York's current ethics watchdog commission is unconstitutional. The ruling marks another victory for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who brought the lawsuit after the commission started to investigate his $5 million book COVID book deal."
• And a poll released this week continues to have some bad news for Eric Adams: