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NYC Crime
NYPD detectives union blasts CCRB attempts to ID
confidential informants
By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News • Jan 16, 2023 at 7:30 am
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“confidential” out of the term “confidential informant.”
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A move by the Civilian Complaint Review Board to require information about
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confidential informants’ involvement in or knowledge of police misconduct is
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Under a new CCRB policy, its investigators handling misconduct cases in which a
1h
confidential informant played a role “should attempt to obtain paperwork referencing
the involvement” of those informants, according to a memo shared with The News. Yankees
Chad Green was an
NYPD detectives who rely on confidential informants balk at the idea of giving up unsung hero for the
Yankees
information about their sources. 1h
(Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
“This CCRB policy — which shows complete ignorance of undercover police work —
will endanger detectives, informants, and anyone else involved in such operations,”
said Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, which
represents NYPD detectives.
The NYPD also had “significant concerns over protecting the identity of confidential
informants,” an NYPD spokesman said.
“These concerns were directly raised to CCRB leadership who has agreed to make
necessary revisions and clarifications to the memo in order to ensure the protection of
our confidential informants,” the spokesman said.
Misconduct cases involving confidential informants are extremely rare.
The CCRB didn’t have a policy on confidential informants until late last year, when
the agency was faced with an investigation involving a questionable car stop
undertaken on the basis of information from a tipster, a source with knowledge of the
new rules said.
In prior cases, if a confidential informant was at an incident where misconduct was
alleged, CCRB investigators didn’t know it and treated them like witnesses if they
were present when the incident occurred, the source said.
The new policy says that when CCRB investigators work cases involving a confidential
informant, they should get all the paperwork possible on the cop’s interaction with the
informant, including copies of memo books, detective files and arrest reports, before
they interview the officer accused of misconduct.
(Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)
“If (the officer) refuses to answer questions that may implicate a CI’s [confidential
informant’s] safety, the investigator should pause the record (and) notify their deputy
chief of investigations who will determine the merits of the claim off the record with
the officer’s representative and (the officer),” the memo notes.
Cops, in order to protect their confidential informant, may feel that they have to lie
about what happened when being questioned by investigators, said CCRB Executive
Director Jonathan Darche.
“A key purpose of the policy is to prevent officers from giving untruthful statements to
protect their confidential informants,” Darche said.
“The last thing anyone wants is for an officer to come down and give untrue
testimony,” he said. “Even if it is the officer’s desire to protect the confidential
informant, it is still the kind of thing that can get you fired from the police
department.”
(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)
A CCRB spokeswoman said that the agency will do everything possible to protect
informants’ identities, and described the policy as a work in progress.
“A recent investigation alerted the CCRB to the need of a policy on how to handle
cases involving confidential informants, specifically on how to protect both their
identity and their role in a case,” spokeswoman Clio Calvo-Platero explained.
“The CCRB wants to create a policy that allows officers to accurately detail an incident
without the fear of exposing an informant.”
The CCRB may tweak the policy after receiving feedback from the NYPD and the city’s
police unions, she said.
“We are working with them to ensure the policy protects the anonymity and safety of
confidential informants,” she said.
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