A recent lawsuit reveals that the police oversight group in New York City has been releasing questionable allegations against NYPD officers, potentially harming their reputations despite a lack of evidence. This information, described as “stigmatizing,” can negatively impact officers’ careers even when the claims are proven unfounded, according to the lawsuit.
The Police Benevolent Association, the largest police union in New York, initiated a federal lawsuit on Tuesday. The union accuses the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which is composed of 15 members, of infringing on officers’ constitutional rights by sharing these sensitive allegations with a third-party website.
“The CCRB’s practice of publicizing Stigmatizing Unsubstantiated Complaints causes significant reputational harm to officers, endangers their safety, and threatens their job opportunities,” the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, asserts.
The CCRB is responsible for investigating complaints of police misconduct. While it acknowledges that unfounded claims can harm officers, the board reportedly continues to release such claims to the online platform 50-a.org through Freedom of Information Act requests, as alleged in the lawsuit. The website hosts both substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations, disciplinary cases, and legal settlements involving NYPD officers.
According to the lawsuit, officers are not notified before these disclosures occur, and the CCRB does not review each case individually before responding to FOIA requests and sharing the claims, regardless of their veracity.
“The CCRB does not give officers notice or a chance to contest the disclosure before it happens,” the lawsuit highlights.
“And, as part of its blanket disclosure policy, CCRB fails to conduct an individualized review process or redact identifying details. And officers have no ability to remove the false and meritless accusations from the public database, where they remain forever in the public domain creating limitless prejudice.”
The lawsuit was filed in response to the CCRB changing its policy in October to release specific unproven allegations — like of sexual assault, racial profiling or lying — rather than listing them under the general heading “Abuse of Authority: Other,” the PBA said.
The CCRB also recently tweaked how it labels the results of cases to 50-a, from “unsubstantiated” and “exonerated” to “unable to investigate” and “within NYPD guidelines” — which don’t spell out if the officer was cleared of wrongdoing, according to the suit.
CCRB Executive Director Jonathan Darche even admitted in in an Oct. 22, 2025 meeting that the agency characterizes certain allegations on its own database as “Abuse of Authority: Other” because the complaint can “be very prejudicial to a person when they’re not substantiated,” the lawsuit notes.
“CCRB’s under-the-table collusion with anti-police activists to smear cops with false complaints is not only unfair and unconstitutional – it is a calculated effort to end proactive enforcement and drive cops away from the job,” PBA President Patrick Hendry alleged in a blistering statement.
“CCRB has admitted that these baseless allegations will destroy a cop’s career and life outside of work, yet the agency still made the deliberate choice to dump them into public view,” Hendry said in the statement.
“Through this federal lawsuit, we intend to put a stop to this destructive practice and expose CCRB’s radical agenda to ‘Abolish the Police’ by trampling cops’ rights.”
The CCRB offered little comment on the bombshell legal action, citing ongoing litigation.
“The CCRB’s investigations are complete, thorough and impartial,” a board spokesperson said in a statement.
“The Agency continually reviews all applicable laws and regulations regarding the public release of its records, including disciplinary histories of members of service, to ensure it is fully compliant.”
