Court orders Greenburgh to hand over police discipline records to USA Today Network

A Brooklyn-based state appeals court ruled last week that the USA Today Network New York can access reams of police discipline records that had been withheld for years by the town of Greenburgh, in Westchester County.

The Appellate Division, Second Department, said that the town's attempts to shield all unsubstantiated allegations of misconduct within its police department, and to withhold disciplinary files created before 2020, were inconsistent with state law.

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Are these discipline records meant to be public in New York?

In 2020, the New York state legislature repealed Section 50-a of the Civil Rights Law, which had protected all police discipline records from public disclosure. That meant that police discipline records, such as those documenting the frequency of police vehicle crashes or an officer leaving a loaded gun unattended , could be obtained by the public or by journalists.

New York's Freedom of Information Law, or FOIL, allows members of the press and public to request access to government records.

The USA Today Network requested these records from every police department in New York state in 2020. As we receive new discipline records, we will periodically update our police records database so readers can access misconduct documents coming from their local departments.

Explore our database of misconduct records from New York state police departments here.

A number of police departments across the state, however, have fought the release of their disciplinary files. Some argued that certain records, such as so-called unsubstantiated records, could remain under seal.

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Where does the Greenburgh decision fit in?

Last week's decision follows a recent string of cases in which the Second Department and other appellate courts have ordered the release of unsubstantiated records and pre-2020 records. These courts have opined that nothing in current law allows for the categorical withholding of these classes of records.

The Second Department has been described as the busiest appellate court in the country, covering an outright majority of New York's population and adjudicating most of New York's appellate cases .

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"The Second Department has consistently ruled on these issues and has gotten it right every time," said Kelly McNamee, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig representing the USA Today Network in its public records litigation. "The judicial tides have changed at the Appellate Division. They're just applying the plain language of the FOIL amendments as they clearly should be applied."

However, New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, has agreed to review these issues in its upcoming term, despite the ongoing consensus of the appellate courts.

Asher Stockler is a reporter for The Journal News and the USA Today Network New York. You can send him an email at astockler@lohud.com . Reach him securely: asher.stockler@protonmail.com .

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Court orders Greenburgh to hand over police discipline records to USA Today Network