New York, NY —

The election for Mayor is many months off but already the question of how best to handle charges of police misconduct is shaping up as a defining issue.

REPORTER: Since 1994 city residents with a beef about the NYPD were directed to the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In turn the CCRB would investigate and if they found the complaint credible would refer it to the NYPD.

REPORTER: But the police have become dismissive of the CCRB, dropping many of its substantiated cases because the department believes the CCRB's work is defective. New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson says he supports the CCRB.

THOMPSON: "One would think that a civilian complaint review board needs to be taken seriously and that is what it is there for the recommendations are taken seriously by the police department and that in cases where police officers don't do what they're supposed to do or they overact that there is discipline."

REPORTER: Critics of the current system want an independent prosecutor or inspector general to examine substantiated complaints dismissed by the police. Meanwhile the NYPD contends its own Internal Affairs Bureau has matters well in hand.