New York City has a special board to review civilian complaints against the police.

Captain Courtney said civilian complaints against police in his precinct are down 48 percent.

The panel also sharply criticized the handling of civilian complaints by the police.

He had been on the force for more than four years, making nearly 120 arrests without ever firing a shot or receiving one civilian complaint.

He had no record of a single civilian complaint filed against him, the inspector said.

His record includes 11 civilian complaints of using bad language, shoving and punching.

The board said it received 4,516 civilian complaints of police misconduct compared with 3,454 in the same period last year.

A year later, there was a 70 percent increase in civilian complaints, even though 60 percent of the officers were black.

"You're not going to reduce civilian complaints overnight," he said.

"But I got less civilian complaints there in five years than in two here."