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Public trust in NYPD leadership and handling of officer misconduct
1:45:02
ยท
4 min
Council Member Ayala addresses issues of public trust in NYPD leadership, particularly regarding the handling of officer misconduct. She shares personal experiences with police stops and emphasizes the need for better training and understanding of community perspectives.
- Ayala expresses concern about the timeliness and effectiveness of disciplinary actions for officer misconduct
- She highlights the impact of misconduct on public trust and department attrition
- A specific case involving Lieutenant Jonathan Rivera is mentioned as an opportunity for the commissioner to address justice concerns
- Ayala shares a personal experience of being stopped by police to illustrate the community's perspective
- The council member calls for improved training on conducting traffic stops and understanding community reactions
- Emphasis is placed on the importance of hearing community experiences to address injustices while ensuring officer safety
Diana Ayala
1:45:02
Absolutely.
1:45:03
And I'm happy to I just want to say that I am impressed with a lot of the changes you have made and I am really grateful because I think that part of your attrition issue is that people have lost confidence in the NYPD.
1:45:16
And when I say in the NYPD, don't mean the officers that are in our precincts.
1:45:20
They've lost you know they've lost trust in the commissioners right because a lot of the times you know when you have cases where there has been you know a level of misconduct, the reprimand doesn't seem to come fast enough right.
1:45:37
And so we understand that the majority of the police department is made up of men and women who you know just want to make the city better.
1:45:46
Who you know are not you know doing the wrong thing.
1:45:49
But when officers are doing the wrong thing we expect that there's going to be a consequence.
1:45:54
Right?
1:45:55
That because their police officers doesn't give them immunity to you know commit what we consider to be you know a crime.
1:46:05
And so with that I'll just ask you know I know that I'm just gonna put it out there.
1:46:08
We submitted a letter to you last week regarding Lieutenant Jonathan Rivera and the Deputy Commissioner Malonado's recommendation that he be fired.
1:46:23
I think that this is an opportunity where looking at you I guess in your leadership to help right bring some justice to this family and I hope that you you've I'm not sure if you've seen the letter but that you consider it.
1:46:40
You know when I see that video of that interaction you know I'm heartbroken.
1:46:46
It's it there was a lot of things that went wrong and I hope that there is also an effort as a consequence to that to provide more training on how to conduct, you know, a traffic stop.
1:47:00
Because I don't know that people understand when when you're stopped by a when you if you've ever been stopped before.
1:47:07
Have any of you ever been stopped?
1:47:10
Anybody on the no?
1:47:11
Okay.
1:47:12
So so Alex, I have.
1:47:14
I a lot of us have.
1:47:15
Right?
1:47:16
And so I think that that's the point.
1:47:19
I I was driving one day minding my business through 90 Sixth Street, get off the highway.
1:47:24
I'm going home up the First First Avenue and there were officers that had stopped a vehicle on the left of me and I looked at the officers because I was just being nosy and then one officer and I made eye contact and I immediately like you know looked away because that's my instinctive you know thing.
1:47:44
Like I instinctively know I'm not gonna you know don't want to look at the cop because I don't want any trouble.
1:47:48
This police officer got in his car and he followed me all the way to A Hundred And Seventeenth Street and stopped me.
1:47:55
You never know how you're going to react.
1:47:58
I get very nervous and I you know like I get very you know aggressive a little bit.
1:48:03
I'm like why are you stopping me?
1:48:05
And I maybe I you know, but the nerves take a hold of it, that adrenaline kicks in.
1:48:11
Because I knew that he was stopping me for no reason just because we made eye contact a few blocks down.
1:48:17
And that happens every single day in my community.
1:48:20
And that those are the things that you know, don't think that there's an appreciation for on the other side is like how does a person you know react to a stop is an important part of that training process, right.
1:48:32
Is that they may not be as compliant as you may want to.
1:48:38
So there has to be a different way of conducting these stops.
1:48:41
And I really would appreciate just maybe at some point having a larger conversation with you offline about some of our experiences because I think that we just want to be heard, right, like the rest of of New York City, we wanna be heard and we want to address some, you know, injustices that exist in the current way that we that we do things while also ensuring that police officers are safe.