Mayor Eric Adams Seeks to Remove Outspoken Chairwoman of NYPD Oversight Board, Sources Say

New York City May­or Eric Adams is report­ed­ly attempt­ing to remove Arva Rice, the inter­im chair­woman of the Civil­ian Com­plaint Review Board (CCRB), an inde­pen­dent civil­ian pan­el respon­si­ble for inves­ti­gat­ing com­plaints against the New York Police Depart­ment (NYPD).

Accord­ing to sources famil­iar with the sit­u­a­tion, Adams’ close advi­sor, Philips Banks, has asked Rice to resign from her position.

Rice has served as the head of the CCRB since Feb­ru­ary 2022, when Adams appoint­ed her, cit­ing her expe­ri­ence and qual­i­fi­ca­tions. Since then, Rice has been vocal in advo­cat­ing for police account­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy, occa­sion­al­ly clash­ing with the NYPD and the may­or’s office over the han­dling of mis­con­duct cases.

The move to oust Rice rais­es con­cerns about the inde­pen­dence of the CCRB and its abil­i­ty to pro­vide effec­tive over­sight of the NYPD. Crit­ics argue that remov­ing an out­spo­ken chair­per­son could under­mine the board­’s cred­i­bil­i­ty and hin­der its mis­sion to hold offi­cers account­able for misconduct.

As the sit­u­a­tion unfolds, it remains to be seen how the CCRB and the city’s police account­abil­i­ty efforts will be affect­ed by the poten­tial depar­ture of Arva Rice.