Nearly two years after New Rochelle established its Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the panel was still completing mandatory training, had yet to adopt bylaws and remained largely unable to provide meaningful civilian oversight of the Police Department.
In a new Words in Edgewise column, Talk of the Sound Publisher Robert Cox examines years of delays, unanswered questions and restrictions that prevent the CCRB from reviewing many of the high-profile police misconduct cases that helped drive demands for independent oversight.
The latest development is a formal Freedom of Information Law appeal filed October 26 after the City repeatedly missed deadlines to produce records concerning CCRB training, including the qualifications of individual board members. Cox also renewed his objection to Corporation Counsel Dawn Warren handling his FOIL appeals because she is a plaintiff in pending federal litigation against him.
Cox questions whether Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert, City Manager Wilfredo Melendez, Corporation Counsel Warren and New Rochelle Police Department leadership genuinely want a functioning civilian oversight board. He says he intends to bring an Article 78 proceeding if the City fails to determine his appeal within the statutory ten-business-day period.
The column also examines new October 1 CCRB meeting minutes revealing additional mandatory training was still scheduled and the board’s bylaws remained unfinished, even as the board prepared to begin reviewing completed Internal Affairs investigations.
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