Top NYPD officials faulted by investigators for 'demeaning' social media posts
Top NYPD officials faulted by investigators for 'demeaning' social media posts
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Two high-ranking New York City police chiefs violated department policy by attacking civil servants and journalists with “unprofessional” and “demeaning” social media posts, an independent monitor found. In a report released Tuesday, the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD faulted the department’s current top uniformed member, John Chell, along with Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry for posts published on X last year that served to “diminish senior law enforcement officers in the eyes of the public.”.
The online vitriol coincided with an explicit push by the nation’s largest police force to “control the narrative" by creating their own media apparatus and going after those seen as hostile to the department’s goals. In their report, investigators outlined several instances of “inappropriate” online behavior, including a post from Chell’s official X account that accused a New York judge of letting a “predator” loose on the city’s streets. He later acknowledged that he had misidentified the judge.
Chell also described a progressive member of the City Council as a “person who hates our city” after she questioned the NYPD’s response to campus protests against Israel. In another missive attacking the lawmaker, Chell told his followers to “vote the change you seek.”.
That message could potentially run afoul of the Hatch Act, a federal law that bars political activity of government employees who work in connection with federal programs, according to the report. At minimum, investigators said the online name-calling defied basic internal guidelines.
