NYPD Says Prior Complaints Were 'No Basis' to Take Cop Off Street

The New York Police Department said Friday there was no basis to take Police Officer James Frascatore off the street before this week, when he body-slammed former tennis star James Blake in a case of mistaken identity.

That’s despite Officer Frascatore’s history of complaints with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, revealed in a WNYC investigation last year. But some members of the City Council are troubled.

“Clearly the political establishment is paying more attention because a celebrity is involved, but I wonder how many cases like this go unnoticed, go under the radar with everyday citizens," said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat and a member of the public safety committee. "And for me, it’s as definitive an indictment of the NYPD as one could imagine, because it’s the latest example of the department’s seeming inability to police itself.” 

He added that it’s a small percentage of officers who cause problems.

“We know who those officers are right? The NYPD has extensive data with CCRB complaints, resisting arrest charges and lawsuits. And whichever officers are driving most of those metrics should no longer be on the streets,” Torres said.

Forty percent of the NYPD’s 35,000 members have never been the subject of a civilian complaint and about 20 percent have only one in their career. Then there are officers like Frascatore.

WNYC reported last December about a case where Frascatore and other officers arrested a woman in front of her crying children because she wasn’t quick enough to turn over a bike they wanted as evidence in a drug case. It was his fifth CCRB case in seven months, records showed.

The CCRB found he abused his authority and referred him to Internal Affairs for making false statements. He had also been sued at least four times.

“Every officer has a right to due process, and we respect that," said Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, another Bronx Democrat and chair of the public safety committee. "But we also respect the fact that any officer who could be subjected to CCRB complaints — in a time frame — we also want to make sure that these same officers are not necessarily on the streets patrolling our communities.” 

Councilman Brad Lander said the city charter gives the NYPD commissioner control over discipline and that’s not something lawmakers can change.

“But I would like to see the commissioner do more to focus on this small percentage of officers with an outsize number of complaints,” Lander said.

He said the commissioner should either take them off the street or give them an opportunity to change their behavior. And i an officer doesn’t change, “then you’re taken off the streets or in some cases taken off the job,” Lander said.

CCRB chairman Richard Emery says his agency is trying to develop an Early Warning System to spot possible problem cops.

“We’re looking at patterns of officers. We’re looking at methodologies of predicting future complaints that would then be transferred to the police department, and alert the police department that it should be considering transfers of deployment or placement or assignment,” Emery said.

Emery added that Commissioner William Bratton takes discipline seriously and the department is trying to do a better job monitoring its officer.

“I know they track the history. They do have risk management in place but they’re also working on considerably more sophisticated and hopefully accurate systems that will be in place in the future,” Emery said.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment, but the mayor’s office issued a statement it said came from the NYPD:

“Based on (Frascatore's) performance and disciplinary history there has been no basis for changing his duty status prior to yesterday's determination to place him on modified duty in connection with the September 9 incident involving James Blake."

Neither Frascatore’s civil attorney nor attorneys at the firm that represented him in CCRB cases responded to requests for comment. His union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, also declined to comment. Frascatore could not be reached for comment.

The NYPD also released a video Friday of Frascatore tackling Blake, taken from a security camera at the hotel where this week's incident occured:

In response to the video, PBA President Patrick Lynch released the following statement: 

“The police officer was apprehending what he had every reason to believe was an individual who had just committed a crime. The apprehension was made under fluid circumstances where the subject might have fled and the officer did a professional job of bringing the individual to the ground to prevent that occurrence. It is truly unfortunate that the arrest was a result of mistaken identity by the complainant in the case and we regret any embarrassment or injury suffered by Mr. Blake as a result.”