NYPD officer violated city law by helping feds, report finds

A Department of Investigation report found one incident where an NYPD officer violated the law by assisting federal immigration agents. AP file photo by Seth Wenig

By Noah Powelson

An NYPD officer recently violated the city’s sanctuary city law and gaps in the department’s policies leave it vulnerable to similar violations in the future, a new report from the New York City Department of Investigation found.

Following demands from the City Council, DOI released their findings on Wednesday detailing five incidents where members of the NYPD allegedly violated city law by cooperating with federal immigration authorities. DOI found that there was only one case of these five where an NYPD officer actually violated the law but the other four incidents revealed gaps in NYPD policy that could have ramifications if not addressed.

The incident in which an officer broke city law occurred on Nov.21, 2024, when an NYPD officer from the Homeland Security Investigations Violent Gang Task Force was contacted by his federal counterparts. The federal agents asked the NYPD officer to place alerts on several individuals for “potential civil immigration enforcement.” The alerts would notify the officer whenever these specific individuals had interactions with the NYPD.

The officer complied with federal agents and placed the alerts, in violation of NYPD policy and local law. DOI said the officer was disciplined and the alerts were removed after being found.

“The NYPD was not aware of this incident before it was brought to the NYPD’s attention by DOI,” the report read. “The NYPD has since removed the officer from his task force assignment and restricted his access to the computer systems through which he placed the alerts. The disciplinary process is ongoing.”

The DOI report also noted another incident in which two police officers complied with an order from an FBI agent and a Department of Homeland Security agent to temporarily detain an individual who had escaped from civil immigration detention. The report notes that detaining the defendant “arguably violated the NYPD’s policy” of helping federal agents with immigration arrests, but that detaining the defendant was reasonable as they had just violated federal law.

Additionally, the report found there were two local laws regarding federal immigration enforcement that the NYPD was not complying with.

But beyond the one incident, the report said they found no other instances of NYPD violating the law through their dealings with federal immigration agencies.

“DOI’s investigation found that most of the NYPD’s policies and procedures comply with city law, particularly after a series of policy reforms that the NYPD has implemented since the beginning of 2025, both before and after DOI began its investigation,” the report reads.

Local Law 228 of 2017 requires city agencies to document each request for assistance with civil immigration enforcement and the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to send a quarterly report summarizing that data to the City Council. The report found the NYPD does not deliver all required information in their reports to MOIA, and therefore are in violation of the law.

Local Law 246 of 2017 requires City agencies to adopt policies limiting the access of non-local law enforcement agents to City property, and found the NYPD had no such policy in place.

“DOI identified one incident in which an officer violated local law by providing assistance to federal authorities in connection with enforcement of the federal civil immigration law, found that the NYPD does not fully comply with documentation and reporting requirements concerning requests for assistance with federal civil immigration enforcement, and also found gaps in the NYPD’s current policies and practices that raise the risk of improper information sharing or assistance to federal authorities for purposes of civil immigration enforcement,” the report reads.

In response to the findings, DOI made seven recommendations to the NYPD about altering their policies and practices. The report recommended the NYPD require an enhanced review of all custody transfers to federal agents, adopt a standalone policy on requests for custodial transfers from federal agents, further train officers about when and how to report and document requests for assistance from federal law enforcement, adopt language in compliance with Local Law 246, and more.

Both the DOI report and an NYPD spokesperson said the department had adopted all seven recommendations.

"As the report demonstrates, the NYPD has worked diligently to comply with New York’s sanctuary city laws,” an NYPD spokesperson told the Eagle in a statement. “We appreciate DOI’s comprehensive report and have accepted all their recommendations to make our policies even stronger."

DOI’s investigation began back in June, after City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and City Council member Gale Brewer issued a letter to the agency demanding they review NYPD’s compliance with the city’s sanctuary laws.

In a joint statement, Adams and Brewer thanked DOI for the investigation, but expressed grave concerns with issues brought forward in the report even if the NYPD took steps to address them.

“In the face of a federal administration taking unlawful action to sow fear and chaos that undermines safety, it’s essential that city agencies follow local laws to protect New Yorkers and maintain public trust,” Adams and Brewer said in a statement. “DOI’s investigation revealed gaps in NYPD’s compliance with our city’s laws that must be addressed. The incident of an individual officer violating sanctuary law and the other reviewed cases in this report are deeply troubling. It’s critical that any agency staff who violate city laws are held accountable to send a clear message that those actions are unacceptable.”

“The NYPD must also apply greater scrutiny to federal requests, so it is not complicit in facilitating the Trump administration’s extrajudicial practices,” the councilmembers added.