Until the 2020 repeal of section 50-a of New York’s Civil Rights Law, police misconduct records were generally shielded from public disclosure. In the years since then, advocates, activists, journalists and researchers have fought in court and in the legislature to force these records into the public’s consciousness.
We’re using district attorney’s offices, county and state agencies and individual departments to identify all the files that might be missing.
The ‘Brady’ Process
‘Behind the Badge’ has drawn upon the so-called “Brady disclosure” process to obtain many of these police files. This comes from the landmark case Brady v. Maryland, in which the Supreme Court found that individuals accused of crimes have a right at trial to evidence that might speak to their innocence. Courts have extended this logic to law enforcement disciplinary files, finding that a police officer’s previous history of misconduct should be turned over under Brady as it could be used to challenge an officer’s credibility at trial.
A police officer’s previous history of misconduct could be used to challenge an officer’s credibility.
So What Are We Missing?
We are focused on substantiated or credible complaints of misconduct. Essentially, we’re looking at cases in which police departments have found that their own officers are at fault. It is important to note, however, that some experts and advocates have criticized police agencies for often overlooking specific allegations of wrongdoing against officers. The documents we’ve obtained might reflect these same biases.
Cases in which police departments have found that their own officers are at fault
The New York State Police Misconduct Files
The New York State Police are the state’s second-biggest law enforcement agency. With over 3,500 officers (known as Troopers) and thousands of civilian employees, the agency has one of the broadest impacts of any police agency on the citizens of New York. In the years since the repeal of 50-a, groups like NYCLU have sued the State Police to force them to disclose their disciplinary files. The State Police have fought back in court.
From records requests of district attorney’s offices, however, we learned that even while they were fighting not to provide these records to the public, the State Police were periodically providing these records on CD discs to district attorney’s offices throughout New York State as part of their “Brady” disclosure obligations. We’ve obtained over 5,000 pages of these files relating to 9 of the 10 State Police troops, along with various civilian employee divisions. Over the coming months, we’ll be making all these files public.
Even while they were fighting not to provide these records to the public, the State Police were periodically providing these records on CD discs to district attorney’s offices throughout New York State
A Variety of Records
Many of these Letters of Censure describe car crashes. But a significant subset pertains to random instances of misconduct. And a small subset of those records pertains to a few detailed instances of significant misconduct, such as off-duty arrests, stalking, violence against citizens and the loss of weapons and badges.