Handschu authority NYPD Oversight Board Like CCRB, commission to combat police corruption and the internal affairs Bureau dressing not able to really do much ?

NYPD Oversight Board Still Sits On Sidelines Despite Controversial Police Spying

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/14/nypd-oversight_n_5147265.html?utm_hp_ref=new-york

Excerpt:

"NEW YORK -- Mayor Bill de Blasio made headlines in March when he appointed the first inspector general for the New York City Police Department. But a separate oversight body that is supposed to keep an eye on police surveillance is languishing in a state of near non-existence.

The NYPD's widespread surveillance of Muslims, disclosed in a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press articles, has sparked two lawsuits. But the surveillance oversight board, called the Handschu authority, has not received a single civilian complaint since 2003. And one of the board's members is not surprised.

"We don't have any power to do anything. We can only make recommendations," said one of the board's members, private attorney John H. Doyle III.

Doyle was appointed by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose second term ended in 2001. He said the de Blasio administration has not contacted him about the board's role since the mayor's inauguration.

The three-person Handschu authority was created under a 1985 consent decree in a long-running lawsuit against the city. It has been virtually invisible since 2003, when federal Judge Charles Haight, at the NYPD's request, vastly expanded the department's surveillance powers and reduced those of the board. Instead of pre-approving police surveillance operations, the board is now empowered only to investigate civilian complaints about police violations of the Constitution.

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