The data in CGR’s report leads to a different conclusion about the road to police accountability in New Rochelle

In October 2023, CGR, a 108-year-old policy think tank, issued a long overdue report and recommendation on how New Rochelle’s City Council might move forward to create an appropriate Civilian Complaint Review Board.  CGR’s report contains their analysis of 149 complaints about New Rochelle police over a five-year period (2018-2022), reports on interviews in March 2023 with dozens of local stakeholders, and describes the pros and cons of four types of civilian review board models operating elsewhere in New York State.  The quantitative and qualitative information laid out in CGR’s report, however, would lead a discerning reader to a different recommendation than the one soft-pedaled by CGR and adopted in December by the outgoing Mayor and City Council.

CGR recommends “the immediate adoption of a review-focused oversight model that responds to community concerns about police actions and provides a way [to] increase transparency and build more trust between residents and police.”  More data collection and more interviews would then “inform future options for New Rochelle, to include moving in the direction of investigative, hybrid, county and auditor-monitor models”.  In the same breath CGR includes soft and soothing language that hopes such a shift would happen “organically”, even after reporting that New Rochelle stakeholders have “widely divergent views of police, police-community relations and the wisdom of creating a civilian review board.”  (CGR, p. ii)

Recommending immediate adoption of a simple review model may be the most expedient option.  However, the data–including complaints about the police and comparison with other jurisdictions–suggests that New Rochelle requires a more stringent model of oversight than the review model.  When the new Mayor and City Council consider next steps to establish a CCRB program, the plan should include a pathway to a more rigorous oversight model—one that the CGR report implies is a better “fit” for New Rochelle.  

Four Oversight Models

The Review Model consists of volunteers who examine investigative materials gathered and prepared by police and who then may make recommendations about police procedure or policy, but with limited, if any, power to impose these recommendations.  According to CGR, it is the least independent model, it is slow, and volunteers often lack expertise and have limited authority.  No funding is needed.  CGR lists the only strength of this model as its relative affordability.  Civilian volunteers are unpaid and operate at the pleasure of whoever appoints them; police are paid for their hours of overtime in assisting and in providing training.

In the Investigative Approach, a civilian oversight body pursues an independent inquiry of citizen complaints, with police and civilians conducting concurrent investigations.  Both civilians and police are funded to conduct their reviews, which makes this a higher cost model, especially if the data gathered by the police is insufficient or incomplete for the civilian review. “Key strengths of this model are the possibility of reducing bias in investigations and increasing community trust,” the report says, “while weaknesses include the significant expense (due to the need to employ trained investigators), the possibility of resistance and obstructionism by police, and the chance that the public may be disillusioned if change does not occur.”  “An investigation model,” CGR says, “may help to increase a community’s faith in the complaint review process especially in settings impacted by police shootings.”  (CGR, p. 29)

The Auditor/Monitor Model involves review of data to look for high level trends that may  influence police policies, practices and professional development over time.  It does “not provide local communities with immediate resolutions about individual police behavior in specific cases.”  This model is rarely a standalone model and is usually mixed with the other two models, the Review and Investigative Models.  

CGR labels any combination of models a Hybrid Approach.  The distinctions among these four models revolve around the limits of authority and the rigor and resources devoted to independent investigation of police action.

In all of the models, the selection of the CCRB members is a key consideration.  CGR includes the pros and cons of various membership models in its discussion of the CCRBs in four other jurisdictions and their implications for New Rochelle.

Five Jurisdictions to Compare

New Rochelle’s demographics and complaints about the police were compared to the Village of Ossining and the cities of Schenectady, Albany, and New York.  New Rochelle provided data for the five-year period of 2018 to 2022 on  the number of complaints, the types of allegations in the complaints, and the outcomes of the complaints after they were investigated by the police themselves.  Comparison data on the other jurisdictions was available only for 2018 and 2019.

New Rochelle has a population of 80,000 but is expected to grow to 100,000 when the high-rise projects rising in the downtown and Lincoln Avenue Corridor are completed.  During the 5 years from 2018 to 2022, there were 149 complaints, including 167 allegations of police Bias, Discourtesy, Miscellaneous, Misuse of Authority, Property Violations, and Use of Force.  Of the allegations, 38 (22%)  were sustained (found to be true), including one for inappropriate Use of Force.  Disciplinary actions for these sustained allegations  included 21 cases of counseling and retraining, 10 letters of reprimand, one verbal reprimand, and six cases of lost vacation days.  In 2022 alone, New Rochelle had 43 allegations, including two Use of Force complaints.  In 2018 and 2019, New Rochelle had 50 complaints with an 11% sustain rate.  

