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New York State Legislature Votes To Repeal Law 50-A That Shields Police From Scrutiny
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 9, 2020
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Scott Heins / Gothamist
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jun 9, 2020
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Both houses of the New York State Legislature have passed a bill to repeal New York Civil Rights Law section 50-A, which has shielded police disciplinary records from the public for 44 years.
The bill is part of a package of modest police reforms that have stalled for years, but were imbued with a new sense of urgency over the past few weeks following the police killing of George Floyd and the massive protests against racist police violence that have roiled New York City.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he would sign any bill the legislature passed on 50-A reform, and the bill is written to take effect "immediately."
The governor's office has not yet responded to our questions about when Cuomo would sign this bill.
"If you have the power to take a human life, there should be more sunlight shining," Long Island Assemblymember Phil Ramos told his legislative body shortly before the bill passed. Ramos, who worked as a police officer for 20 years, insisted that contrary to the message of the police unions, which opposed the legislation, the bill would actually help law enforcement officers.
"I say to my brother and sister police officers, your enemy is not the communities of color who are crying out for justice. Your enemies are these bad officers, who take it too far," he said. "I know it feels like the whole world is coming down on you, but the problem is coming from the people at your side."
The legislation, sponsored by Bronx State Senator Jamaal Bailey and Manhattan Assemblymember Dan O’Donnell, is largely the full scale repeal that police reform advocates were demanding. It requires law enforcement agencies to turn over the disciplinary records of police officers when they are requested under the state's Freedom of Information Law, and prevents any personal information like home addresses from being disclosed (something that the state's FOIL law already prohibited, but which O'Donnell described as "an extra layer of protection.")
Agencies like the NYPD were already disclosing some of this disciplinary information voluntarily, until the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly stopped, and then fought in court to maintain the secrecy of those records. 50-A is why the public was not able to learn that Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who fatally choked Eric Garner in 2014, had an abysmal record of misconduct.
The law does not require agencies to turn over information on "technical infractions," which are defined as "solely related to the enforcement of administrative departmental rules that (a) do not involve interactions with members of the public, (b) are not of public concern, and (c) are not otherwise connected to such person's investigative, enforcement, training, supervision, or reporting responsibilities."
"It is left somewhat vague on purpose in order to allow it to be interpreted and to allow an individual to challenge that interpretation," O'Donnell told a lawmaker who asked him about it.
Brooklyn State Assemblymember Erik Dilan said that while he supported the bill, he questioned whether the phrase "are not of public concern" should exist in the exemption provision, citing his experience as a City Council member who sat on the public safety oversight committee.
"NYPD's lawyers have a tremendous amount of things they do not believe are of 'public concern,'" Dilan said.
Police unions across the state wrote a memo of opposition to the legislation, calling it an "attack on law enforcement," and insisted that releasing all disciplinary records, including unsubstantiated complaints, would not be "reliable or fair indicators of an officer's conduct."
"Don't make this about 'Blue Lives Matter.' It's a mischaracterization of the truth," said Brooklyn Assemblywoman Diana Richardson during the floor debate. Richardson was one of the state lawmakers who was pepper sprayed by the NYPD during the protests last week. "All lives do matter, but black lives we have to put a focus on right now because of what's going on in this country."
Roger Clark, a 48-year-old VOCAL-NY community leader, called the bill's passage "a very big deal."
"I have been fighting for years to pass this 50-A bill, and for years the police unions have been blocking the legislation, telling [lawmakers] that it was wrong, that it's gonna put officers at risk, which we know is not true," Clark said. "It's a step in the right direction."
Still, Clark noted that there was much work left to be done to reform New York's criminal justice system, especially in New York State prisons. Clark said he spent 15 years in the state prison system.
"Out here, the reason you see the outrage over these killings is cell phone cameras. They don't have those cell phone cameras in the prisons," Clark said. "Correction officers will call you a n----r, they will spit in your face, they will beat you," Clark said. "They need to stop sending people to solitary confinement, which we know is a form of torture."
Clark pointed out that Governor Cuomo has used his power of clemency sparingly, and has not supported a slate of prison and parole reform bills that have also languished in the legislature: "He could empty out those jails, there's a lotta people upstate they don't need to be upstate. They're not a threat to nobody."
Clark added, "He hasn't really cared too much about black people in my mind. It's just now he's softening his heart because of the horror he's seen, while we've been yelling for years, 'Hey, they're killing us on the street!'"
Tagged
state assembly
police transparency
state senate
50-a
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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