Misconduct complaints against New York City police officers have increased under Mayor Eric Adams’s administration and last year were at their highest since 2014, according to a report that measures the performance of city agencies.
In the 2025 fiscal year, which ended June 30, there were more than 5,570 reports to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the Police Department’s oversight agency, a roughly 60 percent increase from 2022, according to the Mayor’s Management Report, which was the subject of a testy City Council committee hearing with police officials on Monday. The number touched a decade high in 2024.
Mr. Adams, a former police captain sworn in as mayor in January 2022, vowed to crack down on crime when the city, like many others, was experiencing a surge in homicides, shootings and other major crimes in the post-pandemic era. He brought back a specialized police unit that had been disbanded under his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, and was unapologetic about tactics that he said helped sweep guns off the streets.
The overall number of felonies, including shootings and homicides, fell during Mr. Adams’s time in office, according to the report, though other crimes, such as rapes and assaults, increased.
“We have made good on our commitment to make our city safer,” Mr. Adams wrote in a letter introducing the report, which is mandated by the city’s charter and was released last Wednesday.
But Lincoln Restler, a City Council member who represents parts of Brooklyn, said Monday that he was “very concerned” by the spike in complaints, which the report showed rose in categories including the use of force, abuse of authority and the use of offensive language.
“The N.Y.P.D. has shifted their approach to policing during this administration, and as a result, more people are complaining about misconduct,” he said at the Monday hearing.
While the board does not substantiate most complaints, the number that were substantiated rose to 1,064 in 2025 from about 729 in 2022, according to the report.
“It’s troubling data,” Mr. Restler said.
Michael Gerber, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said that the rise had begun soon after the City Council gave the review board more power, including the ability to initiate investigations.
“If you take an investigative agency and you dramatically expand its jurisdiction, that is going to contribute to an increase in complaints,” he said. “That has to be part of the story.”
Mr. Gerber said that under Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mr. Adams appointed in November 2024, the department has imposed discipline in more than 76 percent of cases where the review board recommended it. Under previous commissioners, discipline was imposed in as little as 30 percent of cases, according to Mr. Gerber and the board’s annual reports.
Commissioner Tisch also reversed policies that had made it easier for the department to dismiss cases brought by the board, he said.
“It is not just that the department is agreeing with the C.C.R.B. much more often; it is also evaluating C.C.R.B. cases and imposing discipline at a much faster pace,” Mr. Gerber said.
Review board officials said the numbers underscored the board’s need for resources, such as two additional members and more access to information, including sealed arrest records.
Mohammad Khalid, the board chairman, who addressed the City Council after Mr. Gerber, said oversight was “more needed than ever.”
“In 2024, we recorded the highest number of complaints in over a decade,” he said. “Many of these complaints represent the worst days of someone’s life, whether they were being accused of a crime, suffering a mental health crisis or simply going about their business.”
The management report was released in the final weeks of the mayoral race, which has brought heightened scrutiny of the Police Department and crime. Mr. Adams is seeking re-election as an independent and is far behind Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic primary winner and the race’s front-runner.
Brad Lander, the city comptroller who lost the primary and endorsed Mr. Mamdani, released a report on Monday night that said the number of excessive-force complaints that were investigated by the review board rose 49 percent between 2022 and 2023.
“Excessive or unnecessary use of force by the New York City Police Department harms New Yorkers, erodes trust in public safety institutions, and exposes the city to significant legal and financial risk,” said his report, which called for more supervision and training “to stop excessive force before it occurs.”
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement Monday that “police accountability has increased.”
She said the Police Department monitors misconduct precinct by precinct through a system called ComplianceStat, where videos of interactions are analyzed and commanders are held accountable for problems such as unreported stops of civilians and officers’ failure to activate body-worn cameras.
“The Adams administration remains committed to providing communities the police presence they want and deserve, which means New Yorkers are inevitably having more interactions with law enforcement,” Ms. Mamelak Altus said. “These factors have predictably led to an increase in C.C.R.B. complaints, every single one of which we take seriously.”
Maria Cramer is a Times reporter covering the New York Police Department and crime in the city and surrounding areas.
Camille Baker is a Times senior news assistant who also contributes reporting to the Data Journalism team.
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