edward caban – Techdirt (original) (raw)

NYPD Chief Caught Up In Corruption Probe Exits Office With Mandate Reducing Punishments For Officer Misconduct

from the hurling-one-last-'fuck-you'-to-the-public dept

It’s been a whirlwind few months for NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, at least in terms of press coverage. None of it has been positive, though.

A few months ago, reporting from ProPublica exposed Commissioner Caban’s efforts to make the NYPD even less accountable than it always has been. Public records and other information obtained by ProPublica made it clear Caban wasn’t interested in cleaning up a police department that was costing residents millions of dollars a year in the form of lawsuit settlements.

Earlier this month, things went from par-for-the-unaccountable-course to shit hitting the fan. The FBI spent a few days raiding homes and offices of city officials and direct subordinates of Mayor Eric Adams. Adams, a former NYPD officer, claimed to be unaware of any criminal activity happening under this nose — something he buttressed by stating he had repeatedly told staff and appointees to “follow the law,” which is the sort of thing you only need to say more than once when staff and appointees seem insistent on breaking the law.

One of the targets of the FBI raids was none other than Commissioner Edward Caban. It’s unclear at this point if it has anything to do with his brother, Richard Caban, who runs a bar catering to NYPD officials that has been repeatedly cited for violations of building and fire codes. Even if not, that bit of information couldn’t have helped.

With the FBI breathing down the neck of the most powerful officials in New York City, Commissioner Caban has decided to press the eject on this phase of his career, resigning his post before the city has a chance to punish him for his (alleged) involvement in whatever it is the FBI is investigating.

But he has deployed a golden-esque parachute of sorts. Not for himself, though. The officers he’s leaving behind have been given an undeserved parting gift: reduced punishment for misconduct, courtesy of a top cop who spent his short term in office doing little more than reducing punishments for misconduct. Here’s Reven Blau with the details for The City:

The NYPD has quietly reduced the suggested punishment for cops guilty of abusing authority, using offensive language, failing to take a civilian complaint, and conducting an unlawful search, THE CITY has learned.

The changes to what’s called the disciplinary matrix are dated Sept. 9, just three days before now former Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned in the middle of a federal corruption probe that has touched several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.

The police commissioner has total control over the penalty guidelines and the mostly watered down version took effect this past Monday.

Fun stuff if you’re a misbehaving cop. And the NYPD has several of those. The matrix says less the bad stuff for bad cops, which means things that used to result in five-day suspensions are now subject to nothing more harsh than “additional training.”

The list of violations effected by the dilution of accountability ranges from the mundane to the “hey, maybe we shouldn’t let cops get away with this sort of thing.”

The categories of downgraded punishments include: violations of department rules and regulations; abuse of authority; discourtesy and offensive language; firearm-related incidents; off-duty misconduct; and prohibited conduct.

Some of these are violations best described as violations of employer policies. They should still be punished, though, and with more than some remedial training. Others are little more than “officers being assholes.” Even so, assholish-ness should be actively discouraged. Cops treating the people they serve disrespectfully can’t be handled with an extra PowerPoint presentation or two.

The worst part is Caban’s mandate also covers things are the subject of federal lawsuits:

Under the new rules, a cop guilty of an “unlawful search of premises” now can get a punishment that is nothing more than additional “training.”

This isn’t ticky-tack bullshit. This is the actual violation of constitutional rights. Treating this as a training problem is absolutely the wrong way to handle this. Certainly, re-training might be necessary but that should be on top of harsh punishments that make it extremely clear violating rights is never acceptable. And repeat offenders should be shown the door. Anything less than that is an insult to city residents, who not only have to deal with having their rights violated but are expected to cover the cost of lawsuit settlements with their taxes.

Caban’s exit and parting shot at accountability are par for the course, unfortunately. Officials who resign in the middle of outside investigations are also par for the course. Very few public officials are willing to take what’s coming to them, preferring to get out and under the radar before things get truly ugly. Caban’s exit is basically an admission of guilt. And it’s not enough for him to dodge his own personal accountability by taking the easy way out when faced with the consequences of his actions. He had to make it easier for the cops he left behind to do the same thing. These aren’t the actions of a leader. They’re the actions of a coward who loved the power but hated the responsibility.

