Mt. Vernon police records ruling: 'Citizens who are being policed have the right to know'

The Mount Vernon Police Department must soon make public its records of officer misconduct and discipline, according to a decision handed down last week by a state Supreme Court justice in Westchester County.

The judgment reaffirms the public’s right to access police, firefighter, and probation officer misconduct records under the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Reporters for Gannett Network New York — parent organization of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Journal News and 10 other local New York newspapers — initially filed the original FOIL request for records of officer wrongdoing in June 2020.

For nearly two years, Mount Vernon failed to provide any response, despite state law mandating a response to requests within five business days. Gannett and legal counsel at Greenberg Traurig filed the lawsuit against the City of Mount Vernon and its police department in May 2022.

“The citizens who are being policed have the right to know who the public officers who are doing the policing are, to a great degree because they are ultimately the ones the [sic] bear the brunt, culturally, socially, and financially when bad police act badly,” wrote Judge George Fufidio in his decision. “It is disheartening that...the [City of Mount Vernon] made no real effort to provide the Petitioner with anything they requested in their FOIL application and offered no basis, reasonable or otherwise for failing to do so.”

Mount Vernon is currently the subject of a Department of Justice investigation into an alleged pattern of discriminatory policing and excessive use of force.  City officials did not initially respond to requests for comment.

Gannett is also pursuing litigation against the Town of Greenburgh, in Westchester County, over the same classes of records. Earlier this year, a Gannett New York lawsuit against the village of Herkimer yielded records showing a police officer had discharged his weapon in police department offices.

In June 2020, amid nationwide protests against police abuse, the New York state Legislature repealed section 50-a of the state Civil Right Law, a statute initially intended to protect police officers from attacks on their credibility but that evolved into a way of shielding officer disciplinary files from the public.

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Gannett New York's FOIL request to Mount Vernon was one of more than 500 that have been filed by the Network and partners following the repeal of section 50-a as part of a project to help the public better understand decades of secretive police misconduct and the discipline that has or hasn’t been dealt by departments as a result. Materials received from departments are being made available to all via a public database.

Following the repeal of section 50-a, multiple police unions and departments challenged the disclosure of police records under the changes to FOIL, particularly opposed to the release of records created prior to June 2020 and those describing allegations against officers that the department ultimately deemed unfounded.

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However, in the past year, other decisions from the Appellate Division and the First, Second and Fourth Departments of the New York court system have also determined that the appeal of 50-a included "no categorical exemption from disclosure for unsubstantiated allegations or complaints of police misconduct,” facilitating the proper application of FOIL’s provisions to police records.

"We are pleased that Judge Fufidio respected the law and ordered Mount Vernon's police disciplinary records be made public," Gannett New York State Editor Mike Kilian said. "Law-enforcement officers play a vital role in our communities, and public disclosure of how police departments handle citizen complaints can only strengthen best policing practices in Mount Vernon and elsewhere."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Police disciplinary records: Mount Vernon NY must release documents