The Village of Ossining, with a population of 27,600 in 2022, had 9 complaints in 2022.  In 2018 and 2019, Ossining had 22 complaints and a 4.5% sustain rate.  Ossining has a Review model of civilian oversight, and its Board has the power–but not the funding–to bring in an outside investigator.  CGR says, “Another challenge is the buy-in from the police department.”  (CGR, p. 32). The seven-member Board is selected by the Board of Trustees, and two police officers can sit in on the meetings (ex-officio members).

The City of Schenectady, with a population 67,000 in 2022, did not have publicly available complaint data.  Its civilian complaint model is Review-focused, with investigative authority but no funding. The mayor and City Council appoint the volunteer members of the Board, and there are two ex-officio members, a citizen-at-large and the chief of police.

Albany, with a population of 99,000 in 2022, had 81 complaints in 2022.  In the comparison years of 2018 and 2019, Albany had  only 16 complaints, with 27 allegations and a 0% sustain rate.  Albany has a hybrid Community Police Review Board with features of the review, investigative and auditor/monitor models.  The Board includes 9 appointed members, with 5 chosen by the City Council and 4 chosen by the mayor.  The review board excludes police members and their immediate families, and all members have two-year term limits.  

The Albany CPRB receives at least 1% of the Albany Police Department Budget and was approved for a 2023 budget of $770,000.  The funding includes the salary of a program manager, who is “responsible for overseeing the civilian complaint review process from beginning to end.”  The Board has investigative and subpoena power and access to an early warning system that identifies police officers who demonstrate problematic behaviors. (CGR, p. 28)

New York City, with a 2022 population of 8.8 million, had 3,698 complaints in 2022.  In 2018 and 2019 it had 11,000 complaints and a  sustain rate of 12% (similar to New Rochelle).  New York City uses a hybrid model, with the police inspector general performing auditing and monitoring functions.  NYC’s CCRB has 15 members, with 11 appointed by the Mayor and City Council, one by the Public Advocate, and three by the Police Commissioner.  Members serve three-year terms and (other than the members appointed by the Police Commissioner) cannot have law enforcement backgrounds.  The New York City CCRB has a huge budget and staff; power to investigate, subpoena, and prosecute; and power to investigate false official statements made to the police.   The budget is less than 1% of the police budget.

Conclusion

CGR’s report “suggests the prompt adoption of a Review Model as an initial step that balances the community’s desire for an independent body to review civilian complaints of police misconduct with the administration concerns about cost and broad powers.”  (p. 36 and 37, emphasis added).  This may be the most palatable suggestion, but the data compiled by CGR suggests that it is not the best answer for New Rochelle.  Of the four other New York State jurisdictions reviewed by CGR, only Schenectady and Ossining have Review models.  Both are smaller than New Rochelle, with either no data about complaints (Schenectady) or a very small number of complaints with a much lower sustain rate (Ossining) when compared to New Rochelle.  Neither has had a recent police killing of a civilian–let alone two in three years. 

The case laid out in CGR’s report supports the hybrid model.  Albany and New York City are more like New Rochelle in terms of complaints and sustain rates.  Both spend up to 1% of their police budgets to fund the work of a CCRB with investigative powers, and Albany has an all-civilian board appointed entirely by elected officials.  New Rochelle’s police budget in 2023 was $48.3 million, not including health insurance, worker’s comp and benefits (2023 Budget, p. 157, lines 3120-3130).

New Rochelle will soon be approaching Albany in size.  In fact, CGR states “Albany’s hybrid model approach is a good example of how a city can use different aspects of the police oversight models to come up with a good system for their community.” (CGR, p. 30)

The City Council has work to do in understanding the true implications of the CGR report.  When all the data is analyzed, should “administration concerns about cost and broad powers” really outweigh “reducing bias in investigations and increasing community trust”?

Based on CGR’s analysis, the new City Council should take a close look at Albany’s use of the Hybrid Model, including investigative authority, in designing a CCRB, in order to reach its goals of transparency, independence, and accountability to all the residents of New Rochelle.