Giuliani Announces New Review Board Procedures


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

source: mnovick@laedu.lalc.k12.ca.us  Thu Oct 23 00:37:06 1997


Giuliani announces plan to speed handling of complaints against police

Associated Press, 10/22/97 18:46 

NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed an executive order Wednesday
to speed the handling of civilian complaints against the police. 

Giuliani said in a statement he had directed the Civilian Complaint Review
Board and the Police Department ``to establish standards providing civilian
complainants with timely written notice of the status of their complaints
during the investigation and/or disciplinary process.'' 

He said complainants must also be given the name, address and phone number
of someone they can speak to about their complaints, and the police and
CCRB must ``establish standards to ensure the timely sharing of information
between the agencies and the expeditious resolution of complaints.'' 

Critics questioned the mayor's commitment to the CCRB, a body whose
creation he vigorously opposed. 

City Councilman Sheldon Leffler, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Council's
Public Safety Committee, said, ``Coming out with this as an executive order
12 days before the election is basically an attempt to show at this point
that they are going to do something that they should have been doing for
four years.'' 

Leffler said many CCRB complaints have ``in effect been lost'' because the
statute of limitations ran out before they were handled, and he called the
reforms long overdue. 

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union,
said Giuliani was acknowledging that ``for the four years he's been mayor,
and the four years the CCRB has been in existence, it hasn't worked,
because simple activities such as keeping the complainant informed of the
status of the case ... have not been done on his watch.'' 

Last month, Giuliani announced plans to add $1.5 million in annual funding
and 25 staff positions to the CCRB, whose budget he had previously tried to
cut. 

He acknowledged that the Aug. 9 beating and torture of Haitian immigrant
Abner Louima, allegedly at the hands of police, ``had something to do with
focusing our attention'' on the issue. 
 
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nytrc-10.23.97-10:52:39-1806