The CCRB and a lawsuit
The Civilian Complaint Review Board investigates complaints about NYPD officers and recommends discipline. It does not award damages and it does not file lawsuits. A CCRB complaint and a civil case are separate tracks with separate clocks, and the complaint neither starts nor stops the civil deadlines. Filed at the right time, with counsel, a complaint can help. Filed as a written account of the arrest while a criminal charge is open, it can hurt. This page explains what the Board does, when its clock runs, and how the two tracks are sequenced.
Current as of September 2026. We re-check this page every quarter and after any change in the law.
Most people who were mistreated by an NYPD officer have heard of the CCRB and are not sure what it is for. It is a City agency with a specific job: receiving complaints about police conduct, investigating them, and recommending discipline. It is not a court and it is not a substitute for one. This page describes what the Board does as its own public reports describe it, what its clock is, what its 2025 figures show, and how to think about a complaint when a civil case, and often a criminal case, are running at the same time. The disciplinary records page covers how the Board's findings become records you can obtain.
What the CCRB does
As the Board describes its own work in its 2025 Annual Report and its public statements, the CCRB receives complaints from civilians about NYPD officers, investigates them, decides whether the allegations are substantiated, and recommends discipline to the NYPD, which decides whether to impose it. The Board does not award damages and does not file lawsuits. We state that carefully, because no page on nyc.gov puts it in exactly those words; it is what the Board's reports describe, and it is what we have seen in practice.
The Board's categories track its jurisdiction. In 2025, by the Board's own figures, the allegations it handled broke down as 33.54 percent force, 47.78 percent abuse of authority, 15.12 percent discourtesy and 3.56 percent offensive language. The first two overlap almost exactly with the conduct that makes a civil case: force that was more than the situation called for, and an arrest, stop or search without a lawful basis.
The Board's clock, and why it is not yours
The CCRB's timing is driven by a rule about discipline, not about damages. Under Civil Service Law § 75(4), NYPD administrative discipline must be commenced within 18 months of the incident. The Board's rules treat a complaint filed more than one year after the incident, or after the 18 months have run, as "late," investigable at the Chair's discretion (38-A RCNY § 1-15). The Board itself advises filing as soon as possible. That advice is correct for the discipline track: a complaint filed after the 18 months may never be investigated, and an officer cannot be disciplined for it.
A CCRB complaint does not protect a civil deadline
The notice of claim against the City must be served on the Comptroller within 90 days of the incident (N.Y. Gen. Mun. Law § 50-e(1)(a)). A complaint to the CCRB is not a notice of claim and does not extend the 90 days. The federal claim's three years and the City-law claim's three years run regardless of whether a complaint was filed, and the City's law says exhaustion of administrative remedies is not required (N.Y.C. Admin. Code § 8-803). The notice of claim page has the rule.
The 2025 figures
The CCRB publishes its own numbers, and they are worth reading before deciding what a complaint can do. According to the Board's end-of-year release of December 16, 2025, and its 2025 Annual Report, the Board received nearly 5,500 complaints in 2025, the third-highest total in ten years. It closed nearly 2,000 fully investigated complaints. Just over 960 closed complaints had at least one substantiated allegation. And the NYPD's rate of concurrence with the Board's discipline recommendations rose from 30 percent in 2024 to 84 percent in 2025. Those are the Board's figures, about complaints in general, and they say nothing about any individual complaint. The by the numbers page sets them beside the City's payout statistics.
| Measure | 2025 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Complaints received | Nearly 5,500 (third-highest in ten years) | CCRB end-of-year release, December 16, 2025 |
| Fully investigated complaints closed | Nearly 2,000 | same |
| Closed complaints with at least one substantiated allegation | Just over 960 | same |
| Allegations by type | 33.54% force; 47.78% abuse of authority; 15.12% discourtesy; 3.56% offensive language | CCRB 2025 Annual Report, p. 3 |
| NYPD concurrence with CCRB discipline recommendations | 84%, up from 30% in 2024 | same |
The business card and the complaint
Since October 19, 2018, the Right to Know Act has required an NYPD officer who stops you to identify himself by name, rank, command and shield number and to offer a business card that tells you how to file a complaint and where to request body-worn camera footage (N.Y.C. Local Law 54 of 2018). A companion law requires an officer seeking consent to search to tell you that you may refuse, and to document the consent (Local Law 56 of 2018). The card is the first document in a case: it names the officer and the command, which is what both the CCRB complaint and the civil complaint need. Keep it. If you did not get one, that fact belongs in the record too. The stop and frisk page covers the Act in the context of a stop.
