Thousands of complaints have been made with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, otherwise known as the CCRB, and now those complaints have been compiled and released to the public for the first time.

There are more than 300k complaints that have been made.

Those complaints involve more than 80k former and active law enforcement officers working with the NYPD.

It isn't uncommon for officers to receive one or even a few complaints, but it shouldn't be acceptable to keep people on the force who have growing lists of complaints against them as they are a liability to the community.

Commonly you'll find that those records of wrongdoing are not recorded in such a way for the public to get a hold of, they aren't released to the public so that they can have a clear picture of just what is going on with the security services they are paying for. It has only been in the last few years that more criminologists and others have been looking to keep closer track of the wrongdoing.

These complaints reflect decades of misconduct by the police and it's clear that it isn't only one region alone in the United States that suffers from an issue of misconduct.

What good is that "law and order" when it ignores its own restraints?

The data unfortunately reveals that leading NYPD officials have faced extensive misconduct allegations over the years.

These complaints that have been made date back to 1985 and current complaints that are still being investigated have not been included in the database. Many of the complaints also never end up being fully investigated, about 30-40 percent of them. The details were released by the New York Civil Liberties Union, with the legal director of the organization suggesting that for years the NYPD has shown a refusal to properly police itself and hold itself accountable to the community it serves.

“The release of this database is an important step towards greater transparency and accountability and is just the beginning of unraveling the monopoly the NYPD holds on public information and officer discipline.”- C Dunn, legal director of the NYCLU

The police, fire and other public service unions, had all allegedly filed lawsuits in order to try and prevent this information from coming to light.

A judge just recently lifted the order allowing for the information to be released to the public. Despite the many lawsuits and substantiated claims over the years, many say there has been little to no accountability that has taken place, not enough true reform yet.

The fact that these unions have worked to keep the public from finding out this information should give some insight into what they think about their own communities, the neglect they show for the right of those individuals to know for themselves just what is going on with their billions in tax dollars.

For those individuals who do file complaints, that might not have had video evidence of the situation unfolding with the police at the time, and it ends up being largely their word against a NYPD officer, who do you think the courts are going to believe? It isn't surprising that many cases might go unsubstantiated, and this doesn't mean all are truthful, but it's clear how that this could easily spell a problem. Also, the organization investigating the complaints doesn't have an unlimited budget, mistakes are going to be made.

This is truly just the tip of the iceberg when trying to get an idea of what problems need to be addressed with the NYPD. When liars and abusers are covered up and those wrongdoings are kept from the public then you fuel a sort of culture that is going to breed corruption and deteriorate civil liberties for all.

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