Time’s Up for Secrecy in NY Police Departments

For decades, law enforcement departments across the state have fought tooth and nail to keep New Yorkers in the dark about the extent of police misconduct in our communities and what—if anything—departments have done to create accountability. But the NYCLU recently scored a major legal victory against secrecy and for police transparency.

Following a NYCLU lawsuit with pro bono support from A&O Shearman, New York’s highest court ruled that the Rochester Police Department (RPD), and all police departments, must publicly disclose all records related to police discipline and misconduct allegations.

This might sound like basic common sense—of course the public should know how police departments respond to allegations of misconduct, because without that information there is no way to know if misconduct is being ignored or covered up—but until 2020 a New York law called “50-a” kept all police misconduct and discipline records completely secret. In June of 2020, legislators finally repealed 50-a. They also added language to our Freedom of Information Law requiring departments to turn over exactly these records.

The repeal of 50-a was the result of years of work by advocates and families whose loved ones had been killed by police and who were routinely rebuffed when they sought accountability, or even just to understand what types of internal investigations might have taken place. As their stories demonstrated, the new law made perfect sense. When the police are being entrusted to police themselves, they should at least have to show their work and explain how they’re doing it.

Unfortunately, for many communities, things didn’t change. For the last five years, New York police departments, including the RPD, argued they didn’t have to disclose any records or data related to “unsubstantiated” or “unfounded” complaints where the department didn’t impose discipline. Many refused to turn over records where the department left the investigation “open” or abandoned it because they failed to gather any evidence, or where the complaint happened prior to 2020.

In practice, this meant that departments were withholding virtually all records, since they investigate themselves and very rarely discipline their own officers. These police departments were, very obviously, breaking the law.

So we took the fight to the courts to make police transparency a reality. We filed dozens of lawsuits to vindicate the public’s right to know what happens – or doesn’t happen – when police departments investigate a complaint of misconduct.

These records revealed the extent of reported police and correction staff abuse in our communities, jails, and prisons, and they revealed many ways in which accountability systems need to be improved.

We scored win after win in the lower courts, as every New York appellate court around the state agreed with our argument that the new law was crystal clear. And some law enforcement agencies—including the NYPD and the State Police, the largest and second largest police forces in New York State – started to disclose hundreds of thousands of records.

These records revealed the extent of reported police and correction staff abuse in our communities, jails, and prisons, and they revealed many ways in which accountability systems need to be improved.

But, even in the face of these court decisions, many departments and police unions continued to fight, delay, and deny. Records the public should have been able to see in 2020 were still secret well into 2025.

This decision from New York’s highest court – the first to address the repeal of 50-a – should put an end to all that. The court held that the RPD must release misconduct investigation records regardless of whether the department “substantiated” the complaint or imposed discipline. In a companion decision, the court also ruled that records predating the 2020 repeal of 50-a must be turned over.

Now, all departments across New York are on notice that they can’t ignore or rewrite the law. They are out of excuses for hiding reports of abuse.

It’s not the end of the road, but this landmark decision is a critical step toward justice for New Yorkers, especially Black and Brown New Yorkers who have borne the brunt of police abuse.

Now it will be much harder for departments to cover up abuse or reward misbehavior without being exposed. With these records in hand, we will be able to have informed public conversations about what police accountability actually looks like in our communities – and identify the reforms needed to hold department’s responsible.

And as the Trump administration continues pushing for police departments to operate with impunity, this win is a counterweight on the scales towards greater accountability and community safety in New York.