Complaint #201600501,
January 7, 2016

Summary

A boy entered the bathroom in a public playground to find that there were two other youths, one of whom he recognized, smoking cannabis in the bathroom. The boy tried to leave but the older boys held shut the bathroom door, and one of them pointed a gun at him. The boy was able to leave, and the older boy told him the gun he had shown was a BB gun. The boy was not sure if the gun was a BB gun or real, but felt threatened by the older boys. Worried about calling the police himself, he texted his mother, asking her to call the police, and went home.
Two police officers, Helen Flavin and Laurie Smith, arrived on the scene. Unbeknownst to them, the mother was recording the incident. The police officers refused to exit their vehicle and refused to take a report; the recording shows one officer stating that "this is what teens do." When the mother stated that she was going to call 911 to find other officer who would take a report of the teen threatening her son with a gun, the officers stated (as the video confirmed) "if you call 911 I will arrest you for making a false report." A sergeant later arrived and took a report of the gun threat.
In her interview, Officer Smith, who did not know about the recording, stated that neither officer had threatened to arrest the woman, and gave an account of the incident that was inconsistent with the video evidence.
Officer Flavin did not lie about what the officers had said, though she stated that in an unrecorded part of the incident the woman had been belligerent. The CCRB found that Officer Flavin had abused her authority when she threatened to arrest the boy, that both officers had failed to provide their names and badge numbers, and that Officer Smith had made a false statement in her CCRB testimony.
Both officers had resigned from the NYPD before any discipline was imposed. Read report for details.