At City Agencies, Hundreds of Harassment Claims but No Consistent Response

NEW YORK — Nearly 500 employees of New York City’s Department of Education filed sexual harassment complaints in the last four years, and only seven of those cases were substantiated by the agency, city officials said Friday.

The numbers were part of a broader set of data on how the city responds to sexual harassment complaints, which appeared to indicate deep-seated problems across city government, both in how officials respond to harassment allegations and how they track the phenomenon.

The city said that it had reached settlements in 32 sexual harassment cases from 2014 through 2017, paying a total of $4.7 million.

City Hall officials said that the city had no consistent system to monitor sexual harassment, and different agencies compiled information in different ways, making it difficult to analyze. Over approximately a four-year period, there were a total of 1,312 sexual harassment complaints lodged at all city agencies, the data said, with 221 of those being substantiated.

Officials were unable to say how employees were disciplined in cases where the harassment was substantiated.

The data suggested challenges at numerous agencies, but the Department of Education stood out. There were 471 complaints filed with the department from the start of 2014 to the end of 2017, according to the data. Seven of those cases, or less than 2 percent, were substantiated, which means that investigators found probable cause that harassment occurred, according to the information provided by the city.

Fourteen cases were determined to be unsubstantiated. But in 249 cases, or more than half of those brought before the education department, the person who filed the complaint withdrew it, the data showed. The reasons for withdrawing the complaints were not provided.

In an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the problem in the school system, the city said that it would more than double the number of staff assigned to investigate sexual harassment complaints there, raising it to 18 from seven.

NY1 and other media outlets have been asking Mayor Bill de Blasio for sexual harassment data from city agencies for months, since the start of the #MeToo movement brought increased attention to sexual harassment. The mayor repeatedly promised to provide the data but waited until late on a Friday to do so, a common tactic when the government wants to minimize attention to an issue.

A news release accompanying the data included a written statement from de Blasio that acknowledged no fault with the city’s handling of such cases during his administration.

“Far too long, survivors of sexual harassment had to suffer in silence,” the statement said. “We’ve reviewed and overhauled our policies to send a loud and clear message of support to survivors.”

Among other agencies, the parks department also had a relatively high number of cases, with 130 complaints filed between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2017. Of those, 59 were substantiated and at least 39 were found to be without substance, although the data for that category was not complete.

There were numerous gaps in the data provided by the city. For many agencies, the city provided only partial data, for instance, failing to indicate how many cases were substantiated. And it omitted some kinds of data, such as how many complainants brought their cases to federal or state investigators.

The news release said that all city employees will receive sexual harassment training over the next year. It also said that the city will release data annually and create a standardized system for reporting harassment.

The largest settlement identified by the city included a payment of $550,000 in a suit brought by three women employed by the city’s Human Resources Administration. In that case, a supervisor was accused of repeated assaults, including groping breasts and, in at least one instance, choking one of the women while she was at her desk. The women brought their complaints to more senior staff at the agency, which oversees much of the city’s social services programs, but according to the suit their allegations were never addressed and the sexual harassment continued.

The city also reached a $500,000 settlement in 2015 with a police officer, who sued the city in federal court over harassment by her supervisor, a sergeant, accusing him of a yearslong pattern of harassment that included forcible touching, sexual insults and, at one point, taking a picture of his penis next to her face as she rested with a jacket over her head. The suit said the harassment was not limited to the sergeant and was not taken seriously by supervisors.

The sergeant told the female officer that he “knows people” on the job and that he was “untouchable,” according to the complaint. He retired from the force, according to the complaint.