Focus Areas

Public integrity is an expansive and interdisciplinary field. As a partner of New York City’s Department of Investigation (DOI) and Columbia Law School, the Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (CAPI) is uniquely positioned to contribute to the anti-corruption community in four primary ways:

Supporting the fight against corruption in local government
For the first time in history, most people around the world live in cities. From New York City to Bogotá, Colombia to Hong Kong, cities have long been at the vanguard of innovation and reform. At their best, civic leaders have proven themselves more nimble, more accountable, and more imaginative than national governments. At their worst, cities have perpetuated the patronage networks and kickback schemes that entrench public cynicism. Municipal government is a unique battleground in the fight against corruption, and CAPI aims to help illuminate the challenges and opportunities faced by those promoting public integrity at the local level.

Honing the tools and tactics of anti-corruption authorities
Both in the United States and abroad, the community of professionals charged with addressing corruption has grown exponentially in recent decades. Public integrity professionals face high expectations, legal and practical constraints, fast-changing threats, and sophisticated adversaries. CAPI aims to help practitioners work more efficiently and more effectively, by providing relevant resources, helpful tools, best practices, and platforms for sharing knowledge.

Bridging the gap between scholarship and practice
The scholars who study corruption and the practitioners who fight it have a lot to learn from one another, but these communities often seem worlds apart. CAPI hopes to bring these two groups together by cultivating connections between them and by spotlighting research that has real-world relevance for public integrity professionals.

Supporting public integrity efforts in New York State
CAPI is privileged to call New York its home. Our city and state’s colorful history has illustrated both the corruption risks of concentrated power and a civic capacity to serve as a catalyst for enduring reforms. While we do not ourselves conduct investigations or advocacy efforts, we hope that our research and capacity-building will help our home state to better serve its 20 million citizens and break new ground in the public integrity field.