NYPD Changes Sought in Wake of Sean Bell Shooting

NYPD Changes Sought in Wake of Sean Bell Shooting

By ANNA PHILLIPS, Special to the Sun
June 9, 2008
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/police-department-changes-sought-in-wake-of-sean/79525/

State and federal legislators and two likely mayoral candidates are calling for sweeping changes in police department procedures in the wake of the 2006 Sean Bell shooting.

State Senator Malcolm Smith and about a dozen others, including state Senator Eric Adams, Rep. Gregory Meeks, members of the Bell family, and the Reverend Al Sharpton, held a news conference in front of City Hall yesterday to announce the release of the "Report on Improving Public Confidence in Law Enforcement and our Criminal Justice System."

The report made 15 demands that were culled from five hearings during the last year, including the implementation of drug testing for police officers who fire their guns, videotaping of police interrogations, an end to arrest quotas, and increased funding for training officers in nonlethal tactics.

"This report is a recognition for the need for a different kind of approach to justice," Mr. Smith said.

The group, which calls itself the Tri-Level Legislative Taskforce, formed a year and a half ago in response to the Bell shooting. Two possible candidates for the 2009 mayoral election, the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, and the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., were listed as a co-chairwoman and a co-chairman, respectively, of the task force.

Several of the proposals have been pushed by individual members of the task force, but the report marked the first time some ideas — such as allowing the state attorney general to take over investigations of police shootings — have received such broad support.

A few of the proposals have already been enacted at the city level, and others are under consideration.

READ FULL ARTICLE @ [The New York Sun.]