Regarding Daniel Connolly's letter published March 18, 2019, entitled “To Say That Officers Are Not Disciplined Is False,” Mr. Connolly contends that “[f]or decades” the Corporation Counsel's Office or Law Department for New York City makes an individualized decision in every case where a police officer is accused of misconduct whether to defend and indemnify the officer for compensatory and punitive damages.  He suggests that officers may be disciplined upon the recommendation of the Law Department.

However, I wonder whether Mr. Connolly can cite a single case where the city declined to defend and indemnify an officer accused of misconduct.  I wonder whether he can cite a single case where an officer was disciplined following the defense of a civil case by the Law Department.

I have been handling litigation for plaintiffs for more than two decades involving allegations of police misconduct, and I have never seen the city decline to represent a police civil defendant no matter how egregious the apparent misconduct. This may be tactical in part, since if the city is also accused of liability its interest may be in defending the officers, no matter how bad their misconduct. Large amounts of money are paid out in settlements and then the city moves on with no apparent consequence for the officer who caused the loss. Indeed, New York City comptrollers going back to the 1980s have issued several reports criticizing the Police and the Law Department for a lack of a coordinated response where there are substantiated claims against police officers.

It is dismaying, in case after case, to obtain discovery—always over the vigorous resistance of the city Law Department and, upon its insistence, under seal—showing inordinate numbers of complaints against police officers for allegedly stealing the property and money of arrestees, planting evidence, fabricating complaints covering up excessive force with false allegations of “disorderly conduct” and resisting arrest,” and withholding exculpatory evidence. These complaints almost always are dismissed or found to be “unsubstantiated,” even in cases where the police witnesses contradict each other or have apparently fabricated defenses because the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau will virtually never credit a civilian over an officer.

When the civil suit ultimately settles, the Law Department insists on settlement language disclaiming any admission of wrongdoing and proclaiming that the settlement cannot be used in subsequent litigation, and it continues to insist that the officer's disciplinary history remain secret from the public for whom the city's lawyers, and its police officers, work.

If there's a concern with consequences for the individual officers, it is not apparent.

Joel B. Rudin is a New York criminal defense and civil rights lawyer.