After critics blasted the NYPD for skipping a City Council oversight hearing about the department's controversial Strategic Response Group (SRG), police brass issued a statement to the media, insisting a court order prevented the agency from appearing before lawmakers.
"The NYPD is actively engaged in litigation and negotiations that touch directly on the SRG and the court has issued a gag order directing confidentiality in the matter," an NYPD spokesperson wrote.
But lawyers suing the NYPD over the SRG's response to the 2020 racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd's death say there is no such gag order.
"There is no gag order," said Wylie Stecklow, an attorney representing plaintiffs who say they were wrongly arrested. "Any representation to the effect that there is a gag order in place that impacts the NYPD and SRG's ability to testify about oversight to the City Council is simply false."
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
On Thursday, Stecklow filed a letter addressed to Judge Colleen McMahon, who is presiding over several consolidated cases involving the SRG, asking for the city's lawyers to identify "the supposed 'Gag Order'" or "for the Court to clarify that no such 'Gag Order' exists."
The I-Team reached out to the NYPD to inquire about the gag order, but the police department did not immediately respond. The I-Team also reached out to the New York City Law Department. A spokesperson for that agency did not answer questions about the gag order, referring the I-Team back to the NYPD.
In a response to questions from HellGatenyc.com, which first reported on the disputed gag order, an NYPD spokesperson defended the explanation saying, "The court appointed a court mediator to oversee settlement negotiations. The court’s rules require all parties to such mediations to sign confidentiality agreements."
News
But Stecklow said standard confidentiality rules that apply to settlement negotiations are not gag orders and have nothing to do with a police department's responsibility to answer questions about how it uses tax dollars to carry out public safety functions.
"The City Council is doing oversight of the NYPD. It is part of the City Council's responsibility. The NYPD cannot just ignore it, and that's what they're doing, and they're blaming a judge for it and it's not fair to that judge and it's simply not true," Stecklow said.
The New York Office of the Attorney General, also a party to litigation regarding the NYPD's Strategic Response Group, agreed that there is no gag order in the case.
On Wednesday, attorneys representing hundreds of racial justice protesters in a class action against the NYPD announced a settlement which - if approved by a judge - would have New York City pay each arrestee $21,500. In their lawsuit, they accused members of the SRG, a tactical unit dedicated to crowd control, of violating the protesters' First Amendment rights when they rounded them up with a controversial technique called "kettling." The NYPD admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, but issued a statement noting that since 2020, "much of the NYPD's policies and training for policing large-scale demonstrations have been re-envisioned."
Council Member Jennifer Gutierrez (D-Williamsburg), who spoke critically of the NYPD for skipping out on Wednesday's public hearing, said the department's use of the term "gag order" was deceitful because it suggested police brass had no choice but to avoid City Council testimony.
"I think it is deceitful," Gutierrez said. "You're choosing not to come. You're choosing not to show your face. You're choosing not to be transparent. You're choosing not to be held accountable, and that is very different from a court ordered gag order.”
