A controversial bill to create an inspector general to oversee the NYPD contains a provision that would allow the IG to access and make public sensitive information related to joint investigations with other law-enforcement agencies, The Post has learned.
The measure states that the city’s Department of Investigation commissioner — who would oversee the IG — could “review, study audit and make recommendations relating to the operations, policies, programs and practices, including ongoing partnerships with other law-enforcement agencies.”
The City Council recently added a line that states a mayor will have “discretion to determine how sensitive information . . . shall be treated.”
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is highlighting this section as he tries to dissuade council members from supporting the bill, which is being pushed by Council Speaker and Democratic mayoral candidate Christine Quinn.
She has enough votes to override an all-but-certain veto by Mayor Bloomberg.
“The provision for IG access to information regarding the department’s partnerships or cooperation with other agencies makes joint task forces with the FBI on terrorism, ATF on gun trafficking and DEA on big narcotics cases impossible to maintain,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said he has yet to schedule a vote on the IG bill because that line would discourage other agencies from working with the NYPD.
“If anyone thinks the CIA or the FBI is going to agree to turn their documents over to the inspector general, they’re nuts,” Vallone said.
Without his support, Quinn would have to force a vote through a rarely used measure called a motion to discharge.
Such a move would be awkward for Quinn, who has tightly controlled the council’s legislative agenda for the past seven years.
Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), a co-sponsor of the bill, called Vallone’s argument a “scare tactic.”
Lander said the Department of Investigation can already access information related to any city agency.