CRIME + PUNISHMENT
Directed & Produced by Stephen T. Maing
Role: Consulting Producer
Oscar shortlist | Best Documentary Feature
Emmy Award | Outstanding Social Issue Film
Sundance Film Festival | Special Jury Award for Social Impact
IDA | Courage Under Fire Award
"[Director Stephen] Maing doesn’t seek to offer any solutions; instead, he does something that we often fail to do in our embattled society, he gives these particular officers and the people that they police their humanity back.”
-Shadow & Act, Aramide A. Tinubu
Meet the NYPD12: a group of minority whistleblower officers who risk everything to expose racist policing practices and smash the blue wall of silence. Crime + Punishment is a captivating and cinematic investigation into the New York Police Department’s outlawed practices of quota-driven policing and officer retaliation. Using secret recordings between officers and commanders, firsthand accounts, and emotional testimony, the NYPD12 detail the explosive truth when no one else will listen. In the meantime, Manuel Gomez, an ex-cop turned private investigator, collects testimony from young minorities who have been affected by these policies and targeted by officers in the name of fighting crime.
Stunning cinematography and intimate, character-driven access peel back the layers of institutional racism, exposing a need to re-examine problematic departmental policies that taint officer morale and erode public trust. Told from the rarely heard perspective of active whistleblower officers and the young men and women of color they police, Crime + Punishment is a once-in-a-generation film that considers the complexities of police work when faced with the unjust systemic and institutional practices fueling social justice movements across the U.S.
Director: Stephen Maing
Editor: Eric Daniel Metzgar
Executive Producers: Laura Poitras, Charlotte Cook
Producers: Stephen Maing, Eric Daniel Metzgar, Ross Tuttle
Consulting Producer: David Felix Sutcliffe
Supported by Field of Vision, Ford Foundation, Tribeca Film Institute, International Documentary Association, Sundance Institute, MacArthur Foundation, Sundance, IFP
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A group of brave officers risk it all to expose the truth about illegal quota practices in police departments.