The Suffolk County PD should launch its police misconduct data, which have been sealed from the general public over the past 5 years, New York’s highest court docket dominated.
The state Courtroom of Appeals’ resolution forces the SCPD to launch data that embody circumstances of allegations in opposition to cops whom the division exonerated, in line with the court docket.
In 2021, Newsday filed swimsuit in opposition to the division after Suffolk police refused to launch disciplinary data it requested in 2020 after the repeal of State Civil Rights Regulation 50-a — which had lengthy shielded police misconduct data from public view.
Regardless of the protections being overturned, the SCPD initially refused to launch the data as a consequence of “officer security and privateness considerations.”
However each the Suffolk and Nassau PDs have argued that the repeal of 50-a doesn’t apply to allegations that didn’t lead to formal self-discipline, claiming that releasing these data would violate officers’ privateness and doubtlessly put them in danger.
Suffolk police say they oppose the ruling, and have nonetheless not handed over the data to the paper.
“We disagree with the court docket’s resolution,” Suffolk County PBA president Lou Civello informed The Publish. “This ruling permits for bogus complaints to be weaponized in opposition to officers to question their character.”
A latest report by the Suffolk Human Rights Fee, the county’s police watchdog, revealed that the division reported practically 400 misconduct complaints between March 2023 and Might 2024 alone — however it nonetheless doesn’t know precisely what number of officers have been disciplined on this timeframe.
Within the report, the HRC’s Administration of Justice Subcommittee, tasked with monitoring the SCPD’s inner affairs investigations, acknowledged that though it agreed with the division’s findings in most misconduct circumstances, it flat-out disagreed with the outcomes in 14.
Suffolk County Govt Ed Romaine attacked the court docket’s resolution.
This legislation permits officers “to be subjected to public assault for alleged acts of misconduct that have been deemed to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, whereas those that commit crimes are shielded from duty,” he mentioned.
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