The pair of NYPD cops stripped of their guns and shields while under investigation for repeatedly punching a suspect as they tried to arrest him in a Brooklyn liquor store should have been wearing body-worn cameras, an NYPD spokesperson said Monday.
The camera policy for the Narcotics Division the two detectives belong to, however, is not clearly codified, an ongoing review of the bureau has determined, and will be clarified so that it is clear any officer involved in arresting a drug suspect must wear and activate their body-worn camera, the spokesperson said.
The 90-day review of the Narcotics Division came to light Monday after Rev. Kevin McCall, a community activist, met with NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to discuss last Tuesday’s clash — which was witnessed by a woman who recorded it on her cell phone and posted it on social media, creating a firestorm of controversy.
The video shows Brooklyn North Narcotics Dets. Volkan Maden and Michael Algerio repeatedly striking Timothy Brown as they struggled to take him into custody. They pushed Brown’s head into a glass refrigerator door before Brown ended up falling headfirst into a wine bottle display, sending more than a dozen bottles smashing onto the store floor.
The plainclothes detectives, who were wearing NYPD vests, then dragged Brown on the floor, over shards of broken glass, to the front of the store, ordering him to stop resisting. Store surveillance video shows Maden kicking Brown’s hand and stepping on his leg while Algerio holds Brown down on the ground.
Mayor Mamdani labeled the use of force “violence” that he called “extremely disturbing and unacceptable.”
Brown, who suffered a deep cut on his leg, was arrested for obstructing governmental administration and resisting arrest. But the charges were quickly dropped by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office — and police admitted Brown turned out not to be the man cops were seeking for taking money from a drug dealer after the dealer sold crack to an undercover cop near the store.
Tisch, who called the videos “deeply disturbing,” modified the two detectives — putting them on desk duty and stripping them of their guns and shields.
She later transferred a captain, a lieutenant and six other detectives and modified a sergeant who all worked on the same team with the detectives, police said.
Tisch, the spokesperson said, will require narcotics commanders to attend regular meetings at One Police Plaza to explain, among other things, their use of informants and the tactical plans they put together when making drug buys, as well as how they manage equipment and the money used for the buys.
Narcotics units throughout the city will also be subjected to regular audits.
The spokesperson said these plans, as well as what Tisch has already done, was spelled out at the meeting to McCall and others with him, including Gwenn Carr, the mother of 2014 Staten Island chokehold victim Eric Garner.
McCall after the meeting told reporters Volkan and Algerio need harsher punishment.
“We need them to be suspended,” he said. “We need them to be arrested. That’s what real justice looks like.”