New York City police car. New York City police car. Photo: flickr A panel of legal heavy-hitters have been tapped to conduct a full-scale review of the New York City Police Department's discipline policies. Police Commissioner James O'Neill has appointed Mary Jo White, a former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 2002, to chair the independent panel. The panel also includes Robert Capers, a partner at Arent Fox who recently served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and Barbara Jones, a former federal judge in the Southern District of New York and partner at Bracewell who is also the appointed special master in the criminal investigation of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney. According to a release from the NYPD, the panel will have a mandate to review how the Department Advocate's Office, an internal unit that prosecutes officer discipline cases, tries its cases, as well as how sanctions for officers line up with their infractions. The panel will also look into how the NYPD handles disciplinary complaints brought by the Civilian Complaint Review Board. O'Neill has asked the panel to complete its work within 120 days.