NEW YORK, NY — Moments ago, in a complete victory for advocates of government transparency and police reform, Judge Katherine Polk Failla lifted her own Temporary Restraining Order on the release of police disciplinary records in New York City. Failla issued a TRO on July 16 after the New York Police Benevolent Association and other public safety unions filed a lawsuit against the City of New York on July 15 which was transferred to federal court the next day.
Judge Failla granted a part of the Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction “Defendants NYPD and CCRB may not disclose records of “Schedule
A” command discipline violations, for cases heard in the Trial Room, and for
which the disposition of the charge at trial or on review or appeal therefrom is
other than “guilty,” which records have been, are currently, or could in the
future be the subject of a request to expunge the record of the case pursuant to
§ 8, for those officers covered by the Police Benevolent Association, Sergeants
Benevolent Association, and Lieutenants Benevolent Association collective
bargaining agreements.”
Judge Failla denied Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction in all
other respects.
In short, unless the record is for a minor technical violation like being late to roll call or that the officer’s due process rights have not reached a conclusion, all records must be released.
The decision in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, clears the way for the release of such records throughout the Southern District of New York — including New Rochelle — which requires the immediate release of the police disciplinary records for New Rochelle Police Office Alec McKenna.
Talk of the Sound requested the immediate release of the McKenna moments after the federal hearing ended.
On June 5, McKenna shot and killed Kamal Flowers.
On June 12, Talk of the Sound made a Freedom of Information request within minutes of Governor Andrew Cuomo signing into the law the repeal of 50-a, a section of the New York Civil Rights Law, enacted in 1976, which hid performance records of police officers, firefighters, and corrections officers from the public.
The City of New Rochelle and the New Rochelle Police Department have been stonewalling on the release of police disciplinary records since June 12. After initially claiming the records were available for release, the City of New Rochelle insisted upon an unprecedented in-person meeting with City officials to first “explain” the records – in hindsight a stalling tactic to prevent release of the records. That meeting was repeatedly rescheduled and ultimately cancelled over a week period until the New York Police Benevolent Association and other public safety unions obtained the TRO from Judge Failla at which point the City of New Rochelle, citing the TRO, denied Talk of the Sound’s Freedom of Information request for the McKenna records.
In a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Failla sounded skeptical of the Plaintiff’s argument the police officers would suffer immediate and irreparable harm — reputational harm, future employment harm, and that the safety of officers will be put at risk if disciplinary records are made public. In announcing her decision today Failla said she found that plaintiffs did not show the police officers would suffer immediate and irreparable harm from the release of disciplinary records, even unsubstantiated complaints.
In the U.S. Court of Appeal Second Circuit on Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union won approval to release 320,000 New York Police Department complaints going back decades. The New York Civil Liberties Union and ProPublica had previously released hundreds of thousands of such records.
“Any injunctive relief that I would order could not put that particular horse back in the barn,” Failla said in reading her decision during the teleconference.
Failla said the Civilian Complaint Review Board has announced plans to provide a searchable database of officer’s disciplinary records and the New York City Police Department will post information about Internal Affairs charges on the NYPD website.
The City of New Rochelle says they have no database which would allow them to easily search for the police disciplinary records.
In denying a subsequent FOIL request for all police officer’s disciplinary records, the City of New Rochelle claimed that only individual requests for specific officer’s disciplinary records would not be “unreasonable”.
Talk of the Sound then prepared a list of names and submitted 344 individual FOIL requests, every few minutes, between August 11 and August 14th. The NRPD is required to individually confirm receipt of each request by August 21st then either produce the records or deny each request within 22 days.
Any time a Taser is sparked the officer must file a Use of Force Report. Anytime an officer unholsters their service weapon they must file a Firearm Discharge Reports.
Talk of the Sound made a Freedom of Information request for all Use of Force Reports filed in 2020 and for all Firearm Discharge Reports filed in 2020.
RELATED:
New Rochelle Stonewalls on Release of Disciplinary Records for Cop Who Killed Kamal Flowers
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