Filed Under: corruption, edward caban, new york city, nypd, police misconduct, rights violations

NYPD Commissioner Thwarting Accountability By Burying Complaints, Overturning Oversight Board Decisions

from the new-york's-okayest dept

It’s a problem that likely dates back to the department’s inception, but in 2015, the New York City Inspector General released a report that explained why residents were forced to shell out millions every year to foot the bill for police misconduct:

Historically, NYPD has frequently failed to discipline officers who use force without justification.

“Historically.” And perpetually, evidently. That report found that the NYPD has only sustained two percent of the 10,000 complaints filed against officers from 2010 to 2014. That means only 207 cases ever moved forward, no matter how the Civilian Complaint Review Board ruled.

That’s the problem with the CCRB: it can offer recommendations but it’s powerless to enforce them. Theoretically, it’s an avenue for accountability. In reality, it’s little more than a showpiece NYC and NYPD officials can point to as something indicating they’re taking the problem seriously.

The CCRB can offer recommendations but the police commissioner has the final say. So, the final result is what the NYC Inspector General noted nearly a decade ago: very few complaints are sustained and even those that are rarely result in punishment.

Apparently, this still isn’t enough for the NYPD. According to this new report from ProPublica, the NYPD Commissioner (Edward Caban) isn’t just blowing off CCRB recommendations. He’s also burying complaints so deep even public records requesters can’t get at them.

The CCRB forwarded the case of Brianna Villafane to the NYPD. She was grabbed and thrown to the ground by an officer while engaging (ironically enough) in an anti-police violence protest. The CCRB sustained her complaint against the officer, which meant the next step would be a disciplinary trial by the NYPD, directed by the CCRB’s prosecutors and held in a public forum where CCRB members would present evidence and question the accused officer.

But that never happened. This happened instead:

Exercising a little-known authority called “retention,” the commissioner, Edward Caban, ensured the case would never go to trial.

Instead, Caban reached his own conclusion in private.

He decided that it “would be detrimental to the Police Department’s disciplinary process” to pursue administrative charges against the officer, Gerard Dowling, according to a letter the department sent to the oversight agency. The force that the officer used against Villafane was “reasonable and necessary.” The commissioner ordered no discipline.

Rather than face these accusations of engaging in excessive force when policing demonstrations, Officer Dowling was instead promoted to deputy chief of the unit that handles protest response.

And Commissioner Caban isn’t limiting himself to undercutting the accountability process with his retention authority. He’s also ensuring officers aren’t punished for misconduct they’ve already admitted to committing.

For one officer, Caban rejected two plea deals: In the first case, the officer pleaded guilty to wrongly pepper-spraying protesters and agreed to losing 40 vacation days as punishment. Caban overturned the deal and reduced the penalty to 10 days. In the second, the officer pleaded guilty to using a baton against Black Lives Matter protesters “without police necessity.” Caban threw out the agreement, which called for 15 vacation days to be forfeited. His office wrote that it wasn’t clear that the officer had actually hit the protesters, contrary to what the officer himself already admitted to in the plea. The commissioner ordered no discipline.

According to ProPublica’s investigation, Caban has done this exact thing more than 30 times since becoming the police commissioner. That’s 30 times he’s refused to punish officers who had already admitted wrongdoing and agreed to disciplinary action. And he’s only been in office since 2023. As ProPublica points out, the previous commissioner only used this power four times during their first year.

But Caban has that option because of the agreement reached with the CCRB, which made several compromises to satisfy the NYPD and the unions that represent it. One of those concessions was giving the police commissioner the power to unilaterally override CCRB decisions and even officers’ own plea deals with NYPD’s internal legal department.

This is what he’s done with this power:

In 40% of the cases that Caban has retained, he has ordered no discipline. In the cases in which he has ordered discipline, it has mostly been light, such as the loss of a few vacation days. The most severe punishment, ProPublica found, was docking an officer 10 vacation days for knocking a cellphone out of the hand of someone who was recording him.

The problems the NYPD has with officer misconduct will continue. Commissioner Caban has made it clear he’s not interested in accountability. Officers who’ve already agreed to punishment have been told they won’t be punished. Officers facing the disciplinary trial process have been forgiven for their crimes by the man on top. Officers accused of severe misconduct have since been promoted to leadership positions where they can apply the same lack of standards to the people they command.

Filed Under: accountability, ccrb, edward caban, nypd, opacity, police misconduct