Legal Claims Against NY Police Drop

N E W   Y O R K, July 21 -- —The number of legal claims accusing New YorkCity police officers of using excessive force or other misconductdropped by 25 percent last year, according to city statistics.

The reduction abruptly ends a five-year period when the numberof such claims had risen, and suggests officers may be showinggreater restraint on the streets in the wake of incidents like thepolice shooting of Amadou Diallo and the station-house brutalization ofAbner Louima, The New York Times reported today.

The decrease comes as federal prosecutors are debating whetherthe NYPD requires outside oversight. It also coincides withdeclines in the number of police shootings and the number ofcomplaints filed to the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Police shootings last year were down to 31 from the 43 recordedin 1998, and civilian complaints have dropped by 14 percent overthe past six months, officials told the newspaper.

Legal claims against police officers declined to 1,766 for the12-month period ending in June, from 2,386 a year earlier, TheTimes said.

“This is a dramatic one-year reduction,” said city ComptrollerAlan G. Hevesi, whose office keeps track of all legal claims.

Signaling a Trend?

Police officials credited the reductions to improvements intraining and reforms in the disciplinary process that, they said,had changed attitudes and made officers more wary of misconduct.

“What is occurring is that police officers are much morecognizant of their responsibility to act with courtesy,professionalism and respect,” Police Commissioner Howard Safirtold The Times.

Critics had other explanations for the decreases.

“In recent years, New Yorkers have seen a historical spike inpolice action claims,” said Norman Siegel, executive director ofthe New York Civil Liberties Union. “In light of this history, weshould not jump to any quick conclusions based on one year of dataas to whether this means there is a decrease in policemisconduct.”