The New York Civil Liberties Union dropped a massive database with hundreds of thousands of allegations against NYPD officers — just moments after a federal appeals court denied a police union’s attempt to block the data dump.
The three-judge panel of the United States Second Circuit of Appeals denied the police and fire unions’ requests for a stay Thursday morning after hearing oral arguments in the case Tuesday.
The NYCLU spared no time and published a searchable database with 323,911 “unique complaint records” that involves nearly 82,000 active and former cops.
Only complaints that have been fully investigated by the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board were included. Any pending complaints were not listed in the database.
“These complaints span two distinct periods: the time since the CCRB started operating as an independent city agency outside the NYPD in 1994 and the prior period when the CCRB operated within the NYPD,” the NYCLU database reads.
“[A]ll New Yorkers have a right to transparency through FOIL,” CCRB Chairman Fred Davie said in response to the ruling, referring to New York’s Freedom of Information Law that makes many city and state records public.
“The CCRB will hold paramount the people’s right to know how their communities are policed, while continuing to adhere to FOIL and other legal requirements,” he added.
Federal Judge Katherine Polk Failla previously lifted the stay on July 28 that blocked the NYCLU from publishing the allegations received from the review board through the FOIL.
“History has shown the NYPD is unwilling to police itself,” said Christopher Dunn, legal director of the NYCLU. “The release of this database is an important step towards greater transparency and accountability and is just the beginning of unraveling the monopoly the NYPD holds on public information and officer discipline.”
The suit was brought by all of New York City’s police, fire and correction unions.
“[W]e continue to fight the De Blasio administration and the improper dumping of thousands of documents containing unproven, career damaging, unsubstantiated allegations that put our members and their families at risk,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for the coalition of unions.
The unions have sued to stop the CCRB and other city agencies from sharing the disciplinary records with the public following the repeal of the controversial 50-a law, which was passed in early June among a package of police reform bills in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
Failla said Tuesday she expects to rule this week on the case in the Southern District of New York.