#5 the NYPost has a good post re: the NYPD - complaint board doing early outreach to the 750 protest orgs:
August 28, 2004 -- THE Civilian Complaint Review Board — the city agency that investigates complaints against the New York police — is hoping for a windfall: Surely the protests around the Republican National Convention will bring it a whole new set of clients.
Such a fabulous contingency is not something you just leave to chance, however. So the CCRB has sent out about 750 e-mails to anti-RNC groups across the world seeking their business.
Like any good marketer who understands the power of the face-to-face appeal, the agency has offered protesters from Pakistan to Peninsula, Calif., the opportunity to meet personally with its staff "to discuss the CCRB's work and the investigative process."
The $9.3 million agency perennially complains about inadequate manpower and budget, yet it apparently can set aside time to meet with such groups as "The Vomitorium" and "African Ancestral Lesbians United for Societal Change" to go over its new, customer-friendly complaint system.
The agency also posted information on the Web site of United for Peace and Justice, the umbrella organization for convention protest, on how to file complaints by dialing 311 or going on the Internet.
This Web blitz is just the latest step in the CCRB's convention preparations. All year, the agency has been pressuring the NYPD for speedy access to police records for what it "assumes" will be a barrage of complaints from demonstrators. It has argued that officers on horseback should identify themselves more prominently, so as to make complaints easier. And CCRB workers have been attending monthly meetings of the Campaign to Demilitarize the Police, according to a Campaign spokesman.
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