West Village Precinct Has Over 100 Allegations Against Officers

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Officers within the police precinct overseeing the West Village and Greenwich Village neighborhoods of Manhattan have amassed 123 total civilian allegations against them, according to a new database published by ProPublica.

The 6th Precinct polices the two lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

The allegations against the officers within the precinct range from "physical force" to "refusal to provide a name or shield number" to "offensive language" related to ethnicity.

Patch was unable to get in contact with Deputy Inspector Robert O'Hare, the commanding officer of the 6th Precinct, but the NYPD Deputy Commissioner's Office of Public Information did provide a statement to Patch about the database from ProPublica.

"The NYPD has for many years worked to increase transparency to gain the trust of the communities we serve. While we remain committed to increased transparency, we are equally committed to due process," said Sergenant Mary Frances O'Donnell, a NYPD Deputy Commissioner's Office of Public Information spokesperson. "While recent legislation repealed NYS Civil Rights Law Section 50a, a federal judge issued a restraining order prohibiting the release of records of which allegations against our officers were found to be false, unfounded or unsubstantiated. We await the results of pending litigation."

A single complaint received from a civilian can include multiple allegations.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board oversees all submitted complaints, and uses three terms as outcomes.

• 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."

Information regarding disciplinary records of all NYPD officers became public after a change in state law in June. ProPublica, a nonprofit independent journalism organization, then created a searchable database containing those records.

Here is the information for the 6th Precinct:

• Officers receiving complaints: 27
• Total complaints: 48
• Allegations: 123
• Substantiated Allegations: 25

Out of the 123 allegations, 45 had to do with abuse of authority, which ranged from incidents involving strip searches, frisking, and property damage.

The other most frequent allegation was 65 cases of unnecessary physical force, which ranged from incidents involving chokeholds, pepper spray, and an officer using their nightstick as a weapon.

In June, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a repeal of a law — known as 50-a — that officially banned the use of chokeholds by officers. Before the law was passed this summer, chokeholds were banned under NYPD policy but were not illegal.

Additionally, here is the breakdown of who filed the allegations in the 6th Precinct by ethnicity.

• White: 37
• Black: 35
• Hispanic: 28
• Asian: 3
• Unknown: 20

You can look through all 123 allegations against police officers in the 6th Precinct on ProPublica's website.