NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A bill that would make it easier for police to withhold disciplinary records passed the New York State Assembly and Senate.
The bill undermines the 2020 repeal of article 50-a, a law that allowed police departments in New York to withhold disciplinary records.
The article was repealed in response to protests against police violence that swept the nation after police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
The goal of the repeal was to make policing more transparent and to make police more accountable to public scrutiny.
Despite the article’s repeal, police argued that releasing disciplinary records could impede ongoing investigations and refused to turn over disciplinary records.
The excuse was used so frequently, that the State Legislature mandated judges review records blocked for this reason.
If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the new bill would remove this judicial review. It would again give police departments a blanket excuse to withhold information from the public.
The amendment that removed the judicial review was added by Hochul, according to the New York Daily News. It is therefore unlikely she will veto the bill.
The bill quietly passed on March 2, and it managed to make it past the Legislature without catching the eye of press, activists and attorneys — all of whom have long pushed for greater access to police records.
Even without this new hurdle, obtaining records from the police that should now be publicly available has been difficult since the repeal of 50-a.
The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the NYPD in the fall of 2021 for the release of documents the department failed to produce.
Similar lawsuits have been necessary to pry documents loose from other police departments. In the village of Herkimer, for example, the Gannett newspaper conglomerate sued the Herkimer Police Department for the release of disciplinary records.
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