LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU

 

LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY BUREAU

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office believes that no one is above the law, and that there must be one standard of justice for law enforcement and civilians alike. Any misconduct by law enforcement damages public trust and undermines public safety.

A study conducted in Milwaukee after a high-profile incident of excessive use of force by the police found that, controlling for crime, prior call patterns, and several neighborhood characteristics, 911 calls declined dramatically for more than a year after the incident, resulting in a total net loss of approximately 22,200 calls to 911. In Brooklyn, we cannot afford for our residents to be afraid to call 911 if they are a victim of a crime, or a witness to a crime.

If law enforcement officers are not held accountable for misconduct, that further erodes public trust in the justice system—and further undermines public safety.

To ensure that law enforcement misconduct is taken seriously and handled transparently, In 2018 District Attorney Gonzalez created a new Law Enforcement Accountability Bureau. The Bureau is now led by Chief Aaron Nottage, a veteran prosecutor with more than 28 years of trial and supervisory experience. Aaron has held several supervisory positions in the Grey Trial Zone, including Deputy Bureau Chief for Criminal Court, Grand Jury, and then Supreme Court. In 2017, Aaron was appointed to spearhead CSU’s then-new Public Housing Crime Suppression Unit. He ably led that team, which draws on data-driven intelligence of Crime Strategies’ analyses and works with the NYPD, tenant associations, and community members to drive down violent crime in Brooklyn’s public housing developments.

The Law Enforcement Accountability Bureau will fulfill one of the key recommendations of the Justice 2020 action plan, to develop new protocols that ensure independent investigation with no special treatment for police officers suspected of misconduct. The Bureau will also seek to improve data and analytics to enable the office to identify patterns of misconduct.

DA Gonzalez is committed to transparency at every stage of the process. The Bureau will work with members of the community to develop protocols for keeping the public and family members of alleged victims informed in these cases.

You can submit videos and other evidence of alleged misconduct to TIPS@brooklynda.org

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