Where are records of police crashes, civilian injuries in Westchester, Rockland?

Staff reports
·2 min read
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Police officers have crashed hundreds of cars in New York in the last few years, and often have escaped consequences. What about in our region?

In Westchester and Rockland, we have asked for records so we can analyze how often police have crashed into things and into people and what has happened after that. About a third of local police departments have completed our request, another third are still processing it and the final third have failed to acknowledge our request at all.Eastchester Town Police Department denied our request.

So far, we have submitted a total of 193 Freedom of Information requests for detailed crash records from police departments in the state, plus about another 20 for things like union contracts and vehicle pursuit policies.

In early 2023, the USA TODAY Network-New York including Lohud.com teamed up with Syracuse University's Newhouse School to investigate police vehicle crashes in New York. We expanded our efforts to obtain crash records from New York police departments and started exploring the human and monetary impact on communities where police seemed to be driving recklessly without punishment or prevention from it happening again.

We focused our efforts on departments in some of New York's most populous counties, as well as those counties where the USA TODAY Network owns news sites. We have yet to request crash records from every police department in the state.

Police departments are pushing back heavily — trying the keep the information hidden — as we urge them to release their disciplinary records, as required by law.

Many departments have resisted providing the records in their entirety, or at all.

The USA TODAY Network-New York has sued several departments in search of these documents — public records that are in the public interest. After being sued, Herkimer Police Department released its files early last year.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Westchester NY police crashes: USA TODAY seeks public records, data