The Saturday (11/07) NY TIMES reports that Mark Green, who holds the elected position of Public Advocate, has won a round in court to gain access to police officers' files from the NYPD. Green won his case by arguing it is his mandate under the City Charter to oversee government operations, and that accessing cops' files is a part of that mandate.
About two years ago, Green attempted to get the personnel files of police officers who were accused of misconduct and brutality. After these cases were examined by the CCRB, their recommendations for punishment where disregarded by the NYPD. It is Green's contention that it is necessary to exam the files of these officers to determine why the NYPD and the Police Commissioner declined to punish or take any action against almost half of the cases referred from the CCRB. The Giuliani Administration argued that giving the Public Advocate access to these files would be a violation of the NYS Civil Rights Law, which prevents breaching the confidentiality of police officers records.
The Mayor's Office says that they will appeal the ruling of the NYS Appeallate Division of the State Supeme Court to the NYS Court of Appeals, the highest court in NYS.
Green has said that he would be willing to take the files with the names of the cops involved redacted (edited out). But as any cop knows, information in those records could compromise a cop, even with the names removed. An example would be a cop who takes off-duty enforcement in the vicinity of his residence. If that activity has the "Time and Place of Occurance..." in the record, it could easily refer back to the home of the cop involved.
There is also no guarantee that the Public Advocate will not inadvertently reveal the items in the folder, either.
The NYS Civil Rights Law with a section on police personnel records was passed for a reason. Again, unfortunately, the politicians have weighed in to exclaim that laws on the books should not apply to them. Their political future is more important than those in the trenches!
