Investigation Reveals That Almost 90% of Discipline Records Temporarily Disappeared From Officer Tracking System Used by the NYPD
by Jo Ellen Nott
A ProPublica investigation published in May 2024 has uncovered significant reliability issues with the New York Police Department’s (“NYPD”) public database for tracking officer discipline. The investigation looked at over 1,000 daily snapshots of the database since 2021 and found 88 percent of the cases disappeared for days or even weeks, and some never reappeared.
The NYPD launched its officer profile database in early 2021 after public demand for greater police accountability increased following the death of George Floyd. The database was meant to allow the public to view officers’ training histories, departmental awards, and internal discipline records in an effort to increase transparency. Despite a 2012 local law that mandates agencies upload their data on the city’s Open Data platform, the NYPD chose to work with an outside vendor for its officer lookup system.
Oddly enough, the NYPD chose RockDaisy, a vendor known for sports team management software, to run the database. The choice has raised questions about the department’s seriousness in maintaining reliable and transparent records. RockDaisy appears in a database of qualified vendors, but the city comptroller’s office could not find contracts with or payments to the company when questioned by ProPublica.
In 2021, Officer Willie Thompson was found guilty of misconduct after having sex with a witness in a carjacking case he was investigating and then threatening her when questioned. Despite the serious nature of his offenses, Thompson’s disciplinary record is unreliable on the public database. This inconsistency is not isolated. ProPublica’s analysis of the daily snapshots of the database since fall 2022 revealed wild fluctuations in the number of disciplinary cases available to the public. In the first week of May 2024, 54 percent of cases that once appeared in the system were missing.
The transparency issue is made worse by the fact that the database only shows discipline for active officers, meaning cases related to former officers might be removed. However, this only explains a fraction of the missing data. The database’s inconsistencies are severe. Since May 2021, almost 90 percent of disciplinary cases have gone missing at some point.
High-ranking officers are also affected. Jeffrey Maddrey, the highest-ranking uniformed office and Chief of the Department, had a disciplinary case where he was docked 45 vacation days for an internal affairs investigation in 2015. However, a recent check of his record showed no disciplinary actions. Similarly, cases against six deputy chiefs, including allegations of drinking on duty and improper searches, have vanished from the database.
Critics say this lack of data reliability undermines public confidence in the NYPD’s commitment to accountability. Jennvine Wong from the Legal Aid Society’s Cop Accountability Project and Lupe Aguirre from the New York Civil Liberties Union have voiced concerns about the department’s transparency (or lack thereof) and ability to hold officers accountable. Aguirre emphasized that the NYPD’s track record shows a pattern of resisting oversight, which only furthers public distrust.
Further complicating matters, the NYPD’s officer profile data was supposed to be added to the city’s Open Data platform by the end of 2023, but this has not happened. Adrienne Schmoeker, former deputy chief analytics officer for New York City from 2016 to 2019, pointed out that failure to publish reliable data erodes public trust, as people may assume the department is hiding damning information.
The unreliability of officer disciplinary records data shows a critical need for reform. Advocates of transparency argue that oversight and disclosure of officer misconduct data should not be left to the NYPD but should be managed through more transparent and reliable channels like the city’s Open Data platform.
Source: ProPublica
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