Last week Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch was forced to admit the NYPD had mistakenly allowed a police officer to retire before he could face pending disciplinary charges for the death of a Queens teenager experiencing a mental health crisis.
What Tisch did not mention was that the department had also failed for months to notify the state Division of Criminal Justice Services of the cop’s retirement, a failure that would have allowed him to jump to another law enforcement agency in New York after leaving the NYPD.
By law the department must notify the state when an officer facing disciplinary charges retires, and the state then places the officer’s name on a list of cops who’ve been “removed for cause.” That prevents them from working in another law enforcement jurisdiction.
Officer Salvatore Alongi was facing charges of abuse of authority and unnecessary use of force in the death of 19-year-old Win Rozario during a March 2024 mental health emergency call inside the teenager’s home. Body camera footage showed Alongi hitting Rozario with a taser after his mother had taken away scissors he was wielding; his partner, Officer Matthew Cianfrocco, fatally shot the teen.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board cited both cops in September 2025, and they awaited an administrative disciplinary trial. Alongi retired May 15, but the NYPD did not get around to notifying the state criminal justice agency of his retirement until Oct. 8th.
The notification came the day after Rozario’s family announced they would “reveal information about one of the officers who killed Win and call for swift and decisive action.”
At an Oct. 8 press conference outside City Hall, the family denounced the police department for failing to notify the CCRB of Alongi’s retirement as required. That failure allowed Alongi to retire before facing trial.
MORE: NYPD Blames ‘Human Error’ After Officer in Win Rozario Shooting Is Allowed to Retire
Hours after the press conference, Commissioner Tisch issued a statement admitting the failure to notify CCRB, but she said nothing about the department’s failure to notify the state.
On Tuesday, Janine Kava, a spokesperson for DCJS, said the police department usually files its list of names for decertification quarterly. In Alongi’s case that would have been by July 1. Kava said the department did not submit any names at that time and referred The City Reporter to the NYPD “about the delay reporting its Q2 removals.”
On Wednesday, police spokesperson Bradley Weeks said the department is only required to report the names of officers who are no longer in the department once a year, in January, but that they “work with DCJS to share names on a quarterly basis so they are proactively informed.” He did not comment on the timing of the disclosure coinciding with the day of the Rozario family’s press conference.
“DCJS staff monitor all agencies required to report and routinely work with them to improve the timeless of their reporting. We expect all employers of police and peace officers to comply with their reporting obligations,” Kava said.
Loyda Colon, executive director of the criminal justice reform group the Justice Committee, castigated the NYPD for its double failure.
“Win Rozario’s family should not have to take off work and organize a press conference just to get the NYPD to follow state law,” Colon said.
Meanwhile, the officer who shot Rozario, Cianfrocco, is still employed by the department and still faces an administrative trial prosecuted by CCRB. As of Wednesday, the CCRB had yet to schedule a date.
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