The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) has confirmed it’s begun an investigation into the officers involved in the police killing of 27-year-old Antonio Williams outside a public housing complex in the Bronx in 2019.
The encounter began when Williams, who had been waiting for a taxi, was approached by plainclothes NYPD officers tasked with getting illegal guns off the streets.
Following a chase, Williams was shot eight times in an ensuing struggle with several officers. In the process, plainclothes officer Brian Mulkeen, 33, was fatally shot twice by his fellow officers in a case of friendly fire that dominated headlines for weeks. Williams was armed at the time, but police officials confirmed he had not fired his gun.
“Getting the call that my brother was killed by the NYPD was the worst moment of my life,” Nicole Johnson, Williams’ sister, said in a press release. “It’s been two years, and it’s only because the CCRB is finally investigating that we may get some answers that the NYPD and Mayor de Blasio have never provided.”
As the independent agency charged with investigating complaints against the NYPD in cases such as Williams’, the CCRB has long faced criticism over its ability to investigate police officers thoroughly and in a timely fashion, despite a series of reforms that have spanned decades.
According to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest Management Report, released late last week, the agency has seen a significant increase in the time it takes to complete investigations into police wrongdoing. On average, investigations into substantiated complaints now take 433 days to complete, up from 326 days in the previous year, and 269 days in 2019.
The report also found the statute of limitations expired in 25 percent of substantiated cases over the past year. That number ranged from zero to one percent between 2017 and 2020.
The slowdown comes at the same time that the total number of civilian complaints against the NYPD has continued to drop, from 5,236 in 2019 to 3,326 in the fiscal year ending in June of 2021. The agency currently has a staff of just over 200, and a budget that’s grown from $12 million in 2013 to $19 million last year.
The mayor’s office cites disruption from the pandemic as the primary reason for the backlog in investigations. However, Michael Sisitzky of the New York Civil Liberties Union said officers are often uncooperative with the agency and have continued to delay investigations into their conduct.
“The pandemic is one factor,” Sisitzky said. “But another factor is likely stalling tactics by the officers under investigation and by the department themselves.”
Sisitzky believes a lack of urgency within the agency, and stonewalling by police officers, is an injustice to New Yorkers.
“In years past, we’ve seen issues with the department not providing timely access to investigators when they’re requesting body-camera footage, or making officers available to be interviewed,” Sisitzky said. “There are ongoing issues of the department not actually viewing itself as accountable to its independent oversight agency.”
The police department disputes allegations that it has not cooperated with CCRB investigators.
“The NYPD is committed to fair, timely and effective investigations of every allegation about police misconduct. We prioritize turning over relevant records and body-worn camera footage, to serve all parties,” police spokesperson Al Baker said in a statement to Gothamist/WNYC. “Officers are required to comply and they do comply.”
Earlier this year, following a federal court order, the CCRB released its first public database of disciplinary records against the NYPD that tracks complaints of misconduct that involve force, abuse of authority, discourtesy, and offensive language.
Williams’ father and stepmother, along with other family members, have continued to call for an investigation since his death.
“Next week will mark two years since our son was racially profiled and murdered while waiting for a cab,” Shawn and Gladys Williams said in a joint statement. “It’s good the CCRB opened an investigation, but it shouldn’t have taken this long and we shouldn’t have to jump through all these hoops for basic information about what happened when Antonio was killed.”
In June of this year, the CCRB found two officers guilty of misconduct in the 2019 police killing of Kawaski Trawick—a case that involved long delays on the part of the NYPD in releasing police body-cam footage. The department has also delayed the process of charging the officers, a holdup de Blasio has also blamed on the pandemic.
The CCRB declined to comment on Williams’ case specifically, but the agency’s chair, Fred Davie, defended its performance.
“The pandemic also exacerbated inefficiencies in the NYPD process that must be addressed,” Davie said in a statement to Gothamist/WNYC. “The CCRB and its staff should be commended for fully investigating hundreds of allegations and recommending discipline for scores of officers even in the midst of the pandemic.”
Several lawmakers have called for replacing the existing agency with one that’s fully composed of members from the community, a move Davie opposes.
Inez Barron, a city council member from East New York has sponsored a bill called the Community Police Oversight With Elected Review (POWER) Act that would set term limits for board members elected by 17 designated districts within the city and grant the agency full control over its disciplinary process.
As it stands, the CCRB’s board—the body that rules whether officers have engaged in misconduct and recommends disciplinary action to the police commissioner— is composed of 15 members, with five seats appointed by the mayor, five by the City Council, three by the police commissioner, and one by the public advocate. The chair of the board is jointly appointed by both the city council and mayor.
However, the police commissioner has the authority to ignore the CCRB’s recommendations, a fact that’s long been a concern among police-reform advocates.
“This is a part of what we know to be ‘the blue wall of silence’, that protects one another even though they know that there is in fact misconduct going on,” Barron said. “It most certainly contributes to the delays, the foot dragging, ‘oh we can’t find the files right now’... it’s all a part of the intent to protect those who have been charged.”
Joseph Gedeon reported this story for the Gothamist/WNYC’s Race & Justice Unit. If you have a tip, some data, or a story idea, email him at [email protected] or reach out on Twitter @JGedeon1.
