New NYCLU Lawsuit: NYPD Refuses to Share Records Proving Compliance with Settlement over Transgender Discrimination

NEW YORK CITY – The New York Civil Liberties Union filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the New York Police Department for unreasonably delaying the release of records detailing the department’s compliance with the 2020 settlement with Linda Dominguez, a transgender advocate, who was harassed by the NYPD and charged with “false personation” in 2018. Recent reporting based on a years-long analysis of the NYPD’s FOIL practices has revealed that the NYPD has a pattern of dramatic delays in responding to FOIL requests.

As part of the 2020 settlement, the NYPD committed to redistribute its guidance on interactions with transgender and gender nonconforming people to the entire Department and to re-train officers in the 44th Precinct—where Ms. Dominguez was arrested—on the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming people. Following months of withholding records, the NYCLU’s lawsuit seeks to determine whether there has been any follow-up training or updated language in the NYPD’s related policies, as the settlement mandates.

“Ms. Dominguez’s abuse at the hands of the NYPD is part of a long and well-documented history of antitransgender bias and discrimination within the police department,” said Gabriella Larios, staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union. “At a time when anti-transgender sentiment is on the rise across the country, it is critical for the public to know whether the NYPD has made any progress toward ending the culture of impunity and discrimination against transgender people that has persisted throughout the Department for decades.”

“This obstruction is part of the NYPD’s broader pattern of routinely delaying requests for public records, blocking timely access to critical information,” said Bobby Hodgson, supervising attorney and Director of LGBTQ Rights Litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “LGBTQ+ New Yorkers deserve to know how police officers are interacting with transgender people, in order to hold them accountable and ensure they are living up to their promises of building a more inclusive Department.”

NYCLU counsel on the case include attorneys Gabriella Larios and Bobby Hodgson and senior paralegal Lourdes Chavez.

You can find case materials here: https://www.nyclu.org/en/cases/dominguez-v-city-new-york.