Q&A
Debate on NYPD's compliance with discovery laws
1:41:52
·
85 sec
Council Member Cabán presses Deputy Commissioner Gerber to quantify the NYPD's compliance rate with discovery laws, particularly in relation to drone-related materials. Gerber maintains that the department strives for complete compliance but cannot provide specific percentages.
- Cabán asks for a specific compliance rate (e.g., 70%, 80%, 90%)
- Gerber states that NYPD is committed to 100% compliance but acknowledges they are not perfect
- The exchange highlights the tension between the Council's desire for specific metrics and the NYPD's inability or unwillingness to provide them
Tiffany Cabán
1:41:52
Your very best.
1:41:53
The best of your ability, would you say that that results in that happening 70% of the time, 80% of the time, 40% of the time, 90% of the time?
1:42:01
What is what is the best of your ability?
1:42:03
Because again this is this is discovery information involved in, you know, a criminal investigation that then gets prosecuted and somebody's liberty is at stake.
1:42:11
So I wanna know what the best of your ability at the NYPD amounts to in terms of complying with that discovery.
Michael Gerber
1:42:16
If you're asking for what percentage of times we fall short in discovery obligations, I'm not gonna able to answer that question and you know it.
1:42:24
Do our You should.
1:42:25
No.
1:42:25
We do our very best.
1:42:27
We we council member.
1:42:29
We, of course, try to be as close to perfect as we can be.
1:42:33
If your question is, are we perfect?
1:42:35
The answer is no.
Tiffany Cabán
1:42:36
Except that the public has a right to know how often you guys are the what your best of ability is in in complying with discovery laws, especially when that information could be Brady material, for example.
1:42:49
Or it could be to the detriment of a person's defense by not having that discovery.
1:42:54
I think it is an absolutely fair question to say, what is the best of your ability?
1:42:58
Are you complying with the discovery laws by 80, 90 percent?
1:43:04
What what is it?
Michael Gerber
1:43:04
Right.
1:43:04
And the answer is institutionally, we are committed to complete compliance, complete compliance, % compliance with the discovery laws.
1:43:12
To the extent we ever fall short, I'm not sure how we would generate the data to answer your question.
Tiffany Cabán
1:43:16
I just have one question to complete this line of questions since we cannot get an answer on what the best of your ability is.