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NYPD Oversight Board May Fire Its Executive Director


By

Christopher Robbins

Published Sep 14, 2014

Modified Sep 14, 2014


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Tracy Catapano-Fox sits between Bishop Mitchell Taylor

 

left


By

Christopher Robbins

Published Sep 14, 2014

Modified Sep 14, 2014


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At a meeting in Staten Island last week, the first nighttime gathering of the CCRB in more than a decade, the agency's chair, Richard Emery, seemed exasperated but hopeful. "Broken is too strong a word, but it's pretty close," he said of the organization the mayor appointed him to reform. "All I can do is try and increase the integrity of our investigations and the integrity of our results." Apparently those goals involve firing his executive director, Tracy Catapano-Fox.

The Post points out that her position is listed on NYC.gov, and quotes sources saying that after a little more than a year on the job, Catapano-Fox was ineffectual, failing to expand the agency's outreach efforts to ensure more New Yorkers were aware that the CCRB exists to document and prosecute incidences of NYPD misconduct.

Her plans to set up meeting spaces for outer-borough complainants went nowhere and her pitch to the City Council to fund five new outreach workers fell on deaf ears, sources said. Investigator position vacancies also went unfilled, they added.

The sources also claim that she was responsible for the mass interrogations of CCRB employees by DOI investigators in the spring.

An NYPD memo stating that police officers were immune to civilian complaints involving stop and frisk encounters was leaked to the NYCLU. CCRB employees were then grilled by the Department of Investigation.

"It would be a serious issue if the board, or the agency, or frankly the city were investigating people within the CCRB who made available to the public a policy memo about a significant police practice issue," the NYCLU's associate legal director Chris Dunn said at the time.

The Post reports that Catapano-Fox is currently "declining to step down." A closed-press meeting of the CCRB's leadership is scheduled for Monday evening "for the purpose of discussing personnel matters." A majority vote by the board would be required to oust Catapano-Fox.

Linda Sachs, a spokeswoman for the CCRB, declined to comment on the story.

"In the natural course of a new administration, you will expect a change of leadership at a failed agency so that new leadership is given a chance to turn things around," Emery told Gothamist in a statement.

The salary range for Catapano-Fox's job is listed as $98,234 to $212,614.

Tagged

CCRB

police brutality

police misconduct


Christopher Robbins

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Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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