Civilian Complaint Review Board Takes On Sexual Harassment and Assault By Police

For the first time since it was founded decades ago, the independent board tasked with investigating claims of police misconduct will begin looking into cases of sexual harassment and assault.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board voted unanimously Wednesday to begin reviewing these cases, amid mounting pressure from advocates against police violence, and following a highly publicized recent case of a 19-year-old who said police handcuffed and raped her in a the back of a police van.

"It's good for New York and good for the NYPD for us to enter this new sphere of oversight," said the board's acting chair, Frederick Davie.

The standing policy for years had been for the board to pass those cases off to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau. From January 2016 to June 2017, they referred 117 allegations of sexual misconduct to the NYPD.

That includes 13 complaints of rape and other similarly serious allegations; 43 other complaints that involved a physical attack, sexual touching during a stop and frisk or cavity searches; and 48 complaints of sexual propositions, catcalls, sexual humiliation or other verbal complaints.

None of those were investigated by the CCRB, which generally substantiates about 23 percent of complaints it receives, according to the board's 2016 annual report.

"The rationale was that many of these sexual misconduct cases are very serious and this agency wasn't equipped to handle those types of allegations," said Jonathan Darche, the executive director of the CCRB. 

The CCRB says it never heard back from the NYPD on the disposition of these cases.

"When we refer cases to IAB, we do not find out the results of their investigation," Darche said.

Now, under the new policy, the CCRB will begin conducting its own investigations right away, for cases of unwanted romantic advances, catcalls, verbal harassment and other non-physical types of sexual misconduct.

In a later phase of the new policy, the board aims to "eventually investigate even the most serious complaints of sexual misconduct alleged against members of service, even if doing so is not immediately tenable," according to a memorandum released ahead of the board vote.

That stage will involve identifying specific highly trained investigators capable of handling more serious cases. They'll also start working with District Attorneys offices in order to identify potential criminal charges in cases of physical abuse, groping or rape.

The board has no firm timeline for when that stage of the process will be completed.

Andrea Ritchie, a researcher at Barnard College and author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women, has been pushing for the CCRB to expand its purview for more than a year. While the board's vote is a step in the right direction, she said, the board needs to begin looking into more severe cases as soon as possible.

"There's no reason that survivors of sexual misconduct by police should be denied the protections afforded to survivors of other forms of misconduct by police, who get access to an independent civilian investigation of their complaint." Ritchie said. "Why should survivors of sexual assault be denied that protection, be forced to go to the very agency that employs the person who abused them?"

The CCRB's role is ultimately advisory. The board makes recommendations to the police department based on their findings, but it's ultimately up to the police department to decide what disciplinary action to take. The board also provides a layer of external transparency as they report the types of allegations they substantiate to the public.

Lieutenant John Grimpel, a spokesman for the NYPD, said the agency has been notified about the board's new policy.

"We will be working with them further on a number of issues relating to the implementation of this procedure," he said.