NYCLU v. NYPD

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a lawsuit against the NYPD in New York State Supreme Court for unlawfully denying the NYCLU’s request for information related to Mayor Adams’s November 2022 announcement that the administration will detain and forcibly hospitalize people with perceived mental illness – even when they pose no imminent harm.

The NYCLU submitted a Freedom of Information Law request (FOIL) on December 13, 2022, seeking the policies, procedures and trainings as articulated by the Mayor in his public comments and as mandated by the Mayor’s November 28, 2022 policy directive on involuntary detentions. The NYPD has refused to respond to this request or share any documents, and instead told the NYCLU that they would respond by May 2023. When the NYCLU appealed that response, stating that the NYPD had constructively denied its request to produce documents related the Administration’s public announcements, the NYPD denied the NYCLU’s appeal.