The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) announced a lawsuit against the Nassau County Police Department (NCPD) for unlawfully denying the NYCLU’s requests for the full slate of records related to police misconduct authorized to be disclosed following the repeal of 50-a. The suit was filed by Milbank LLP on behalf of the NYCLU.
The NYCLU submitted a FOIL request seeking public records specifically authorized to be disclosed under state Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) after the repeal of 50-a, a statute of the state civil rights code that had been used for years to bar the disclosure of police misconduct. Specifically, that request sought records of both police misconduct complaints that did result in officer discipline and complaints that did not, since January 1, 2000. The NCPD has denied requests for all records of police misconduct complaints created prior to June 2020—when 50-a was repealed—and all records of complaints that did not ultimately result in discipline from after that date. Nassau essentially continues to shield the vast majority of police misconduct complaint records from disclosure.
“Milbank is proud to partner with the NYCLU to ensure that New Yorkers benefit from the repeal of 50-a by seeking court intervention to prevent Nassau County from continuing to hide its misconduct records from public scrutiny,” said Milbank Litigation & Arbitration partner Atara Miller.
The proceeding is part of a statewide police transparency campaign in which the NYCLU and pro bono counsel filed state FOIL requests with 12 police departments statewide and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. As part of this campaign, the NYCLU has filed lawsuits against police departments in Rochester, Syracuse, Freeport, Troy and Buffalo for withholding public records subject to state FOIL. Courts statewide have rejected the vast majority of efforts to thwart accountability and disclosure following the repeal of 50-a, including in Schenectady following NYCLU intervention.
The Milbank team was led by Litigation & Arbitration partners Atara Miller and Errol Taylor, special counsel Andrew Wellin, and associates Kingdar Prussien, Samantha Lovin, Meredith Brumfield, Gio Crivello, Monica Grover, Rebecca Olson and Lyndsey Pere.
