Bed-Stuy's 2 Top Cops Have 38 Allegations Against Them: Files

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Bedford-Stuyvesant's top cops have amassed dozens of misconduct allegations against them in their near two decades as New York City police officers, according to a new database published by ProPublica.

The commanding officers of the 79th and 81st Precincts, the two units overseeing Bed-Stuy, have had 11 and 27 allegations made against them, respectively, during their careers with the NYPD.

The allegations, filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, include "abuse of authority" and "physical force" for both officers and are as recent as early 2019.

They stem from disciplinary records of all NYPD officers that became public after a change in state law in June. ProPublica, a nonprofit independent journalism organization, has created a searchable database containing those records.

In it are details of the records for both commanding officers.

The 81st Precinct commander, Deputy Inspector William Glynn, has had three of the allegations against him substantiated by the board, including a strip-searching allegation from 2006 that resulted in charges being filed against him.

The two other substantiated allegations — a frisking complaint from 2007 and a physical force complaint from 2011 — resulted in "command discipline." All three substantiated allegations were made by people of color.

Deputy Inspector Timothy Skretch with the 79th Precinct had one of the 11 allegations against him substantiated by the board: a complaint that he refused to show a search warrant in February 2019.

Seven of the remaining allegations against Skretch were marked "exonerated" and three were marked "unsubstantiated" by the board. Of Glynn's, five were "exonerated" and 19 were "unsubstantiated."

The Civilian Complaint Review Board defines those three terms as the following, according to ProPublica:

• Substantiated: "The alleged conduct occurred and it violated the rules."
• Exonerated: "The alleged conduct occurred but did not violate the NYPD's rules, which often gives officers significant discretion over use of force."
• Unsubstantiated: "The CCRB has fully investigated but could not affirmatively conclude both that the conduct occurred and that it broke the rules."

The database also revealed that Bed-Stuy's precincts, as a whole, have logged some of the most complaints against their officers of any in the city.

The 79th Precinct has seen 737 total allegations, only beat by East New York's 75th Precinct, which has logged 1,364 complaints, and the 44th and 46th Precincts in the Bronx.

The 81st Precinct saw a total of 410 allegations against its officers, ranking it 26th in the more than 360 police units analyzed in the database.

Both commanding officers have not worked in Bed-Stuy for their entire careers.

Glynn has previously worked in Greenpoint's 94th Precinct, Manhattan's 9th Precinct and the 79th Precinct. Skretch has worked in the 90th Precinct, 75th Precinct, 23rd Precinct and Police Service Area 4.

Of the 27 allegations against Glynn, 17 were involving a Black man, six involved a white man and four involved a Hispanic man, according to the records.

Six allegations against Skretch were made by Hispanic men and three were made by Black men. Information about the complainant were not available for two of the allegations.

When Patch asked the department to comment on the allegations against Glynn and Skretch, an NYPD spokesperson pointed to a ruling this week that temporarily blocks the city and the CCRB from releasing disciplinary records. ProPublica was not a party in that case and is not subject to the order, which will face a hearing next month.

"The NYPD has for many years worked to increase transparency to gain the trust of the communities we serve," Sgt. Mary Frances O'Donnell said. "While we remain committed to increased transparency, we are equally committed to due process...We await the results of pending litigation."

Unions for police officers, firefighters and corrections officers have sued New York City to stop the disclosure of most of these and other disciplinary records, according to ProPublica.

Glynn declined to comment for this story. Skretch did not answer a request for comment.

You can find a breakdown of their disciplinary records, and those of other officers, by searching the database here.