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Did A Powerful Police Union Violate The City Charter When It Released Personal Info On Chiara De Blasio?
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jun 8, 2020
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By
Brigid Bergin
Published Jun 8, 2020
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The City Council has demanded investigations into recent high-profile privacy breaches from the New York City Police Department, including the release last weekend of the arrest record of Chiara de Blasio, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter.
The 25-year-old was arrested while participating in police protests in Manhattan on Saturday, May 30th. The union representing NYPD sergeants, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, tweeted a photo of the record, which included her height, weight, and address. Twitter temporarily suspended their account and removed the tweet.
Asked about the incident last week, de Blasio blasted the union and suggested this tactic was one they used frequently: “The SBA did something unconscionable and it's not just ‘cause it's my daughter. They do this all the time with people's privacy. This is another one of the things that has to change.”
Citing this incident and the mayor’s response, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council member Ritchie Torres, who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Committee, sent a letter Sunday to both the city's Department of Investigation and the Conflicts of Interest Board directing them to launch investigations, citing potential violations of the City Charter. They specifically cite prohibitions against city employees releasing private information obtained through their official duties and Executive Order 16, which requires city employees with knowledge of behavior that violates the law to report it.
The letter suggests both the parties involved in the unauthorized release of this information and those who knew it was happening should be held accountable. It also suggests the move by the SBA was a strategic maneuver intended to hurt the mayor.
“We are also concerned that the timing of this release— in the midst of severe public unrest—strongly suggests willful conduct calculated to inflict personal harm on the Mayor and a member of his family,” the letter states. “While we have grave concerns regarding the Mayor's handling of the mass demonstrations now roiling our City, a personal reprisal of this sort is wholly unacceptable, cannot be tolerated, and, if sustained, warrants imposition of the full penalties.”
The union and the mayor have a tumultuous relationship. Throughout his mayoralty, his office has struggled with labor negotiations as well repeated rebukes from the organization over his attempts to reform the department and particularly after two NYPD officers were killed in December 2014.
A full copy of the letter is available here.
Torres, who initiated the call for investigations, said there needs to be more accountability of the police and specifically the SBA, who also recently tweeted a misogynistic expletive to describe the city’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, a Latina woman.
“What is true of police brutality is no less true of privacy breaches. If there is no accountability, there will be no end to police misconduct,” said Torres, later adding, “as far as I’m concerned, the SBA is a bonafide hate group masquerading as a union.”
Johnson said the leak was “totally unacceptable.”
“The mayor says it happens all the time, which is even more reason to get to the bottom of this,” he added.
For his part, SBA president Ed Mullins said he was not responsible for the data breach. He pointed to a reporter for the Daily Mail who initially tweeted the information. “I copied it, pasted and put it back out on my own Twitter,” Mullins told Gothamist / WNYC. He said he did not realize the record had not been scrubbed of personal information. “That was my mistake on an assumption,” he added.
On the charge that his organization is a “bonafide hate group,” Mullins said, “that is a matter of opinion.”
“The City Council member that feels that way is entitled to his opinion, but he should do his research and realize that this is a labor union, that we represent a group of people who we bargain for and for him to feel that way, that’s his opinion,” he said.
Mullins, whose taxpayer-funded compensation was $133,524 in 2019, is already the subject of an internal NYPD investigation after tweets in February declared “war” on the mayor.
DOI spokesperson Nicole Turso confirmed the department received the letter, but declined further comment. COIB Assistant General Counsel Chad said confidentiality restrictions in the city’s conflicts of interest law prohibited the board from commenting. And an NYPD spokesperson said the matter was under internal review.
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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