The NYPD will transition its anti-crime units into other assignments including detective work and neighborhood policing, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said Monday.
The change will affect roughly 600 plainclothes officers, he said, with officers in every precinct being reassigned as the department switches focus to community-based efforts.
"Thankfully, here in New York City, angry demonstrations have turned peaceful. Thoughtful discussions about reform have emerged," Shea said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
"We welcome reform, but we also believe that meaningful reform starts from within," the commissioner said.
In response to the change, Police Benevolent Association President Pat Lynched bashed the decision and blamed city lawmakers and officials.
"Anti-Crime's mission was to protect New Yorkers by proactively preventing crime, especially gun violence," Lynch said in a statement. "Shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city leaders have decided that proactive policing isn't a priority anymore. They chose this strategy. They will have to reckon with the consequences."
Last week, New York state lawmakers repealed a decades-old law that has kept law enforcement officers’ disciplinary records secret, spurred by the national uproar over the death of George Floyd.
The measure to make officers’ records and misconduct complaints public was among several police accountability bills racing through the state legislature. Lawmakers passed other bills that would provide all state troopers with body cameras and ensure that police officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody.
Many of those bills were first proposed years ago, but got new momentum after huge protests nationwide condemned police brutality. Also gaining momentum: an effort to cut $1 billion from the NYPD's budget, which the City Council signaled support for last week.
The passage came as criminal charges were brought against an NYPD officer over his rough treatment of a protester during demonstrations following the death of Floyd, who pleaded he couldn’t breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck May 25.
Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades. NBC New York's Myles Miller reports.
Eliminating the law, known as Section 50-a, would make complaints against officers, as well as transcripts and final dispositions of disciplinary proceedings, public for the first time in decades.
While supporters and lawmakers were quick to hail the decision, police unions bashed the repeal, blaming "opportunistic politicians" for rushing to pass the bills, and ultimately blaming them for "our increase in crime," the presidents for the detectives' and lietenants' unions said.
Detectives' Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo wondered why the police weren't consulted with the bills, and particularly blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio.
" Mayor de Blasio flip-flopped, once again. The other day, he said publicly that 50a needed to be changed, but not fully repealed. The only thing he consistently does is turn his back on the brave men and women in blue who he relies on to keep every New Yorker safe," DiGiacomo said.
Momentum for ending the secrecy law reached a crescendo in recent weeks as thousands of marchers filled streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan to rally against police abuses — amplifying the calls of reform advocates who spent years pushing for change in the wake of other high-profile police killings, including that of Eric Garner in 2014.
“This is no time for rejoicing,” said State Senator Kevin Parker, a Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn, last week. “This bill has been around for over a decade … And the only reason why we’re bringing it to the floor now because the nation is burning.”
New York City is continuing to protest police brutality, on the day George Floyd was laid to rest. John Chandler and Jay Gray report.
The state Senate and Assembly passed the 50-a repeal largely along party lines, as Republicans argued the law would allow the release of unsubstantiated or false complaints against officers.
But one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Jamaal Bailey, a Bronx Democrat, said the public has a right to view complaints: “Sometimes unsubstantiated complaints happen because people don’t want to follow up.”
The legislature passed other police accountability measures, such as banning police from using chokeholds, guaranteeing the right to record police activity, requiring body cameras for all state police officers and making it easier to file lawsuits against people making race-based 911 calls.
NBC New York's Ray Villeda reports.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that for years they have been "ready to deliver real change and has fought tirelessly for much needed criminal justice reforms. We join the nation in mourning the death of yet another unarmed black man, and we stand ready to answer the call for action.”
“Over the last few years, there has been a national conversation taking place surrounding law enforcement accountability and transparency,” said Speaker Heastie. “For years, the Assembly Majority has been ready to deliver real change and has fought tirelessly for much needed criminal justice reforms. We join the nation in mourning the death of yet another unarmed black man, and we stand ready to answer the call for action.”
While he hasn't yet stated exactly how much he plans on taking from the police budget, Mayor Bill de Blasio said as a way to show support for the movement, the city would begin identifying one street in each of the five boroughs to co-name "Black Lives Matter." The city would also work with community activists to paint each street, similar to what the mayor of Washington D.C. did on the road leading to the White House.
"The streets of our city will now affirm the vital work activists have done to bring us forward," the mayor said in a statement. "With a street in every borough painted with the words Black Lives Matter, we are recognizing where we have been and looking forward to where we will go."
The mayor, who at first resisted calls to defund the NYPD in favor of youth programs, said it wasn't protesters who got him to change his mind but rather his wife, Chirlane McCray, who convinced him it was time to reconsider.
"The fundamental answer is yes, the first lady and the task force said the shift in funds made sense," de Blasio said. Aides to the mayor said that he had been leaning toward reversing cuts he proposed to youth programs for weeks. Now, de Blasio is giving his wife credit for the shift — which could help her as she contemplates running for Brooklyn borough president in 2021.
Even as de Blasio said he wants to "relentlessly change this city and this police department over the next 18 months," members of the police department, including the commissioner, aren't cheery about it. As the city's largest police union said that cops are "under assault" due to the current movement, Commissioner Dermot Shea said he hoped that "common sense and cooler heads will prevail — Lord help us if it doesn't."
Police insist that communities of color have asked for more police resources, not fewer.
A New Jersey corrections officer has been suspended from his job after he was caught on camera kneeling on somebody's neck, mimicking the manner in which George Floyd died under Minneapolis police custody.
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