Mayor Eric Adams is trying to oust the acting chairwoman of the civilian oversight board charged with investigating complaints against the NYPD, sources say.
Adams’ close adviser Philips Banks asked Arva Rice to resign from her post as head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) last week, sources familiar with the matter told the Post.
Rice, who was appointed to the board by Adams’ predecessor Bill de Blasio, was named interim president by the current mayor in February 2022 and is reportedly on track for a full appointment, the sources said .
But in recent weeks, the president has been outspoken about the effects of budget cuts on the council’s ability to do its job and has publicly criticized the New York Police Department’s handling of the 2019 police shooting of a black man in his own house.
As Adams cut city agency budgets left and right due to the growing price of the migrant crisis, the CCRB also saw its coffers plummet — and Rice made clear the true cost of these cuts.
Last December, the commission was forced to stop investigating officers for threats, seizures of property, false statements, discourteous words or actions, or refusal to provide their name or shield number during removals and postings. vacant.
Rice has asked the City Council for an additional $15 million in funding to fill vacant positions and combat a long backlog of cases.
She said the risks of continued underfunding include “a failure to investigate complaints, police misconduct that goes unaddressed, and a loss of public confidence in our public safety system” during testimony at a council budget hearing last month.
“We need 73 additional investigators with varying levels of experience to handle the current workload,” she added. “This does not account for the 20 investigators whose promotions and salary increases were delayed due to budget cuts. Without timely promotions and fair compensation, we risk losing many of our most experienced and talented investigators.
Earlier this month, the president thanked the council for supporting her request for additional funding.
“As civilian complaints increase, we need an adequate budget to serve New York,” Rice said the. “The chronically underfunded CCRB is a key part of public safety and the budget should reflect that.”
In the same March 20 testimony, Rice criticized the NYPD’s handling of the case of Kawaski Trawick, who was shot and killed by NYPD officers in his Bronx apartment in April 2019.
The department refused to turn over evidence, including body camera footage, to the CCRB while it simultaneously investigated the shooting — which “made it impossible” for the committee to complete its investigation before the statute of limitations expired , Rice said.
“Essentially, the NYPD failed to thoroughly investigate the murder of Kawaski Trawick, cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, refused to share evidence until the statute of limitations had passed, and then attempted once again to avoid holding the police accountable because the case was not closed within the statute of limitations,” she testified. “This circumvention of the disciplinary system is unacceptable. and is further evidence of why the CCRB is such an important public safety entity.”
Last week at the CCRB’s monthly meeting, Rice again criticized the NYPD for its alleged failure to properly investigate officers’ actions — as well as the NYPD judge’s “erroneous recommendation.” York that the two officers had committed no wrongdoing in Trawick’s death and the police commissioner’s endorsement of the judge’s decision.
It was also last week that Banks – the deputy mayor for public safety who in 2014 resigned as head of the New York Police Department amid a federal corruption investigation – visited at Rice to ask him to resign.
Following this meeting, the president asked a trusted person within the town hall to go to Adam’s senior advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, to try to obtain a meeting directly with the mayor.
Lewis-Martin reportedly referred to the NYPD’s backlog of open complaints that the board has been unable to access and said “we need to make a change,” sources with knowledge of the matter told the Post. meeting.
When contacted by telephone, Rice did not immediately wish to comment.
City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak told the Post, “Rice was an appointment from the previous administration. »
The source said she did not believe Rice would resign.
“She wants them to replace her,” the person said.
It is unclear whether Rice will resign or force Adams to find a replacement that would cause her to lose her interim job.
The New York Times, which was first to report on the mayor’s desire to oust the president, said Rice is expected to comply with the administration’s request and will leave her post in the coming weeks.
New York Post
