The Suffolk County PD should launch its police misconduct data, which have been sealed from the general public during the last 5 years, New York’s highest court docket dominated.
The State Courtroom of Appeals’ determination forces the SCPD to launch data that embody instances of allegations in opposition to cops 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 resulting from “officer safety and privacy concerns.”
However each Suffolk and Nassau PD have argued that the repeal of 50-a doesn’t apply to allegations that didn’t end in formal self-discipline, claiming that releasing these data would violate officers’ privateness and probably 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’s decision,” Suffolk County PBA President Lou Civello advised The Submit. “This ruling allows for bogus complaints to be weaponized against officers to impeach their character.”
A latest report by the Suffolk Human Rights Fee — the county’s police watchdog — revealed that the division reported almost 400 misconduct complaints between March 2023 and Could 2024 alone — however it nonetheless doesn’t know precisely what number of officers have been disciplined on this time-frame.
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 instances — it flat-out disagreed with the outcomes in 14.
Suffolk County Government Ed Romaine attacked the court docket’s determination.
This regulation permits officers “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,” he mentioned.
