The Office of the Inspector General for the New York City Police Department (OIG-NYPD) issued a Report detailing the findings of its review of the New York City Police Department's (NYPD) compliance with the court-mandated rules governing the investigation of political activity. These rules, also known as the Handschu Guidelines, are codified in the NYPD Patrol Guide. In the course of this investigation, OIG-NYPD examined highly confidential intelligence files never before subject to review or available to non-police entities. OIG-NYPD's investigators examined, among other things, whether NYPD's Intelligence Bureau satisfied the established standard for opening investigations, met deadlines for extending investigations, and obtained necessary approvals for the use of human sources, which include confidential informants and undercover officers. The investigation found that the NYPD Intelligence Bureau failed to renew investigations before the authorization expired more than half of the time, resulting in investigations of political activity that continued without the requisite authorization. More than 25% of the extensions reviewed exceeded the required deadline by more than 31 days. Further, requests to use human sources were frequently approved despite failing to document the particularized role of confidential informants and undercover officers, as required. However, OIG-NYPD found that in all cases NYPD met the informational threshold required to open an investigation.
The Broken Windows and Quality-of-Life Policing in New York City report discusses the NYPD's enforcement of lesser crimes and demonstrates that enforcement actions such as misdemeanor arrests, criminal-court summonses, and notices of violation have been declining in New York City.
This report lays out findings on how the NYPD can better use police litigation data to improve officer performance and identify trends of police misconduct, identifies several catagories of information that the NYPD should be analyzing better, and recommends the creation of an interagency working group to coordinate the organization and exchange of litigation information.