NYPD brass blasted for hostile social media posts and public takedowns in scathing report

Top NYPD officials were slammed for a series of “hostile” social media posts where they routinely lashed out at politicians, reporters and activists, a scathing new report claims.NYPD Chief of Department John Chell, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry and an NYPD News account run by public spokespeople for the department acted “irresponsible and unprofessional” and broke citywide policies with a series of wild public takedowns, said the report, released Tuesday by the Department of Investigation.The clashes included an instance where Chell called a city councilwoman’s tweet “garbage.”At the request of City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams last spring, the DOI’s Office of the Inspector General examined social media posts made on X through official NYPD accounts.The report said NYPD’s social media policies at the time the posts were made were ill-equipped to ensure posts on executive accounts were “courteous, accurate, and in compliance with relevant laws and regulations.”The probe analyzed more than 10,000 posts made across the three accounts between January 2022 through September 2024 and concluded NYPD used the platform to engage in “direct and sometimes hostile exchanges.”The report noted most of the posts were “were informative, courteous, and appropriate” but there were some “problematic” posts where NYPD officials expressed opinions bordering on “political discourse” — something NYPD executives are required to avoid.In one post Chell took a jab at Queens Councilwoman Tiffany Caban, calling her statement criticizing NYPD’s response to pro-Palestinian protestors “garbage.” “I started to read this garbage and quickly realized this is coming from a person who hates our city and certainly does not represent the great people of NYC,” Chell tweeted about Caban.In another post, Chell accused a New York Supreme Court Justice who granted a suspect bail of “failing to do her job” by releasing “a pre...