De Blasio pushes 'police discipline matrix' standardizing penalties for NYPD officer misconduct

The New York City Police Department rolled out a draft Monday for its new “discipline penalty matrix,” meant to serve as a roadmap to standardize punishments for officer misconduct, making penalties less secretive or arbitrary.

"This is a big step forward for transparency, accountability – user-friendly data that will allow a clear understanding of how we are approaching discipline," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday, announcing the matrix. "We want discipline to be a very straight forward matter. We want it to be clear that when certain actions are taken and certain mistakes are made that there will be accountability.”

The matrix lists presumptive penalties for dozens of forms of misconduct, including termination for using deadly physical force without justification, engaging in hate speech, and making a false statement.

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The 48-page draft will be open for public review and feedback for 30 days. Recommendations will then be reviewed and a final version of the discipline matrix will be published on Jan. 15, 2021, with a summary of changes made in response to the comments.

The nation’s largest police department is shifting to formal disciplinary guidelines at a time when law enforcement agencies around the world are being pressed to be more transparent about officer discipline in the wake of protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, who will still have the final say on officer discipline, said it was important to have a “road map” so the public and officers know what to expect. The development of the matrix was well underway when the city council passed a law in June mandating its use. The law also requires that the public be informed of how often Shea deviates from it.

“The NYPD’s lack of a standard disciplinary system has long built mistrust between the department and the communities they serve,” City Council member Donovan Richards, who chairs the public safety committee that developed the new law requiring the matrix, told the New York Daily News. “The disciplinary framework released today by the NYPD is a major step in ensuring the department holds officers accountable for misconduct in a fair and consistent manner."

Under the new guidelines, an officer who uses unauthorized deadly physical force – even if no injury or death occurs -- will be terminated. Officers may also be terminated for failing to intervene should another officer use unauthorized deadly physical force resulting in serious physical injury or death.

Officers who use a chokehold that results in death may also be terminated. The police department has long banned chokeholds and state and city lawmakers recently passed laws explicitly outlawing the tactic. The state law was named for Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after then-Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him to the ground and put him in a chokehold.

Pantaleo was fired by the NYPD in 2019, and the officer's union argued that there was little, if any, precedent within the department's internal disciplinary system for such a penalty.

“The Department’s administrative discipline process is not a substitute for the criminal or civil justice systems. When a member of the service is arrested and charged with a crime, he or she is still subject to criminal responsibility in accordance with applicable Federal, state, or local law. The member may also be subject to liability in a civil proceeding,” the matrix states.

Police supervisors will also be held to a higher standard – and the matrix seeks to eliminate a so-called “white shirt immunity,” a term which refers to bosses often getting breaks for the same offenses lower-ranking officers would get stiff punishments for, according to the Daily News.

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“The Department has higher expectations for supervisors, including their ability to exercise sound judgment and to be more deliberate in their actions than subordinate members,” the matrix states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.