NEW ROCHELLE, NY — At the request of New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, Tuesday January 13th, senior officials of the New Rochelle Police Department made a presentation to City Council on training within the department in the context of recent Grand Jury decisions in the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases. Bramson, along with Council Member Jared Rice, have repeatedly referenced New Rochelle police in the context of protests following the Garner and Brown decisions.
During the meeting Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Murphy distributed an Interdepartmental Communication from Lt. Gary Robinson cataloging the number, type and outcome of Civilian Complaints over the past 5 years (2010-2014). Robinson runs Internal Affairs.
The records showed that 102 complaints were logged during that span, an average of about 20 complaints a year logged against NRPD officers. From 2010, the level of complaints had dropped by 28%, from 25 in 2010 to 18 in 2014.
Of the 102 complaints since 2010, 16 complaints have been substantiated/partially substantiated, primarily complaints that an officer was discourteous.
There was has been one complaint of use of an ethnic slur by a police officer over the past 5 years.
There has two police-involved shootings of another person in 25 years.
Of the most serious complaint-types (Uses of Force, Abuse of Authority), just 1 out of 15 complaints of Use of Force was partially substantiated; 5 complaints of Abuse of Authority was substantiated or partially substantiated.
The records of logged complaints against New Rochelle police officers does not appear to support the claims of Bramson and Rice.
NRPD Internal Records of Logged Complaints
- 2010: 25 logged complaints.
- Force: 2 (1 substantiated/partially substantiated, 1 not substantiated)
- Abuse of Authority: 8 (not substantiated)
- Discourtesy: 9 (not substantiated)
- Ethnic Slur: 1 (not substantiated)
- Miscellaneous: 5 (1 substantiated, 4 not substantiated)
- 2011: 22 logged complaints.
- Force: 2 (1 not substantiated, 1 exonerated)
- Abuse of Authority: 10 (8 not substantiated, 2 exonerated)
- Discourtesy: 5 (not substantiated)
- Ethnic Slur: 0
- Miscellaneous: 5 (3 substantiated/partially substan.; 1 exonerated, 1 not substan.)
- 2012: 16 1ogged complaints.
- Force: 1 (not substantiated)
- Abuse of Authority: 4 (not substantiated)
- Discourtesy: 9 (3 substantiated/partially substantiated, 6 not substantiated)
- Ethnic Slur: 0
- Miscellaneous: 2 (exonerated)
- 2013: 21 logged complaints
- Force: 2 (not substantiated)
- Abuse of Authority: 6 (2 substantiated/partially substantiated, 4 not substantiated)
- Discourtesy: 8 (2 substantiated/partially substantiated, 6 not substantiated)
- Ethnic Slur: 0
- Miscellaneous: 5 (1 exonerated, 4 not substantiated)
- 2014: 18 logged complaints.
- Force: 1 (not substantiated)
- Abuse of Authority: 8 (3 exonerated, 3 substantiated/partially subs., 2 not substantiated)
- Discourtesy: 4 (1 exonerated, 3 not substantiated)
- Ethnic Slur: 0
- Miscellaneous: 5 ( 4 exonerated, 1 substantiated