After decades of secrecy, the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the agency with oversight over complaints against the city’s police and other law enforcement officers, posted a publicly-accessible online database with information on more than 83,000 past complaints against active and inactive NYPD officers.

The records include the date of each incident, complaint type, penalty impose (if any), and can be indexed by rank, precinct, shield number, name of the officer involved and number of other substantiated complaints.

The state legislature amended the law last year to eliminate a special exemption from the law enforcement officers, but public disclosure of the records had been delayed by a series of lawsuits filed by unions representing New York police officers, fire fighters, and correctional officers impacted by the change.

Last month, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the unions’ bid for an injunction to delay any required disclosure until all of their pending cases and appeals have run their course.

Documents from the long history of the issue in New York has been collected by the New York State Defenders Association.

Many of the issues considered and rejected in the ruling are relevant to the continued efforts to block disclosure of police misconduct by the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO), the union representing police officers statewide.

For example, the court ruled the NY Police Department “cannot bargain away its disclosure obligations” under state law. Indeed, the rights implicated are not rights of police officers, but rather the right of the public to access information to hold the police, and individual officers, accountable. The court also noted that while “numerous other states make similar records available to the public,” the unions did not present any evidence officers have been “irreparably harmed” by public disclosures in those jurisdictions. The New York unions argued officers would face additional dangers on the job if misconduct were disclosed, and would also be harmed in future job searches if unfounded or unsubstantiated complaints were made public. The court found neither argument was backed up by evidence.

See:

“Police Unions Lose Bid to Keep Disciplinary Records a Secret,” Benjamin Weiser, NY Times, February 16, 2021

“NYPD Watchdog Releases Long-Awaited Database On Police Misconduct,” Jake Offenhartz, Gothamist.com, March 4, 2021.

Documents in SHOPO v. City & County of Honolulu, Civil Beat Law Center.