NYPD to change disciplinary guidelines after cases ‘manifestly unfair’ to cops
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell says she plans to make changes to the NYPD’s disciplinary guidelines — reducing penalties after finding dozens of cases were “manifestly unfair” to cops, The Post has learned.
The city’s top cop, in an internal memo distributed Wednesday, said she reduced or dismissed penalties recommended by internal police judges and the Civilian Complaint Review Board in at least 72 cases.
In the memo, first reported by The Post, Sewell said she would soon “amend” the department’s disciplinary matrix, but did not details what changes she planned to make. An NYPD spokesperson said the proposed revisions will be made public for review, but did not say when.
The commissioner did signal that discipline would be reduced in connection to the Right to Know Act, which requires officers to provide business cards to the public upon request. Under the current guidelines, cops can face up to 10 days of discipline for flouting the city law.
Sewell said some of the disciplinary recommendations she had taken issue with were “manifestly unfair to the officers under review.”
“I do not want officers to feel that they have been treated unjustly, but rather motivated women and men who are enthusiastic members of the service who collaborate effectively with community residents,” she wrote.
“In some of the cases, bad intent to officers was imputed when none was present, or situations were misinterpreted.”
The matrix — a lengthy set of guidelines for how to reprimand cops for internal violations — was created under former Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, with input from the public and advocates, and was a key pillar of his tenure.
It aimed to create uniformity in the NYPD’s disciplinary process, a longstanding issue criticized internally and externally as playing favorites or appearing arbitrary.
Under the matrix, the commissioner still has the final say as to discipline — regardless of what an internal trial judge suggests or a negotiated settlement in the case.
However, if the commissioner diverges from the guidelines, it requires them to publicly post why they believed the discipline should be changed.
In 2022, the NYPD released five deviation letters in which the commissioner disagreed with a police judge, and the CCRB has posted 67 letters from Sewell downgrading discipline.
Sewell diverged from punitive recommendations for cops in more times than predecessors at the helm of the department over their first year, she said in the memo.
Those included “various cases” where cops provided their name and badge number but not business cards, and were handed “one to two penalty days and/or mandated training,” the memo said.
It also provides two other examples with few details of cases in which Sewell declined to discipline officers over allegations of illegal search and abuse of authority.
Over Shea’s more than two-year tenure, he broke from the matrix in CCRB cases 84 times.
The matrix was officially signed in February 2021 with the police commissioner and CCRB president on board months after publicly releasing a draft of the guidelines.
Sewell praised it for meeting its “critical goal” but said the document should not be seen as “static.”
“Members of the service who engage in misconduct make all of your jobs much more difficult,” she said.
“Make no mistake, I will not hesitate to take appropriate disciplinary action against those who engage in misconduct of any nature.”
In a statement Wednesday, CCRB Chair Arva Rice said, “I stand by our recommendations.”
“The NYPD approaches these cases from a different perspective when reviewing the evidence. We will continue to work with the NYPD to improve the disciplinary process and look forward to conversations about how to improve the Matrix,” Rice said.
The NYPD rep said the commissioner’s memo “stressed the importance of fairness to officers in a system where discipline’s purpose can be restorative and educational.”
“She cited specific concerns with CCRB decisions and penalties in a limited number of cases she felt were unfair to officers,” the spokesperson said.
