City Comptroller Scott Stringer
By Michael V. Cusenza
City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer recently unveiled a 50-page blueprint for a new approach to public safety.
Stringer’s plan, which builds on his June 2020 analysis of the City Police Department budget, would move responsibilities away from the NYPD, address serious crime and the recent increase in shootings, improve accountability and civilian oversight of the NYPD, and reinvest police dollars into communities.
“To keep all New Yorkers truly safe, we must confront the structural racism that is embedded in our criminal legal system, and we must act decisively and creatively to put a stop to the rise of violence in our city. We must transform the City’s approach to public safety, and this report is a blueprint for that transformation,” Stringer said.
New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board has voted to adopt new rules that allow the agency to investigate sexual misconduct committed by NYPD officers.
ProPublica’s series “The NYPD Files,” which uncovered abuse and impunity inside the New York Police Department, won the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting. The multimedia package was recognized in the “series” category of the prize, which is administered by the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at John Jay College.
ProPublica’s Eric Umansky, Joaquin Sapien, Topher Sanders, Derek Willis, Moiz Syed, Mollie Simon, Lena Groeger, Joshua Kaplan, Lucas Waldron and Adriana Gallardo contributed to the project.
The series’ first story, by deputy managing editor Umansky, began last Halloween, when his wife, Sara Pekow, and their daughter were headed home after a night of trick-or-treating and saw an unmarked police car hit a Black teenager who was running with a group. Miraculously unharmed, the teen got away. Police then hauled away a completely different group of Black boys a 15-year-old, a 14-year-old and a 12-year-ol