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Albany Police Review Board sues city and police department, union, chief

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ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Albany Police Department (APD) ignores subpoenas from the city’s Community Police Review Board (CPRB). The allegations comes from the CPRB’s lawsuit against the city of Albany, Chief Eric Hawkins, Sgt. Daniel Kohler, Officer Patrick Guiry, Officer Matthew Friedrich, Officer Salvatore Sturiale, the Albany Police Benevolent Association, and the Albany Police Supervisors Association.

In November 2021, nearly 70% of voters approved the proposal to bolster the CPRB’s ability to oversee and investigate police activity. Specifically, the vote granted subpoena power. But the lawsuit laments the police “failure to properly comply with subpoenas issued on two separate occasions during the summer of 2023.”

According to the lawsuit, the officers in question and their attorneys have yet to comply with the spirit or letter of Albany’s Local Law J. And the suit has several prongs, the first of which is a series of declaratory judgments surrounding:

  • Officers’ constitutional protections
  • Officers’ obligation to appear and testify when subpoenaed by CPRB
  • Police unions’ alleged directions to officers to ignore CPRB subpoenas
  • Officers’ duty to enforce and follow Local Law J

The suit seeks specific court orders for officers Kohler, Guiry, Friedrich, and Sturiale to comply with the subpoena and testify for the CPRB investigation. It also wants the court to prevent the city and the chief from telling police not to comply with CPRB subpoenas.

According to the lawsuit, Chief Hawkins tells officers that complying with subpoenas violates the collective bargaining agreement between the police union and the city. The lawsuit argues that the court should forbid him from making this argument. In fact, the CPRB maintains that the court ought to explicitly mandate that Hawkins order compliance from his officers, and discipline any who refuse.

“The City, Chief Hawkins, the officers and union representatives have engaged the Board using the façade of good faith and deliberate gamesmanship to improperly delay and exponentially increase costs,” according to CPRB. Their suit further seeks financial compensation for attorney’s fees.

According to the CPRB’s lawsuit, during an investigation into an officer-involved shooting, they found footage of possible racial profiling of Hispanic people. The lawsuit said that when the board asked the officers involved to testify voluntarily, the unions refused. The suit alleges that they would only participate if subpoenaed, a comparatively more expensive process for taxpayers.

“The crux of the current dispute is not whether officers were required to appear following proper service of a Board subpoena,” the lawsuit reads. “The union chose to direct the member-officers not to appear based upon its misguided belief that the CPRB could not adequately ensure officers’ Fifth Amendment protections and that, according to the union, officers would be unable to testify in any substantive manner.”

The Fifth Amendment covers grand jury indictments for capital crimes, double jeopardy, due process, the taking of private property, and—perhaps the likeliest relevant aspect here—self-incrimination.

Statewide, civilian or community police review boards rose to prominense following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020. That fall, an independent racial bias audit of the APD found that:

  1. A disproportionate number of external complaints and civil rights lawsuits were filed against the department by members of the Black community
  2. Racial demographics within the department did not represent the city’s diversity
  3. A lack of understanding about the complaint process and disciplinary problems that should take place.

As of press time, NEWS10 had not yet received responses to requests for comment from Mayor Kathy Sheehan’s Office, the Albany Common Council, Albany’s Corporation Counsel, or either police union. Police Department Public Information Officer Megan Craft responded with a referral to the Corporation Counsel.

Take a look at the lawsuit filing below:

Related 2021 video: Common Council, Police Union at odds over proposal to expand review board power

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