A Trial for NY City Police

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have a right to brag about lower crime rates in the city. But they still have work to do when it comes to the behavior of some police officers.

The case of Michael Mineo, who says an officer jabbed him in the buttocks with his baton, is a warning about how easy it can be for a police force to slip back into old, dangerous patterns.

Three police officers are on trial now in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn after Mr. Mineo was arrested in a subway station in October 2008. The case stirs reminders of the horrendous treatment of Abner Louima, who in 1997 was sodomized with a stick by a police officer. The three officers are accused of failing to report the arrest correctly and warning Mr. Mineo not to go to the hospital or to police to complain.

Since the Louima case, police recruits have been given extra warnings about the excessive use of force. However, complaints about the use of force registered with the Civilian Complaint Review Board have gone up dramatically. It is time for Commissioner Kelly to take a harder look behind his crime statistics and the board’s reviews. Rising complaints among blacks and Hispanics suggest that he also needs to reassess the use of stop-and-frisk operations in minority areas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/opinion/03wed2.html?th&emc=th