New York’s police force is calling for significant changes within the city’s police oversight body, the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). The Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the city’s largest police union, is demanding the dismissal of a supervisory investigator and seven other staff members for their alleged anti-police sentiments and involvement in radical political activities.
These CCRB investigators, all of whom joined after 2020, have reportedly expressed negative views about the police force publicly. This has raised concerns among the police union, which argues that such biases could compromise the impartiality of investigations into civilian complaints against officers.
One such figure at the center of the controversy is Stephen DiFiore, a supervisor of investigators at the CCRB. DiFiore has been vocal on social media, particularly on the platform X, where he criticized Mayor Mamdani’s decision to retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner. He labeled this decision as both a “tactical and moral failure,” asserting that Tisch would hinder Mamdani’s reforms and continue to protect officers accused of misconduct.
DiFiore, who has been identified as a co-founder and former elections chair for the Bronx chapter of the progressive Working Families Party, has also expressed support for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He praised Bragg’s choice not to charge individuals who had thrown ice and snow at police officers during an incident in Washington Square Park, a decision seen by some as lenient on crime.
Tisch will actively undermine Zohran’s agenda and continue to protect killer cops.”
In another post, DiFiore, who identifies himself as “co-founder and former elections chair” for the Bronx chapter of the lefty Working Families Party, cheered soft-on-crime Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s decision not to charge people who pelted cops with ice and snow in Washington Square Park over the winter.
“Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of NY law (i.e. not the NYPD) knew that this was going to be charged as – at best – harassment (a violation), not assault (a crime),” he wrote in February.
“Thankfully we don’t have prosecutors who make emotional decisions.”
One of the most blatant cop-hating posts came from investigator Ja’Quawn Turner, who was hired in 2021, and reposted a meme.
“You are in a high speed chase with the police,” the Facebook post reads.
“What song are you blaring in your car?”
At the top of the repost, he wrote that his song would be: “F–K the police by NWA.”
Investigator Lauryn Cimiluca wrote on X, “Matching with cops on dating apps just to say ACAB is community service and actually my civic duty.”
ACAB stands for “All Cops are Bastards.”
The same year she also posted: “society has progressed past the need for cops & phys ed teachers.”
In another post that year she wrote, “just spitballing but what do you think would happen if cops were unarmed AND unpaid? (trained but volunteer-based) … would the right people step up to do the job peacefully? would it finally become about protecting society instead of having power and a pension?”
Investigator Alex Panait, who was hired in 2023, also has the acronym ACAB written in his bio on x.
Emilce Quiroz, who formerly worked at Common Justice, a left-leaning non-profit that pushes for alternatives to prison, has made multiple anti-police statements on X.
She wrote a blog post in 2020 about defunding the police in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which led to national protests.
“Defunding the police alone also won’t stop the murder of innocent people at the hands of law enforcement,” she wrote.
A CCRB investigator since 2022, Will Jacobson wrote a review of a documentary about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, where he blamed cops for thel killings.
Dahmer murdered and dismembered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991 in Milwaukee.
The CCRB investigators, who are members of the public, interview complainants, victims, witnesses and cops; request and review documents and body-worn camera footage; and prepare reports that are reviewed by the agency’s appointed board, which recommends police discipline.
“CCRB investigators are supposed to review cases ‘fairly and impartially,’ but it didn’t take too much digging to find these blatant examples of anti-police bias,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said.
“Either CCRB is not vetting or monitoring its employees or – even worse – they condone and encourage these staffers’ cop-bashing and anti-police activism. CCRB claims to be all for accountability, but who’s holding CCRB accountable?”
CCRB Executive Director Jonathan Darche responded: “The PBA is attempting to undermine the CCRB’s independent disciplinary process using undergraduate essays and years-old social media posts. The Board and its staff will continue to fairly and impartially investigate and prosecute allegations of police misconduct.”
