New unit could examine police-involved shootings

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is reportedly assembling a new unit to investigate the use of deadly force by police officers.

The story, first reported in the Staten Island Advance citing multiple police sources, said Bratton has tapped Inspector John Sprague, who heads the Detective Bureau on Staten Island, to lead the squad.

The announcement comes less than a week afterCapital New York first reported that people inside 1 Police Plaza were rewriting Wikipedia entries on Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold last year, and on Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, who were shot and killed by police.

Mothers of men who died in police shootings and chokeholds rallied at City Hall last week, calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sign an executive order that would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate police-involved deaths.

An NYPD spokeswoman told Metro no further information is available on the proposed unit, called the “Force Investigation Division,” and reportedly modeled after a program Bratton started while commissioner of the LAPD.

Currently, the NYPD Internal Affairs Unit investigates incidents of deadly force, and will continue to do so along with the new unit, sources told the Daily News.