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Adams Forces Out CCRB Head in Latest Blow to Police Accountability

The Legal Aid Society is condemning Mayor Eric Adams over the resignation of Arva Rice, Interim Chairwoman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB).

The CCRB is an independent agency that is meant to be empowered to receive, investigate, make findings, and recommend action on complaints against police officers.

“The Adams Administration has engaged in a death-by-a-thousand-cuts campaign to neutralize the checks and balances in place that hold the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to account,” read a statement from Legal Aid.

“From defunding the Civilian Complaint Review Board into a state of paralysis to rejecting disciplinary recommendations from the NYPD watchdog, to now pushing out the Interim Chairwomen of the CCRB after she criticized the NYPD’s handling of the investigation into the police killing of Kawaski Trawick, this Administration continues to prioritize the NYPD’s impunity over building trust between the Department and the New Yorkers that they are sworn to serve,” the statement continues. “A City devoid of the necessary safeguards to check police misconduct weakens public safety and reinforces a sentiment that officers are above the law and that the rest of us are all de facto second-class citizens.”