Appeals court rules Suffolk Police Department must release records of officers’ unfounded disciplinary cases

An appeals court this week upheld a state judge’s ruling ordering the Suffolk County Police Department to release records from complaints about officer misconduct deemed to be unfounded or unsubstantiated.

Suffolk County and the police department had argued the disciplinary records about exonerated officers, or whose cases were determined to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, were exempt from public disclosure after the repeal of  Section 50-a of state Civil Rights Law    in 2020. Making those records public, they said, would violate officer privacy.

But Wednesday’s decision by the New York State Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, said the county “did not meet their burden of establishing that the privacy exemption applied.”

“Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly directed the appellants to disclose the subject records of unsubstantiated, unfounded or exonerated allegations of police officer misconduct,” the appeals court said.

New York Civil Liberties Union assistant legal director Bobby Hodgson called the ruling “a huge win for transparency.”

“It has been a long time coming,” Hodgson added. “It is really, really galling that five years after 50-a was repealed, the people of Suffolk County have not been given access to those records.” 

The NYCLU filed a Freedom of Information Law request in September 2020 seeking disciplinary documents and then filed a lawsuit against Suffolk after the county withheld the records or released them with heavy redactions. 

Suffolk’s lawyers argued releasing records involving unfounded cases would violate privacy by making officer’s medical history and other personal information public.

Lou Civello, the president of the Suffolk Police Benevolent Association, said the ruling “weaponizes” records about unfounded misconduct allegations against officers, exposing them to threats and harassment. He said safeguards need to be established to protect officers.

“This is a law that jeopardizes public safety,” Civello said.

In a statement, Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said:  “The men and women of the Suffolk County Police Department put their lives on the line every day to protect our residents. Allowing them to be subjected to public attack for alleged acts of misconduct that were deemed to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, while those who commit crimes are shielded from responsibility in the name of ‘reform’ seems patently unfair.”

The Suffolk police department did not immediately return requests for comment.

Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Maureen T. Liccione ruled in January 2024 the county and police department improperly claimed they did not have to release the results of internal affairs investigations when allegations of misconduct were declared unsubstantiated. The majority of Suffolk police disciplinary cases are ruled unsubstantiated or invalid.

That ruling echoed a November 2023 decision by Liccione to a 2021 lawsuit filed by Newsday after Suffolk police refused to release most disciplinary records or provided records that were so heavily redacted they were undecipherable. Liccione ordered the department to begin providing records to Newsday on a rolling basis, and provide detailed justification for redactions, within 30 days. The county and the department appealed that decision.

New York State lawmakers repealed the 50-a law shortly after the May 2020 death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, which prompted huge protests nationwide and furious calls for police reform. The repeal, which legislators believed would bring transparency to a historically opaque internal affairs process, passed overwhelmingly in both the Assembly and Senate and was championed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

The repeal subjected police disciplinary records to the rules of the state Freedom of Information Law, which allows residents to request public employee records, subject to exemptions for privacy.

New York lawmakers had adopted 50-a in 1976 to prevent defense attorneys from using personnel records while examining police witnesses during criminal prosecutions.

Hodgson said NYCLU will work with the courts to draw up a timetable for the release of the documents.