NYC police union files lawsuit against watchdog agency over officer complaints

New York City's largest police union on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against the city's police watchdog agency, accusing it of causing the circulation on a third-party website of unfounded allegations against police officers it argues stigmatizes them and destroys their careers.

The complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court against the Civilian Complaint Review Board, some of its officials and the city, follows an admission by the CCRB earlier this year that a bureaucratic foul-up caused it to dismiss racial profiling complaints against nearly 50 officers.

In a 53-page complaint, the Police Benevolent Association argued a recent policy change at the CCRB allows it to disclose three categories of serious allegations against officers — mainly sexual misconduct, racial profiling and the giving of untruthful statements — even when the agency found the allegations to be false or without evidence. The lawsuit is seeking a judgment that the disclosure of the material is unconstitutional.

The original allegations are published on what the PBA calls the "anti-NPYD database 50-a.org" without redaction even if they are unfounded, the lawsuit says. The original allegations are disclosed to the website under the Freedom of Information Act, according to the lawsuit. The website is not a party to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, the CCRB acknowledges   the three special categories of complaints can be "very prejudicial" to officers and in its own public database eventually only records them as "abuse of authority: other." Substantiated allegations are fully reported under the original nomenclature.

In a statement, PBA president Patrick Hendry said what he called the CCRB "collusion" with anti-police activists was designed to smear officers and "is not only unfair and unconstitutional" but also calculated to end proactive policing and drive officers from their jobs.

The CCRB issued a statement but noted it could not go into detail about the lawsuit's allegations.

"The CCRB’s investigations are complete, thorough and impartial," the statement said. "The Agency continually reviews all applicable laws and regulations regarding the public release of its records, including disciplinary histories of members of service, to ensure it is fully compliant."

Earlier this year the agency, which investigates several kinds of allegations against officers, acknowledged it had a problem with processing disciplinary cases against dozens of NYPD officers accusing them of biased policing — including racial profiling. The cases were dismissed by the CCRB because of a problem in the agency’s record keeping, officials disclosed.

Police union officials were quick to pounce on the mistake, saying the very existence of a bias and racial profiling allegation hurts the reputation and possible future employability of an officer.

The affected cases were all racial profiling and bias-based policing allegations made before Aug. 1, 2025, the CCRB said, adding the error was fixed for all cases after that date.

The mistake appears to be an indication that the pursuit of biased policing and racial profiling claims against officers by the CCRB is a new challenge for the agency. The CCRB has been empowered to investigate such allegations since 2021 and the next year set up a special unit to handle them.

According to the CCRB, biased policing means profiling based on various protected categories such as race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, housing status and immigration status. In its report for the first half of 2025, the CCRB reported it had been unable to substantiate bias policing allegations in over 250 cases, mostly for racial profiling. The agency said it substantiated allegations in 17 cases.

Once a case is substantiated, it may proceed to trial on charges before an NYPD administrative judge. But in the two cases which NYPD records show had trial decisions, both led to dismissal of the charges after the CCRB couldn’t prove its case. In both cases, a CCRB expert testified there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude there was racial profiling by officers.

The law gives NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch the power to retain jurisdiction over the CCRB and come to her own decision, something which she did in five bias policing cases.

"In all five cases, the Police Commissioner found that although the officer’s conduct was improper, it was not racially motivated and therefore didn’t warrant issuance of charges and specifications," special federal monitor Mylan L. Denerstein said in a report earlier this year.

If any officer is found to have acted in a biased manner, the NYPD disciplinary matrix provides for termination as a penalty.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.