The NYPD Commissioner Responded to Our Story That Revealed He’s Burying Police Brutality Cases. We Fact-Check Him.

In his five-page statement, Commissioner Edward Caban identified no inaccuracies in ProPublica's investigation but instead argued the story was unfair and that he’s “in compliance” with the guidelines. Our reporting shows otherwise.

by Eric Umansky
July 3, 4:35 p.m. EDT

New York Police Commissioner Edward Caban on Tuesday evening issued a five-page statement [see source for link] defending how he has handled officer discipline in the year since he was appointed to lead the department.

The statement, posted on the social media platform X, came in response to a story published last week by ProPublica and The New York Times that detailed how Caban has buried dozens of cases of alleged police misconduct involving officers accused of, among other things, wrongly using chokeholds, deploying Tasers and beating protesters with batons. Some episodes were so serious that a police oversight agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, concluded the officers likely committed crimes.

Caban, ProPublica found, has prevented 54 officers from facing a public disciplinary trial in his roughly one year in office — a tactic known as retention. His predecessor, Keechant Sewell, did it eight times in her first year.

Well before our story was published, we asked for an interview with Caban and sent the New York Police Department detailed questions about our reporting. In response, the department offered a one-sentence statement: “The NYPD continues to work closely with the Civilian Complaint Review Board in accordance with the terms of the memorandum of understanding.” That memorandum gives the commissioner the authority to preemptively end cases without a trial.

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