NYCLU v. City of Rochester Police Department

The New York Civil Liberties Union in partnership with Shearman & Sterling LLP filed an Article 78 proceeding against the Rochester Police Department to obtain records related to police misconduct requested by the NYCLU under the state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). This comes after months of obstruction despite these records being specifically authorized for disclosure after the repeal of 50-a, a statute of the state civil rights code that had been used for years to bar the disclosure of police misconduct. 

The Rochester proceeding is part of a statewide police transparency campaign in which the NYCLU, with pro bono counsel from Latham & Watkins LLP, Milbank LLP, Shearman & Sterling LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Winston & Strawn LLP, and Simpson, Thacher, & Bartlett LLP, filed state FOIL requests with twelve police departments statewide and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision requesting data about police and correctional officer misconduct with particular attention to the appearance of patterns of race-based policing.