How a complaint interacts with a civil case
The two tracks share facts and nothing else. A CCRB investigation can produce things a civil case uses: the officer's identification, the Board's findings, the disciplinary record the findings become. And the Board's substantiation of an allegation is a document about the incident. But a complaint is also a statement. The interview is recorded, and what a complainant says about the arrest, the force, the timing and the officers is an account that exists from that day on, given without a lawyer and usually before the footage has been seen. In a civil case that account will be compared with everything the complainant says later, at the 50-h examination, at deposition and at trial. In a criminal case it is a statement about the events the charge is based on.
We do not publish rules of evidence about how a CCRB statement or finding is used in court, because those rules are not in our verified ledger. What we say is this: a CCRB interview is sworn or recorded testimony about the incident, treat it as such, and coordinate its timing with your lawyers before giving it. In a case with no open charge, we will often help a client file the complaint, with the facts stated carefully and after the footage has been reviewed. In a case with an open charge, the complaint waits until defense counsel says it can proceed.
If a criminal charge is pending
A person with an open criminal charge from the same incident should talk to their defense lawyer before describing the arrest to anyone, including the CCRB, and should not file a written account of the arrest or name officers in writing until both lawyers have agreed on the timing. The criminal case and civil case page explains how the two cases are handled together.
What is not on this page
Two things people ask about are not published here. The NYPD's own retention period for body-worn camera footage is a question we have not verified from a primary source, so we do not state one; we request preservation of the footage in writing immediately, and the evidence page explains how. And the details of how the Board's investigation runs, its interview procedures and its internal timelines beyond the rule above, are the Board's to describe, at nyc.gov, not ours.
Officer disciplinary records
The repeal of Civil Rights Law 50-a in 2020, FOIL, and how the Board's findings become records you can request.
Disciplinary records →The first week
What to write down, what to request, what not to say, and who to call.
What to do after →The 90-day notice of claim
The deadline a CCRB complaint does not protect: what goes in the notice, where it goes, and what happens after.
Notice of claim →Common questions
Do I have to file a CCRB complaint before I can sue?
No. Nothing in Section 1983 requires it, and the New York City law of 2021 says in terms that exhaustion of administrative remedies is not required for a claim under it. The CCRB process and the civil case are independent. A complaint does not serve as a notice of claim, and the notice of claim must still be served within 90 days.
Will the CCRB get me money?
No. As we read the Board's public reports, it investigates complaints, makes findings, and recommends discipline to the NYPD. It does not award damages and does not bring lawsuits. Money damages come from a civil case, which is a separate process with its own deadlines.
How long do I have to file with the CCRB?
The Board advises filing as soon as possible. NYPD administrative discipline must be commenced within 18 months of the incident under Civil Service Law 75(4), and the Board's rules treat a complaint filed more than one year after the incident, or after the 18 months have passed, as late and investigable only at the Chair's discretion. The civil deadlines are different and are not affected by any of this.
Should I file a CCRB complaint while my criminal case is open?
Not without talking to your defense lawyer first. A CCRB complaint is an account of the arrest, and the interview is recorded. What you say there is a statement about the same events the criminal charge is about. We coordinate the timing with defense counsel in every case where a charge is open; the criminal case and civil case page explains why.
Tell us what happened.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which claims the facts support, which deadline runs first for the agency involved, what evidence to preserve this week, and whether a pending criminal case changes the timing. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510If a criminal charge is still open, talk to your defense lawyer before you describe the arrest to anyone, including us. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language. Contingency fee, confirmed in writing before we begin.