Suffolk police watchdog reports nearly 400 misconduct cases but has no clue who got punished: This information is vital

Suffolk cops got nearly 400 misconduct complaints between March 2023 and May 2024 — but the county’s police watchdog said it still doesn’t know exactly how many officers were disciplined, a new report shows.The Suffolk County Human Rights Commission’s findings praised SCPD leadership for being generally cooperative, but claims the commission is still kept at an arm’s length when it comes to evidence sharing, timing, and insight into disciplinary action.“This information is vital to civilian police oversight,” the report stated, calling for “increased transparency.”The report notes that while the HRC previously received updates on disciplinary outcomes, that access appears to have been cut off once the oversight process began in 2023.“We are currently in the process of advocating for the department to release that information to us again and more clearly,” said Dr.Carolyn Peabody, chair of the HRC’s Administration of Justice Subcommittee (AOJ).The report also highlights that the AOJ, tasked with monitoring the SCPD’s Internal Affairs investigations, stated that although it agreed with the department’s findings in most misconduct cases — it flat-out disagreed with the outcomes in 14.The report claims that key evidence, like body cam footage, was either never activated or not uploaded in a timely way, adding that the absence of video in certain cases made it impossible to confirm or challenge Internal Affairs’ determinations.“On multiple occasions, the commission could not agree or disagree with the proposed exoneration due to an Officer’s failure to activate the body-worn camera as per SCPD policy.”This was the first civilian oversight report from the HRC since the commission’s role was expanded in 2020, part of a broader police reform plan mandated by the state following the murder of George Floyd.The goal, according to the state, was to increase public trust by bringing an independent, civilian set of eyes to a historically c...