Purpose

To determine the extent of implementation of the four recommendations included in our initial audit report, Reporting and Utilization of Bias Incident Data, issued September 25, 2014 (2014-N-2).

Background

Our initial audit report, issued September 25, 2014, examined whether the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is accurately collecting, recording, and reporting bias incident statistics and utilizing the data for management decisions. We also determined whether NYPD officers receive sufficient training to enable them to identify and handle all possible bias incidents. We found that the NYPD has begun efforts to review and reconcile incident reports to assure that all bias incidents are supported by corresponding incident reports. We were also able to verify that the number of NYPD incident reports matched the 2015 preliminary totals of the Division of Criminal Justice Services.  However, improvements were needed to allow NYPD management to easily determine which officers received bias incident training, and ensure officers periodically receive this training as part of the regular training curriculum.

Key Finding

• We found that NYPD officials made some progress in addressing the issues we identified. Of the four prior audit recommendations, one was implemented, two were partially implemented, and one was not implemented.

Key Recommendation

• Officials are given 30 days after the issuance of the follow-up review to provide information on actions planned to address the unresolved issues discussed in this review.

Other Related Audit/Report of Interest

New York City Police Department: Reporting and Utilization of Bias Incident Data (2014-N-2)