Between the random subway murders, road-blocking protests and the still-fresh memories of the 2020, ’21 and ’22 crime spikes, many of us are paying close attention to the public-safety proposals in the race for New York City mayor.
So far, there’s little for those of us concerned with controlling crime and disorder to be excited about. But more than a few ideas are downright terrifying.
One is a proposal by Zohran Mamdani to shift final say on matters of police officer discipline away from the NYPD’s commissioner and give it to the notoriously anti-cop Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Currently, once the CCRB substantiates a complaint against a member of the NYPD, it makes a recommendation for sanctioning the alleged misconduct.
Most of the time, the police commissioner takes its recommendation — but in about a quarter of those cases, she will exercise her prerogative as chief executive to deviate from the recommendation.
This makes complete sense, given her proximity to the issues that CCRB members (only three of whom, out of 15, have any law-enforcement experience) can never fully appreciate from afar.
There are other reasons not to upend this dynamic. Chief among them: Such a decision would completely undermine the chain of command core to the department’s proper functioning.
The question is one of incentives that shift depending on who department personnel will ultimately answer to.
Mamdani’s proposal would incentivize officers in the field (and their mid-level commanders) to make tactical decisions keeping the potential response of the CCRB in mind — when instead those decisions should reflect the directives, goals and preferences communicated by the duly appointed police commissioner.
Subordinating the supervisory authority of a department’s chief executive to that of an unelected board with unaligned, if not completely different, interests is a recipe for disorganization, not success.
The CCRB simply does not share the goals of the police commissioner, whose top priority is maintaining order and keeping the public safe by controlling crime.
This is key, because there will once again come a time when the commissioner will find herself under immense political pressure to discipline or even fire an officer whose controversial actions looked bad on camera but nevertheless reflected good faith.
The NYPD boss is far better positioned to understand and weigh the tradeoffs involved, and therefore more likely to make necessary, if unpopular, choices.
The members of the CCRB have no incentive to resist political pressure, because ultimately they won’t be held accountable for the crime problems that might stem from disciplinary decisions that disincentivize the proactive, data-driven enforcement that’s delivered significant crime reductions of the last two years.
One effect of creating such a dynamic — intended or not — will be to make the job of police commissioner extremely unattractive to highly talented executives like Jessica Tisch, whom New York City simply cannot afford to lose.
We certainly would not be able to recommend in good faith taking on the commissioner’s role under such circumstances.
Mamdani, moreover, is unwilling to acknowledge that the CCRB is notorious among rank-and-file officers, who understandably perceive it as hostile to police.
After all, six of the board seats are appointed by the City Council and the public advocate, who’ve shown great animosity toward police.
And as mayor, Mamdani — who has also openly berated cops and even sought to defund them — would get to select another five members.
Officers’ perception of the CCRB will almost certainly impact morale and could meaningfully dissuade them from being proactive, if willing to serve at all.
Mamdani’s proposal to shift control of officer discipline from the commissioner to the CCRB is the equivalent of taking the power to sentence convicted felons away from judges and giving it to an unelected board dominated by criminal-defense attorneys.
Perhaps that will be his next proposal.
William J. Bratton twice served as NYPD commissioner. Rafael A. Mangual is the Nick Ohnell fellow for the Manhattan Institute’s Policing & Public Safety Initiative. Views expressed are those of the authors and not their employers.
