In a statement, Brooklyn Councilmember Lincoln Restler pointed to the contrast between the dcpi’s staffing surge and Mayor Eric Adams’s cuts to other city services, including hundreds of layoffs in the Department of Buildings. “It’s stunning to see the nypd Communications Department more than double to 86 staff while so many of our City agencies are struggling to fulfill their mandates without workers.”
Some of those Sheppard hired from his precinct to dcpi have checkered records. A detective who transferred to public information from the 28th Precinct was part of a wrongful arrest lawsuit that ended in a $30,000 settlement, according to information compiled by 50-a.org. One of Sheppard’s lieutenants at the precinct, Theodore Wells, repeatedly failed to deposit money found on arrestees, lied during a department interview, and covered up a use of force, including by keeping his body camera off. Wells was promoted to captain in February, and transferred to dcpi in March. And in 2021, the city’s civilian oversight board substantiated physical force charges against Sheppard himself. During a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest, Sheppard tackled a demonstrator, pinned her to the ground, and tased her. nypd brass intervened in the case after it went to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and Sheppard went undisciplined. The victim later took Sheppard and other officers to court, winning a $99,000 settlement, per 50-a.org.
‘Checkered’ lol. Any other professional with this kind of fuckery on public record would be unemployable.
Move them to PR so they can’t cause more PR problems. Brilliant idea.
And yet those people get to go on TV and they’re never challenged on their personal behaviour. Call peaceful protestors terrorists with a history like that.
86 workers just for whitewashing? Tom Sawyer never had it so good.
More like the department of NYPD propaganda has grown
I feel like marketing away issues instead of actually fixing problems has seeped into all levels of management in any American organization. My hospital just had a mandatory meeting for all employees about changing patients perception of the treatment, not the actual quality of the treatment.
Should we perhaps use the millions of dollars you spent on outsourcing marketing research and surveys on something useful like more support staff? You know the thing that every provider has been complaining about since COVID? No, we just need to learn a new acronym to improve patient care…
