Rape Complaints Against Cops May Be Handled By Independent Board

NEW YORK, NY — The NYPD's civilian oversight board may start investigating complaints of sexual misconduct by cops, making it the first such body in the nation to do so. The Civilian Complaint Review Board will vote at a Wednesday meeting on a resolution that would empower it to investigate and administratively prosecute accusations of sexual harassment, rape and other misdeeds that the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau currently handles.

If the board's 10 sitting members approve the resolution, it would immediately start investigating complaints of "non-criminal" sexual misconduct by cops, such as catcalling, taking photos during strip searches or other lewd behavior, according to a CCRB memo.

The board's staff would also develop a plan to probe more serious allegations such as sexual assault and rape, which would require specially trained investigators, the memo says. In the meantime, the CCRB would continue referring those complaints to the Internal Affairs Bureau and to local district attorneys' offices for possible criminal prosecution.

The move would expand the CCRB's purview and take administrative investigations of sexual misconduct by cops outside the Police Department.

"Every act of professional misconduct tends to chip away at the public’s trust in its law enforcement officers and, more broadly, in the institution of policing," the CCRB memo says. "Perhaps no abuse of authority, however, undermines society’s confidence in the police more than an officer who wields the badge as a tool of sexual intimidation and coercion."

In addition to rape and sexual assault, the memo says, the board would investigate any complaints of cops having sex on duty, even if it was purportedly consensual. NYPD policy prohibits sex on duty, but the City Council and state Legislature are trying to explicitly outlaw it, citing unbalanced power dynamics between cops and civilians.

The CCRB says it would be the first civilian police oversight body in the U.S. to have jurisdiction over sexual complaints. The board can recommend disciplinary charges against officers and prosecute them at administrative trials overseen by the NYPD.

The CCRB got 117 complaints of sexual misconduct by cops from January 2016 to June 2017, ranging from catcalls to "unwanted touching and rape," the memo says.

The board referred all those complaints to the Internal Affairs Bureau, which handles internal NYPD investigations of wrongdoing by cops. The CCRB now wants to fold sexual misconduct into its current jurisdiction, which includes allegations of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy and use of offensive language.

"(S)exual misconduct by a police officer is, at its core, an abuse of authority," the CCRB memo says.

Patch has reached out to the NYPD for comment. We'll update this story if we hear back.

Wednesday's vote will come as two former NYPD cops, Richard Hall and Eddie Martins, face criminal charges for allegedly raping a teen they had handcuffed in Brooklyn in September. Both have reportedly claimed the sex was consensual.

It also comes as lawmakers across the nation try to clamp down on sexual harassment and assault as part of the global #MeToo movement.

Michael David, an attorney for the woman Hall and Martins are accused of raping, said he welcomes the idea of another agency tackling sexual misconduct by cops. But his experience with the CCRB leads him to believe it isn't aggressive enough in sanctioning officers for wrongdoing, he said.

"Any other agency that would investigate police misconduct is obviously going be helpful, but personally I don’t have confidence in them," David said.

(Lead image: Photo by Volha Yanchukovich/Shutterstock)