New York City's police watchdog group, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, is going forward with multiple police misconduct cases involving Occupy protesters and New York City police officers. Although the police watchdog group is going forward with police misconduct cases related to the Occupy protesters, the overall number of complaints against the New York Police Department filed with the group is down in comparison to last year.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board has started 37 police misconduct complaints related to the Occupy Wall Street protests. There has been a total of 44 Occupy-related complaints filed against the New York Police Department, and the allegations involve 78 alleged victims.

Complaints related to Occupy Wall Street involve four types of offenses. The offenses are abuse of authority, force, offensive language and discourtesy. Twenty-nine of the 37 complaints being reviewed by the city's policy watchdog involve allegations that police improperly used force.

Despite the Occupy cases, complaints filed with the city's police watchdog panel dropped over 7 percent in 2011 in comparison to 2010. There were 6.467 complaints in 2010, and in 2011 there were 6,007 complaints. More than 60 percent of the complaints in 2010 were closed before a full investigation was conducted by the board. The Civilian Complaint Review Board corroborated 8 percent of 2010's complaints after a full investigation.

Occupy Wall Street and the epicenter of the protest, Zuccotti Park, have been in the news media since the protest movement began this past fall. Occupy protesters were forced out of the park November 15 and some have found shelter in two local churches.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, "'Occupy' protesters file police complaints," Sean Gardiner, Jan. 12, 2012