Civilian Complaint Review Board Rule Change Riles Advocates

A rule change to improve efficiency at the Civilian Complaint Review Board has some advocates criticizing the agency for trying to speed the process of reviewing complaints against police at the "expense of justice."

Although the rule change has not yet been approved, the director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, Michael Meyers, sent a scathing letter to the board's chairman demanding to know why the board would want to "curtail its responsibility."

A spokesman for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Andrew Case, said the rule change meant only that investigators could close cases without the board's review when they received written permission from the complainant that stated the complainant had not been pressured by the police officer to close the case, or after investigators sent two letters and tried calling the complainant five times, with no response.

The board would still review use-of-force complaints and a sampling of other closed cases.

Mr. Case said that out of an estimated 4,000 cases a year over the past five years, board members had decided against an investigator's decision to close a case in five instances.

The associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Christopher Dunn, said he thought the rule change seemed like a good idea, noting that it could give more time to board members to examine why so many cases are completed without a full investigation in the first place.