The New York City agency set up to increase oversight of the New York Police Department referred more than half of the complaints it received last year to the police department’s own investigative body, prompting some to question the effectiveness of an entity intended to act independently of the department it oversees, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Office of the Inspector General, a police-watchdog agency, was created in 2013. Its first annual report found that almost two-thirds of the 150 complaints it received in 2014 were referred to other city agencies because “they did not concern systemic issues, fell into the jurisdiction of other bodies, and could be more efficiently managed by those other entities.”
Inspector General Philip Eure said 85 of the 150 complaints were referred to the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau and six to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency created in 1993 to investigate police misconduct. Of the remaining complaints, all but seven were closed, because “no further action was warranted.” City Councilman Jumaane Williams said even the complaints that fall under the Internal Affairs Bureau should be reviewed by an outside body. Joo-Hyun Kang of Communities United for Police Reform, a coalition of liberal groups, said the referral of most complaints to the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau “raises flags,” adding, “There's no public confidence in the NYPD being able to police itself for good reason.”