Maybe they’re not so bad after all.
Amid criticism and protests, civilian complaints against the NYPD have actually plunged over the past five months, according to data released Friday.
Overall complaints from July 1 to the end of November — including after Eric Garner’s death by police chokehold — have fallen by 26 percent, compared with the same period last year, the Civilian Complaint Review Board says.
There were 1,813 complaints filed with the CCRB in that period, compared with 2,450 last year — the largest decline for a five-month period since the board was founded in 1993, officials said.
A day after infuriating officers by suggesting his biracial son was a target for cops, Mayor de Blasio took credit for the sunny stats.
“Over the past 11 months, my administration has implemented a series of initiatives and reforms aimed at bridging the gap between the NYPD and the communities they serve,” he said.
“From ending the overuse of stop-and-frisk to dropping the city’s legal challenge, to the racial-profiling ban, to changing the department’s policy on possession of small amounts of marijuana, we’re steadily bringing crime down while drawing police and community closer together.”
CCRB Chairman Richard Emery also took credit.
“The new regimes at the Police Department and the CCRB seem to be working,” he said. “It appears that this precipitous decline in complaints means police are getting the message. The goal now is bringing down complaints even further.”
But police-union officials attributed the dip to cops’ hard work rather than policy changes.
“The use-of-force complaints and abuse-of-authority complaints are down because of the level of professionalism of the NYPD,” said Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins.
He suggested de Blasio focus less on refashioning the NYPD.
“Ultimately, the mayor needs to focus on the crime in the communities of color, where the community is a victim of its own people in a lot of ways,” Mullins said.
CCRB complaints fall under four categories — abuse of authority, abuse of force, offensive language and discourtesy.
Claims of abuse of force fell by 29 percent, abuse of authority by 22 percent, discourtesy by 24 percent and offensive language by 20 percent, the CCRB said.
Claims are also down for the entire year, with 4,510 overall complaints so far, compared with 5,004 for the same time last year.