With the New York Legislature’s session ending in days, Democratic lawmakers in Albany are considering legislation that would badly damage what we consider a landmark police transparency policy.
As Albany correspondent Emily Barnes reported on Wednesday, June 3, legislation introduced by state Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, a Democrat who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, would repeal section 50-a of New York’s Civil Rights Law. Specifically, the bill, A.2074/S.4117, would, as Barnes reported, seal unfounded, exonerated and pending claims made against law enforcement officers and require the claims to be redacted from their disciplinary records, making them exempt from Freedom of Information Law requests.
“Currently, the public has access to all disciplinary records of law enforcement officers — even if allegations were unfounded or exonerated,” Scarcella-Spanton said.In our view, Senator, the public should retain that access.
New York police officers are public servants. Their activity is public.
Why?
First, because New York police departments decide ultimately which complaints are substantiated or not, disclosure of all disciplinary records enables community members to see how police chiefs referee these complaints. If unsubstantiated allegations are allowed to be kept private, that could become a tempting options for police chiefs charged with deciding on who can see complaints. Regardless, New Yorkers deserve to see the records — whether allegations are warranted or not.
Second, excluding pending complaints could leave the public in the dark in real time when concerning activities might be occurring. Police officers who are accused of using their positions for personal gain or to harass people, for example, should be accountable to public scrutiny as the allegations against them are investigated. The outcomes of those investigations should remain, public, too. Many police officers are cleared in internal affairs investigations.
Third, police officers in New York state are public servants. And the public has the right to scrutinize their actions. New Yorkers could not do that with police officers until 2020, and rolling most of these records back beneath a rock does not serve the public interest. Our reporting alone shows reckless driving and unprofessional officers and bad cops being rehired elsewhere are commonplace in local police departments. And much of that reporting has shown the need, as verbalized by police leaders, for better police training and better efforts to recruit quality officers.
How did we get here?
As Barnes reported, following several civilian deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers in New York and across the country — including Ortanzso Bovell’s fatal shooting in 2008 and Eric Garner’s chokehold death in 2014, both in New York City; and Daniel Prude’s restraint-related death in Rochester in 2020 — a social justice movement sparked the repeal of 50-a in 2020 to increase police transparency and accountability.
Previously, the measure blocked law enforcement from releasing most personnel records without a judicial order or the written consent of the officer. After its repeal, the release of disciplinary records — after personal information like addresses and cell phone numbers have been redacted — has been allowed.
Many of these records in New York are currently only accessible through public-record requests and are often delayed or denied by police departments throughout the state, leading to legal fights, including lawsuits pursued by the USA TODAY Network.
Scarapella-Scranton, in a statement, said police officers’ right to privacy should be a consideration.
“While transparency is important, especially for oversight bodies, public access to these records can be extremely damaging to officers’ careers, reputations, and safety,” Scarcella-Spanton said. “Those officers cleared of wrongdoing should not face long-term consequences when they have been cleared of wrongdoing in their careers. This legislative fix addresses this issue, and also aims to assist with recruitment and retention of law enforcement officers.”
Again, Senator, we couldn’t disagree more.
What do advocates say?
Reinvent Albany, a state government watchdog, is opposing the rollback of 50-a reforms.
“The worldview reflected in this bill is one where officers must be constantly on guard from false accusations, but the reality is that police rarely, if ever, face serious repercussions for actual violations,” their statement continued.The New York News Publishers Association, which represents newspapers across New York, including those that are members of the USA TODAY Network, also opposes the legislation.
“By mandating that records relating to “pending” claims of misconduct against law enforcement officers be sealed, this bill will undo legislation enacted in 2020 repealing a misguided law that for decades had rendered secret all records of police misconduct,” wrote NYNPA president Diane Kennedy in a May 28 statement.
The 2020 reform of 50-a was a triumph for transparency in New York.
The Legislature must let that triumph stand. Abandon this legislation.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: NY lawmakers must not hide police discipline records | Editorial
Reporting by USA TODAY Network New York Editorial Board, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By USA TODAY Network New York Editorial Board, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
