City officials are concerned about a lack of staffers in an important office that holds subpoena powers to investigate police practices and policies.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander reported just three employees on staff in August at the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD (OIG-NYPD). His headcount includes Inspector General Jeanene Barrett herself. The findings also point to steeper attrition rates compared to other offices in the OIG-NYPD’s parent agency, the NYC Department of Investigation (DOI).
On August 19, Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams penned a letter to Mayor Eric Adams raising “serious concerns about the sharp staffing decline” based on the findings. The two citywide officials originally introduced the bill that established the OIG-NYPD while serving on the City Council in 2012. They pointed to the office’s peak staffing level of 37 employees in 2017 and blamed cuts under the Adams administration — the headcount remained at 19 people when Adams first took office in 2022.
“When OIG-NYPD was first authorized in 2014, it had 43 budgeted positions and was projected to reach $3.8 million in personnel expenditures,” wrote Lander and Williams. “In 2017, the office reached its peak staffing level of 37. By July 2025, the total filled headcount for OIG-NYPD had dropped to just 5, with salaries totaling $703,674 annually. As of August 2025, information provided to our offices indicates that number declined even further to just three filled positions.”
The OIG-NYPD’s establishment stems from the city’s unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices and surveillance of Muslim New Yorkers in 2012. Lander and Williams believed the watchdog would protect civil liberties by providing the public with transparency about how the police operate. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg vetoed the bill in 2013, but the City Council overrode the decision.
Today, Williams and Lander serve as the city’s second- and third-highest ranking officials, just underneath Adams. Their letter questioned what caused the sharp staffing decline in 2022 (particularly in comparison to other DOI offices) and how the city could refill the watchdog’s ranks.
The Adams administration says the most recent budget funds 20 positions, and cannot speak to why the DOI has not filled multiple vacancies (the OIG-NYPD maintains independence, although the inspector general was appointed by the DOI commissioner, who was appointed by the mayor).
Kayla Mamelak, a spokesperson for Adams, also pointed to other levers of NYPD accountability, including the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), Internal Affairs Bureau, and federal monitor assigned from the Floyd lawsuit over unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices. “Oversight is critical, but we must strike the right balance — holding our city workers accountable while also making the best use of the city’s taxpayers’ dollars,” she added.
While the CCRB also serves as an independent, civilian NYPD watchdog, it looks into individual misconduct complaints like use-of-force or unlawful stops. The OIG-NYPD, on the other hand, does not look at individual cases and instead focuses on broader policies and procedures that can lead to abuses or misconduct.
Currently, the city charter mandates that the CCRB remain staffed to reflect at least 0.0065% of the NYPD’s uniformed headcount, which sits above 30,000 and ensures at least roughly 200 employees remain on the watchdog’s roster. The letter to Adams mentions talks of a ballot proposal to enact a similar fixed number for the OIG-NYPD.
A DOI spokesperson said the department reviewed Lander and Williams’s letter and the NYC Office of Management and Budget greenlit a restructuring plan to hire 12 new OIG-NYPD employees. Seven candidates already received offers and should start in the fall, pending background checks. The DOI is actively recruiting for five other positions to round out an expected roster of 15 employees, along with the watchdog’s special counsel.
“It is worth noting that while the unit had more active staffing in prior years, its output has consistently ranged from one to five reports per year,” said the DOI spokesperson. “Since 2022, despite limited staffing, OIG-NYPD —- with significant executive support and resources — has consistently issued reports in that range: In 2022, OIG-NYPD issued two reports; in 2023, OIG-NYPD issued four reports; in 2024, OIG-NYPD issued four reports; and OIG-NYPD has issued two reports so far this year, with at least one more to come shortly.
“Whether legally mandated or not, OIG-NYPD’s reports are labor-intensive and time-consuming, and our new staffing model is designed to expedite the report writing and issuing process, given the unit’s critical role in police oversight.”
Beyond a mandated annual report, the OIG-NYPD is also legally required to investigate NYPD compliance with the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act, a privacy law compelling the police department to disclose surveillance tools.
This year, the OIG-NYPD also looked into social media conduct by prominent officials like then-Chief of Patrol John Chell and then-Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry. The report pointed to less-than-friendly responses targeting notable police critics like Council Member Tiffany Caban and political commentator Olayemi Olurin.
As a result, the NYPD accepted all six recommendations by the inspector general, including to update social media policy use and assign digital communications officers to all social media accounts, including at the executive level. Chell, now promoted to chief of department, largely tweets about successes from quality of life teams while Daughtry currently works directly under Adams as deputy mayor of public safety.
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Rev. Gadson has a motive of why the detectives kidnapped him, and had him maliciously prosecuted. Rev Gadson has two affidavits from criminal attorneys that indicate he made appointments with them in Bronx County and Queens that, “the arresting officers had assaulted him and threatened to frame him on a murder charge, and refused to subpoena them at Rev. Gadson’s grand jury, and trial.” Rev. Gadson, had recently spoke at a press conference, and request your Newspaper to do a more detailed story on his Newly Discovered Evidence, and DA Bryce Benjet’s apparent coverup not to investigate the crime scene according to their investigation team procedures , etc. Thank you for your time to peruse this information of actual innocence evidence and DA Benjet’s investigation coverup!