PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ben Weinberg, Director of Public Policy at Citizens Union
1:53:45
ยท
3 min
Ben Weinberg, representing Citizens Union, testifies in support of Intro 1020 and discusses the importance of strengthening NYPD oversight and accountability. He emphasizes the critical role of the OIG-NYPD in ensuring police accountability and fostering public trust in law enforcement.
- Advocates for merging three major oversight agencies (OIG, Mayor's Commission to Combat Police Corruption, and CCRB) into a unified police oversight board to increase effectiveness
- Highlights the need to protect the budget of oversight agencies
- Mentions Citizens Union's long-standing support for the OIG-NYPD and its investigative reports
Ben Weinberg
1:53:45
Hello, members of the Committee on Oversight and Investigation.
1:53:49
Thank you for having us here.
1:53:51
My name is Ben Weinberg, and I'm the director of public policy at Citizens Union.
1:53:55
Citizens Union is a nonpartisan good government organization dedicated to reforming city and state government by fostering accountability, honesty, and the highest ethical standards.
1:54:05
We believe that public safety relies on New Yorkers' trust in law enforcement which can only be achieved by strengthening oversight and accountability systems.
1:54:15
We have supported the establishment of the OIG NYPD long ago and believe it plays a critical role in ensuring police accountability.
1:54:23
It's investigative reports that identify systematic issues within the NYPD and expose how flawed or absent policies enable misconducts are helpful for council members, for advocates, and for the public.
1:54:36
And an example of that is what we saw yesterday.
1:54:39
We wanna express our support for introduction 10/20 which is discussed today, which we believe would strengthen the OIG's ability to fulfill its mission, the requirement for a detailed description of incidents where the police department intervene in its, work, would, foster and improve collaboration between the NYPD and the OIG, as well as the requirement to publish the subject matter of investigation that have been open more than 3 years.
1:55:10
We think that represents a balanced approach between transparency without and and, and sensitive, not revealing sensitive investigations.
1:55:20
I'll skip to another issue, unrelated to the bill.
1:55:26
You know, CU has for many years, supported merging the 3 big, oversight agencies.
1:55:34
One significant challenge we see all around in terms of managing police misconduct in in the city is that we have we do have a fragmented system of oversight.
1:55:41
We have a bunch of agencies doing different things.
1:55:43
All of them have a hard time getting information from the NYPD.
1:55:47
We, for a number of years, have supported consolidating the, OIG, the mayor's commission to combat police corruption, as well as the CCRB into 1 unified police oversight board, which we believe would strengthen their collective capacity and allow them easy access to NYPD information.
1:56:05
This is, you know, a a more, major lift, and and and a large project, but we do believe it will increase the ability of of, these agencies to investigate complaints and obtain relevant in information and prosecute wrongdoing.
1:56:21
This was included in the 2021 police reform, plan and was then endorsed by the by mayor de Blasio.
1:56:30
The Department of Investigation included that recommendation in their report on the 2020 George Floyd protest, but it did not make it to the reform plan that the council approved way back then.
1:56:41
So we do urge council member to revisit that idea.
1:56:44
In my last two seconds, I'll just mention protecting their budget, which I know you are all aware of and are working on.
1:56:50
Thank you.