NAN’s Jennifer Jones Austin long championed social justice. She will now lead city efforts for police accountability

The Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which investigates NYPD officer misconduct, finally has a new permanent chair, but the road to getting decorated social justice leader Jennifer Jones Austin for the opening was a long and winding one.

In June 2021, Rev. Frederick Davie congratulated Eric Adams on winning the democratic mayoral primary. Then, he gave his six-month notice. Davie planned on stepping down as CCRB chair by 2022 with the new administration coming in. 

A carousel of acting chairs followed for nearly half a decade, perpetually auditioning for, but never securing, the role. New York Urban League CEO Arva Rice stepped in for Davie, but could never shake the interim label and was reportedly pushed out in 2024 after calling for more agency funding and blasting the NYPD response to the police killing of Kawaski Trawick, a 32-year-old Black man. 

Her successor, Dr. Mohammad Khalid, fell out of favor with the police unions and resigned late last year after attacks from conservative media comparing him to then-incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani despite having no political similarities and likely because of their shared race and religion. Up until last week, the CCRB went without a permanent chair since Davie’s resignation in early 2022. 

Finally, on July 31, Mamdani tapped Jones Austin, 57,  for the opening. Current acting chair Sherene Crawford, Esq., will remain on the CCRB board. Jones Austin will serve a guaranteed three-year term and says she is maintaining an open mind and points to how her work examining policy can inform practice. 

“I have been trained as an individual raised in the House of Justice to look at issues with an eye towards fairness and transparency,” said Jones Austin. “It would be imprudent of me to have, at this particular point in time, foregone conclusions about where I think the CCRB under my tenure should find itself in the next several years. [But] I have a vision [to] get to a shared level of respect between all parties — the CCRB, the community, and] the NYPD.”

Jones Austin brings real muscle and credibility to the often overlooked CCRB through city government experience dating back more than three decades. Notably, she served as Civil Rights Bureau deputy chief at the New York State Attorney General, co-leading an investigation on the 1999 police killing of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, which later contributed to the landmark Floyd litigation that ultimately found the city liable for unconstitutional racial profiling in 2013. 

More recently, she chaired the New York City Racial Justice Commission, which led to charter revisions mandating the implementation of racial justice and equity within city government. Currently, Jones Austin serves as vice chair of the National Action Network board and CEO and president of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, which led advocacy efforts for a $15 minimum wage. Beyond her own expansive resume, she also hails from a long line of civil rights champions and faith leaders, including her father Dr. William A. Jones Jr. of Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Bethany Baptist Church — the first New York chapter chair of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“Jennifer Jones Austin has spent her career standing with New Yorkers who are too often shut out of the halls of power,” said Mamdani in a statement. “She understands that public safety and accountability go hand in hand, and that trust must be earned through action. Jennifer will lead the CCRB with integrity, compassion and an unwavering commitment to justice. I am grateful she has answered the call to serve our city.”

In a phone interview, Jones Austin recounted first connecting with the Mamdani administration shortly after the mayor entered office this year. Whether for due diligence or advanced talent scouting, the new regime took an interest in her public safety and community organizing work and how such experience could be helpful as the young democratic socialist built out his team.

“Since I got out of law school, going back to 1993 [when Rudy] Giuliani [was] in office, I have sought to either work in or with government on matters of well-being and safety for all New Yorkers and especially for communities that have been made vulnerable,” said Jones Austin. “So one would not be surprised when the Mamdani administration went into office, we had conversations about my work in this space.

“Not necessarily for joining the administration or serving in a commission or board post, but just always desirous of being helpful and bringing whatever experiences I’ve had to the table to help strengthen and inform the work that is being done by the city on behalf of the community.”

She will now tackle such work heading the CCRB, which is both lauded as a national model for civilian-led police accountability and criticized for its severely limited authority. The agency cannot fire or discipline the cops it investigates and prosecutes. Rather, an ostensible court run by the NYPD oversees serious misconduct claims, and even when it rules against an officer, the police commissioner can override any punishment directed by the department handbook. 

Still, the CCRB’s authority expanded immensely during the past decade and now handles many investigations once reserved for the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. Civil rights lawyer Darius Charney, lead counsel for the Floyd litigation, joined the agency in 2021 to direct a new agency dedicated to investigating racial profiling. 

Jones Austin remained complimentary of NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, who long drew praise inside the CCRB for revoking a statute-of-limitations policy employed by her predecessors to automatically dismiss otherwise credible misconduct claims. “What I have seen in our current commissioner is a desire to best understand and engage with [the] community,” she said.

Several Black leaders commended Jones Austin’s appointment as CCRB chair, including Attorney General Letitia James, Rev. Al Sharpton and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The announcement also included positive statements from two prominent Black democratic socialists: Council member Chi Osse and New York Communities for Change’s James Inniss. Many proponents in the press release pointed to a different role listed on Jones Austin’s exhaustive resume. Now, she will add another line.

“I’ve had people through the years say to me, ‘how do you balance your day job with some of the other responsibilities you take on? — how do you find the time?’” said Jones Austin. “What I share with people is…one through-line: advancing the concerns and aims of marginalized communities.”

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