Watchdog who criticized NYPD’s handling of officer discipline resigns

NEW YORK — The head of an oversight board that investigates allegations of misconduct by New York City police officers announced her resignation Monday, ending a tenure in which she had publicly criticized the NYPD’s handling of a major disciplinary case and sought to expand the panel’s authority. Chris Dunn, the legal director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said Rice’s resignation was “part of a clear pattern by the Adams administration of undermining NYPD accountability.” “As reports of NYPD abuse have reached their highest level in more than a decade, New Yorkers need more police accountability, not less,” he added. Speaking before the City Council in April, Rice said the city’s “continuous underfunding” of the Civilian Complaint Review Board was “making it almost impossible to keep up with the ever-increasing workload.” She has also called on the city to give the board final authority in imposing discipline on officers, which currently rests with the police commissioner. Speaking about Adams’ administration, Colón said, “his dismantling of already weak mechanisms of disciplining officers is especially horrifying given that unlawful stops by the NYPD have exploded to their highest level since 2015, police misconduct complaints have risen by over 50% in a year, and officers are fatally shooting New Yorkers at the highest rate in a decade.”