According to news accounts, the mayor s commission has strongly confirmed in its draft report that the current internal system for disciplining officers is slow and ineffective. The mayor s commission recommends that some internal disciplinary cases should no longer be prosecuted by NYPD lawyers. The points raised in that draft report appear to be consistent with the findings and recommendations found in our report. In order to ensure viable community support for the NYPD s crime-reduction strategies, it is crucial that a credible, independent monitoring and disciplinary mechanism be substituted for the current system. We believe that this report will help the city and its police department to refocus their attention on strategies and systems that will uncover and discourage police misconduct and encourage community support.
Professionalism is the key to effective police strategies.
Police officers must be willing to remain professional and uphold the duties of their office, even in the face of mounting public criticism. The Commission is concerned, therefore, that at the time this report was being approved, the NYPD was facing new allegations that in June 2000, several officers failed to respond to calls for help from women who were being sexually attacked at an event in Central Park. It is our hope that these allegations against a few officers are not a sign, as some critics have suggested, of a frustrated force, weary of official scrutiny. This report should help law enforcement officials to better understand that police officer professionalism and stronger ties with the community are inextricably connected.