New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board chair Arva Rice formally resigned on Monday in a letter sent to Mayor Adams three months after it emerged he asked her to step down in part over comments she made about the fatal police shooting of a mentally ill Bronx man.
Rice, the interim chair of the police oversight board since February 2022, wrote in her letter that her last day will be Aug. 15. She thanked the mayor for the chance to serve.
“To lead the entity that he worked to create so that police would be held accountable has been an honor,” she wrote. “I always addressed every issue brought before me, as both a Board member and as Interim Chair, with a fair and balanced approach, whether it met with criticism or applause.”
City Hall sources said a new interim chair will be named in the near future. Rice retained interim status throughout her tenure as the mayor and City Council could not agree to make her permanent, the sources said.
Amaris Cockfield, a spokeswoman for the mayor, described Rice as a valued public servant.
“The mayor made it clear to the interim chair that she is more than welcome to serve on the CCRB board to continue to do this important work for New Yorkers. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors,” Cockfield said.
Rendy Desamours, a spokesman for the City Council, also thanked Rice with a subtle jab at the administration.
“Her steady leadership, commitment to civilian oversight and accountability, and willingness to speak candidly about the challenges faced by the board were essential to the agency’s progress,” Desamours said. “Our hope is that future chairs will embody these critical values and more.”
Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association, called the change “welcome news” for cops “who have had their careers derailed by anti-police activists on CCRB’s board.”
“The PBA has been calling for new appointments to CCRB’s board who can instill fairness in its decision-making processes and bring it in line with its City Charter mandate,” Hendry said.
The New York Times first reported that Adams on April 23 asked Rice to step down for comments about Kawaski Trawick, the mentally ill man shot and killed in the Bronx in April 2019.
On April 17, after Police Commissioner Edward Caban cleared two officers involved in Trawick’s death, claiming he could not discipline the officers because the CCRB missed a deadline for filing charges, Rice countered the NYPD withheld key evidence causing the delay.
“Had NYPD conducted a legitimate investigation and held their officers accountable, Kawaski’s family could have avoided the last five years of fighting for justice,” Rice said.
Rice also appeared at a City Council hearing around then and asked for $15 million more in funding for the agency, a result of an expanding caseload driven by a sharp rise in misconduct complaints filed against cops.
On April 25, the Daily News reported that Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks had begun pushing for Rice’s removal much earlier, in the summer of 2023.
Banks, The News reported, approached Rice in June or July 2023 and told her the administration wanted to replace her. Banks was also introducing lawyer Khaair Morrison around at the time as a potential replacement.
Rice, The News reported, asked City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams if the administration indeed wanted her out. Adams said it was not true.
Mayor Adams in comments that week denied Rice was pushed out. “I communicated directly to Mrs. Rice and told her she does not have to leave the CCRB,” Adams said April 25.
But The News also reported Mayor Adams told her privately she could remain on the board as long as she was not the chair. It was unclear how she responded to the offer but she has remained chair in the three months since.
The reaction to Rice’s resignation from advocates was swift Monday morning. In a statement, the Legal Aid Society said it was a symptom of a “death-by-a-thousand-cuts campaign” by the Adams administration to undermine the complaint board’s role.
“From defunding the Civilian Complaint Review Board into a state of paralysis to rejecting disciplinary recommendations from the NYPD watchdog, to now pushing out the Interim Chairwomen of the CCRB after she criticized the NYPD’s handling of the investigation into the police killing of Kawaski Trawick, this Administration continues to prioritize the NYPD’s impunity over building trust between the Department and the New Yorkers that they are sworn to serve,” the statement said.
Rice remains the president and CEO of the New York Urban League, a nonprofit organization that assists underserved New Yorkers. She was previously executive director of Project Enterprise, an organization that provides business loans, technical help and peer support to entrepreneurs who have trouble getting financing.