NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3335
SPONSOR: O'Donnell TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to personnel records
of police officers, firefighters and correction officers
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would increase transparency and accountability in law enforce-
ment by narrowing the statutory exception that blocks access to police,
firefighter and peace officer records.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Civil Rights Law section 50-a, which this bill would amend, exempts
police and certain other law enforcement personnel records from the
ordinary rules of disclosure that the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL)
applies to all other government agencies. This bill would narrow section
50-a by limiting it to personnel records created and used solely for the
performance evaluation purposes laid out in section 50-a, thus overrid-
ing case law that has applied section 50-a to any personnel records that
might possibly be used to evaluate performance.
JUSTIFICATION:
New York State is virtually unique in its refusal to apply the same
level of transparency to police and other uniformed services as it
applies to all other public employees. In its 2014 Annual Report, the
NYS Committee on Open Government noted that the great majority of states
treat police officer records the same way that they treat other public
employee records. The Committee's review of all fifty states' laws also
revealed that no other state provides the kind of the broad protection
from disclosure that is afforded by Civil Rights Law section 50-a.
FOIL itself contains exceptions from disclosure that protect the privacy
and safety of individuals employed in uniformed services. There is also
an exemption for information relating to ongoing criminal investi-
gations. However, Civil Rights Law section 50-a, as it has been inter-
preted by courts over the years, goes beyond the protection of legiti-
mate and important privacy and safety concerns of officers. See
discussion of the case law in the 2014 Annual Report.
Indeed, 50-a's expansive application may well undermine the effective-
ness of new efforts to increase police accountability. For example,
there has been recent discussion of having police officers use "body-
cams," video cameras that capture events involving law enforcement offi-
cers. Under the current law, an agency could argue that all footage
captured by "bodycams" could be used for evaluating the performance of
these individuals. Therefore the 50-a exemption could be used to prevent
any footage from being released to the public, thus defeating the
purpose of using the bodycams.
At a time when the public is calling for increased scrutiny of police
actions for a variety of purposes, this bill would allow access to
records held by police departments in a manner that is consistent with
access to other government agency records.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A. 7611 (third reading cal. 163)
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect 30 days after having become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3335
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2017
___________
Introduced by M. of A. O'DONNELL, QUART, SIMON, GOTTFRIED -- read once
and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to personnel records
of police officers, firefighters and correction officers
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 50-a of the civil rights law, as
2 amended by chapter 516 of the laws of 2014, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 1. All personnel records created and used solely to evaluate perform-
5 ance toward continued employment or promotion, under the control of any
6 police agency or department of the state or any political subdivision
7 thereof including authorities or agencies maintaining police forces of
8 individuals defined as police officers in section 1.20 of the criminal
9 procedure law and such personnel records under the control of a sher-
10 iff's department or a department of correction of individuals employed
11 as correction officers and such personnel records under the control of a
12 paid fire department or force of individuals employed as firefighters or
13 firefighter/paramedics and such personnel records under the control of
14 the department of corrections and community supervision for individuals
15 defined as peace officers pursuant to subdivisions twenty-three and
16 twenty-three-a of section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law and such
17 personnel records under the control of a probation department for indi-
18 viduals defined as peace officers pursuant to subdivision twenty-four of
19 section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law shall be considered confiden-
20 tial and not subject to inspection or review without the express written
21 consent of such police officer, firefighter, firefighter/paramedic,
22 correction officer or peace officer within the department of corrections
23 and community supervision or probation department except as may be
24 mandated by lawful court order.
25 § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall
26 have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04187-01-7
