A milestone in a five-year struggle for increased police accountability

After five years of demands, debates, and delays, New Rochelle’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) will hold its first public meeting on Wednesday, July 8, at 5:30 pm at City Hall.

The meeting will mark a major step forward for advocates of increased police accountability and transparency in a city that has been troubled for years by concerns about police violence, racism, and corruption. 

In the past, civilian complaints alleging misconduct by members of the New Rochelle Police Department (NRPD) were investigated by the NRPD itself, with disciplinary decisions made by the Police Commissioner alone, with no civilian participation or review. 

The new CCRB, made up entirely of civilians, will review all NRPD investigations of civilian complaints, recommend disciplinary action in each case to the Commissioner, and share its findings with the public.  The Commissioner will share their disciplinary decisions with the public, along with an explanation if the decision disagrees with the CCRB’s recommendations.

By law, the CCRB is required to hold quarterly public meetings at City Hall.  It will also be required to publish semi-annual reports summarizing the complaints it has reviewed and the other matters it has discussed.

New Rochelle’s new, empowered CCRB was the product of years of public advocacy and debate.

In the summer of 2020, the country and the world were gripped by massive protests against racist police brutality after the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others.  Protests in New Rochelle were heightened by the killing of Kamal Flowers by NRPD Officer Alec McKenna under mysterious circumstances that May.  

In 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all municipalities in New York State to review their policing policies and procedures and propose reforms to address racism and excessive violence.  In New Rochelle, residents strongly advocated for a strong, independent Civilian Complaint Review Board.  The city’s initial draft reform plan did not include a CCRB, but it was added, over the objections of many NRPD officers and their allies, in response to the public pressure. 

A Community-Police Partnership Board (CPPB), half of whose members were police officers, was assigned by the City Council to recommend a structure for the new CCRB so that it could be formed in 2022.  The CPPB hired a consultant to study the issue and did not issue its recommendations until December 2023.  

During this time, in June 2023, NRPD Detective Steven Conn shot and killed Jarrell Garris, a Black man experiencing mental health challenges.  (In September 2023, NYS Attorney General Letitia James decided not to seek an indictment against Detective Conn, and an internal NRPD investigation later concluded that the shooting was justified because Garris seemed to be reaching for an officer’s gun.)  

Further energized by the Garris killing, community activists consistently demanded a CCRB with the power to conduct its own independent investigations and subpoena witnesses and evidence.  But the CPPB recommended a CCRB empowered only to review the NRPD’s internal investigations.  This recommendation was accepted by the lame-duck City Council at its last meeting before it left office in December 2023.

The new mayor and City Council took office in January 2024, and the CPPB submitted a detailed proposal for a weak, review-only CCRB to the Council in June 2024.  Community activists continued their pressure for a CCRB empowered to conduct its own investigations. 

In August 2024, NRPD Lieutenant Sean Kane was suspended and an investigation was opened by the Westchester County District Attorney after footage from Kane’s body camera showed him planting a bag of white powder under the car of a local Black man and having him arrested on drug charges.  (A grand jury declined to indict Lt. Kane in December 2024, and he was demoted to Police Officer by NRPD Commissioner Neil Reynolds in March 2026.)

When the Council finally passed legislation creating the new CCRB in October 2024, it was still a “review-only” model, but the Council added a number of provisions that strengthened its powers to review evidence, recommend discipline, review the Police Commissioner’s disciplinary decisions, and share its findings with the public.  

The legislation required that all members of the CCRB must be civilians with no connections to the NRPD or other law-enforcement bodies, and that all members undergo extensive training provided by the NRPD and by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE).  Reports of the CCRB’s reviews and other activities must be posted on the city’s website.

The Council opened applications for CCRB in February 2025 and announced the selection of seven members in July 2025.  The work of the CCRB was held up for another year due to delays with the required training, which has now been completed.  Last month, the Council agreed to extend the staggered two- and three-year terms of the current CCRB members until 2028 and 2029.  The Council also approved the appointment of Michael Cammer to the CCRB, replacing Natasha Fapohunda, who resigned, as well as the appointments of Damon Maher and Renée Baron as CCRB co-chairs.

As New Rochelle’s CCRB begins its work, it faces multiple challenges beyond organizing and implementing the procedures required by the City Council’s legislation.  CCRBs in other cities have faced stiff resistance from local police departments, which have withheld evidence and otherwise attempted to undermine civilian oversight.  New Rochelle’s CCRB will need to establish a relationship of cooperation with the NRPD based on shared goals of more effective policing and improved police-community relations.

And the CCRB will need to win the trust of the community, particularly those New Rochelle residents who have been most impacted by crime and over-policing.  Through independence, firmness, and clear communication, the CCRB will need to convince the public that its oversight will in fact increase the NRPD’s accountability to the community.  

The CCRB will need to encourage community participation in its public meetings.  And most importantly, it will need to convince those who feel wronged by the police that they can file complaints with confidence that their issues will receive not just a closed-door internal police investigation, but a full, fair, and public review by an independent panel of concerned civilians that can truly hold the police accountable.