New York Court Rules State Police Can’t Keep Hiding its Misconduct Records From the Public

From [HERE] In 2020, the New York State legislature finally took a tool of opacity out of law enforcement’s hands. For forty years, law enforcement agencies had the option of rejecting officer misconduct records requests by citing 50-a, the law that said these records could be considered exempt from the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). 

Notably, the law did not mandate law enforcement agencies keep these records locked up. All it said was that they could cite this law as a reason for denying records requests. The NYPD finally re-read the law in 2016 and used it as an excuse for its refusal to continue publicly posting information about closed internal investigations. (The other excuse given, believe it or not, was “to save paper.”) 

Perhaps the weirdest footnote of the now-dead law is that fact that it was used as the basis of the NYPD’s union’s lawsuit against the NYPD, which cited 50-a as the reason the NYPD could not legally release body camera footage.

As soon as the law went into effect, so did the legal challenges. But law enforcement’s early wins were soon outpaced by their losses. Litigation forced the NYPD to comply with the repeal of 50-a. (I mean… to a point. The NYPD doesn’t really comply with any public records law.)

The NYPD learned the expensive way it was required to follow the law, just like every other law enforcement agency in the state. Now, it’s the state’s own law enforcement agency that’s learning this lesson, as C.J. Ciaramella reports for Reason.

The New York State Police (NYSP) must turn over decades of disciplinary records and complaints against troopers, a New York state judge ruled today.

In response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), acting Supreme Court Justice Keri Savona ruled that the NYSP must begin disclosing misconduct records from 2000 through 2020. (Unlike most states, New York’s Supreme Court is its trial-level court system.) The ruling is the latest defeat for police unions, which have been fighting to limit the scope of a 2020 law that made police disciplinary files public record. [MORE]