QUESTION
Council Member Caban Inquires About NYPD Misidentification Incident
0:27:14
·
6 min
Council Member Caban questions the NYPD on a 2015 misidentification incident involving their Latent Print Section and the subsequent audit. Neil Fenton from the NYPD provides answers, sharing that no arrests were made, the Brooklyn DA was informed, and considerable retraining was conducted.
Caban's inquiries focus on the disclosure to other DA's offices, the hiring of national experts for retraining, and the NYPD's decision against an independent external audit of the detective's work across all boroughs.
Tiffany Cabán
0:27:14
So recently, the NYPD disclosed that in 2015, detectives from the NYPD's lien print section mistakenly identified a known individual as a source of a latent print found at a crime scene in Brooklyn.
0:27:25
And then the NYPD further disclosed that at the time of the misidentification that conducted an audit of the cases worked by those detectives and found no other discrepancies.
0:27:33
So I wanna ask a series of questions about about this.
0:27:37
Starting with what entities were informed of the misidentifications at the time it was discovered by the NYPD.
Neil Fenton
0:27:44
Good morning, gentlemen.
0:27:45
Neil Fenton.
0:27:48
And with respect to the Layton Prince, issue in 2015.
0:27:53
And first of all, I wanna say nobody was arrested with respect to that case.
0:27:56
There was an I card that was put out indicating that that person But
Tiffany Cabán
0:28:01
I I'm more concerned about what the practices are Sure.
0:28:04
Whether an arrest was made or not.
Neil Fenton
0:28:06
No arrests was made.
0:28:08
I wanna put that on the record.
0:28:10
Once that incident had happened that was related to a Brooklyn matter, The Brooklyn district attorney was informed that.
0:28:19
Thereafter, the NYPD conducted an internal investigation, reviewed all of those respective detectives work found no further misidentifications.
0:28:29
We did not notify all of the other district attorney's offices at that time.
0:28:36
We instituted a considerable amount of retraining with respect to the subject 2 of the subject detectors.
0:28:43
1 of them was removed.
0:28:44
Furthermore, we brought in outside national experts to retrain the entire latent print unit.
0:28:50
For So
Tiffany Cabán
0:28:51
I I have some questions here because I wanna make sure I'm getting specific information.
0:28:54
So you I you'd let the Brooklyn DA's office know.
0:28:58
You did not let any of the other DA's offices know.
0:29:01
It is possible that this officer or this detective had cases pending in the other Burrows.
0:29:07
Correct?
Neil Fenton
0:29:08
That is correct.
Tiffany Cabán
0:29:08
Okay.
0:29:09
And you said that outside of the DA's office that you commissioned a national organization to do some sort of of investigation.
Neil Fenton
0:29:18
Did the NYPD at the time I wasn't there at the time.
0:29:21
The NYPD, the commanding officer, who was head of a latent print section brought in 2 national experts.
Tiffany Cabán
0:29:27
Who were
Neil Fenton
0:29:27
they?
0:29:28
Kenneth Martin, as well as Glenn Langenberg.
Tiffany Cabán
0:29:30
So they were hired and paid by the NYPD to conduct this.
Neil Fenton
0:29:34
Correct.
Tiffany Cabán
0:29:34
Okay.
0:29:35
So they were not independent from the the NYPD.
Neil Fenton
0:29:37
They were independent.
0:29:38
They they assisted with the retraining of the latent print unit.
0:29:42
They also assisted in developing additional protocols, specifically, 2 additional protocols the latent print section and adopted, created more conservative measure.
0:29:55
Moreover, one of those experts, Kenneth Martin was hired ultimately as our quarterly assurance in 2016.
Tiffany Cabán
0:30:01
Now are the records of of the audit that was performed?
Neil Fenton
0:30:04
They are on the record as far as the paperwork that was turned over to the back to district attorney's offices and then ultimately depends counsel.
Tiffany Cabán
0:30:12
Okay.
0:30:12
And are those records available to the public or this counsel?
Neil Fenton
0:30:15
Yeah.
0:30:15
And they'd been turned over to the respective district attorney's offices.
0:30:19
Moreover, they've been turned over to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Forensic Science Commission.
Tiffany Cabán
0:30:28
And one way that the laboratories handle major adverse events is to commission an independent external audit and root cause analysis such as the independent review.
0:30:36
And you talked about that saying that you hired this outside entity.
0:30:42
Why didn't that entire process live outside of the NYPD?
Neil Fenton
0:30:47
Because regularly in forensic labs root cause analysis are done buy the respective labs themselves.
0:30:53
The for example, our forensic labs deal with or they are credited number 1.
0:31:00
And the root cause analysis done in forensic science all the time.
0:31:05
So whether it's the OCME or the NYPD lab, Rucor's analysis done in investigation of the non conforming, which this was a mistake, if you will, a significant one.
0:31:15
That mistake was investigated.
0:31:17
A thorough root cause analysis was done.
0:31:20
It was turned over to the respective district attorneys.
0:31:23
Moreover, it was turned over.
0:31:25
When we really realized that there was an error that all of the district attorney's offices were not informed in 2015.
Tiffany Cabán
0:31:31
Right.
0:31:31
But if it was a mistake done by one of the in in your department.
0:31:37
Why didn't you see fit to have an outside audit done of all of the cases that that detective touched?
0:31:43
In all of the boroughs and inform every single DA of that.
Neil Fenton
0:31:48
Because normally in forensic science, they go to the other they they assemble bodies and of other forensic sciences within the unit who do investigations.
0:31:58
This was given to the super advisers as when all as far as the commanding officer, they reviewed all of those respective blatant print examiners.
Tiffany Cabán
0:32:06
So you did so it in like, to conclude all of that, you're saying that you did not, as an department, see it fit or appropriate to have an entirely outside independent review of this and have every single case that that detective touched.
0:32:25
Reviewed by a completely independent auditor or let every single DA and every single bureau know so that they had the option of opening up every single one of those cases.
Neil Fenton
0:32:35
We adhere to common practices in the forensic science mission as adhered to why the New York for him.
Tiffany Cabán
0:32:39
That's that's not my question.
0:32:40
Great.
0:32:41
My question is you you made the determination that it was not appropriate to do that entirely independent outside of the NYPD.
0:32:48
That's my question.
Neil Fenton
0:32:50
As far as me?
0:32:51
No.
0:32:51
You you on behalf of
Tiffany Cabán
0:32:53
the of the NYPD.
Neil Fenton
0:32:55
I'm sorry.
0:32:55
I didn't hear you.
Tiffany Cabán
0:32:56
You on behalf of the NYPD.
0:32:57
You the universal u.
Neil Fenton
0:32:59
I wasn't working in in for the NYPD at that time, but the commanding officer at that time did not make that decision to turn that over to all of the respective district attorneys.
0:33:08
They thought that or I assume that thought that notifying the one district attorney that was related to the case was enough.
Tiffany Cabán
0:33:15
Okay.
0:33:15
Thank you.