SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 22 – Police, Fire and other unions have sued to block the release of complaints against their members now the New York Civil Rights Act Section 50-a has been repealed.
The case was removed to Federal court by the City. On July 22 U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Katherine Polk Failla held a proceeding. Inner City Press live tweeted some of it:
Judge Failla: If I call 3-1-1 tomorrow and complain against a police officer, that's not being disclosed, right? Answer: Right. Or, there's a distinction between NYPD and CCRB.
Judge Failla: And on CCRB? Answer: They've released officer histories. Judge Failla: And Corrections Officers?
Answer: The Dep't of Corrections will create a website limited to substantiated allegations.
The unions are being represented by Anthony Coles of DLA Piper. He: I am startled CCRB released records of 81,000 officers
Coles: We need discovery on how those CCRB disclosures were made. We propose expedited document production. What are they planning to produce? What's been said here is different that what the Mayor has said in press conference, that he's releasing everything
Now Rebecca Quinn of NYC Corporation Counsel says that collective bargaining agreement allows officers to seek to expunge unsubstantiated complaints from the personnel files - not necessarily the OATH website (which Coles referred to as "dusty")
Coles says, NYPD promoting unsubstantiated allegations on the Internet will stigmatic the officers. Asks that it be enjoined pending arbitration under the Collective Bargaining Agreement(s).
Coles said it is suspicious that a July 9 FOIL request for the 81,000 officers' records was fulfilled on July 14.
The case is Uniformed Fire Officers Association et al. v. DeBlasio et al., 20-cv-5441 (Failla)
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