Top New York state court orders Suffolk PD to release records on officer misconduct allegations
The Suffolk County PD must release its police misconduct records, which have been sealed from the public over the last five years, New York’s highest court ruled.
The state Court of Appeals’ decision forces the SCPD to release records that include cases of allegations against cops whom the department exonerated, according to the court.
In 2021, Newsday filed suit against the department after Suffolk police refused to release disciplinary records it requested in 2020 after the repeal of State Civil Rights Law 50-a — which had long shielded police misconduct records from public view.
Despite the protections being overturned, the SCPD originally refused to release the records due to “officer safety and privacy concerns.”
But both the Suffolk and Nassau PDs have argued that the repeal of 50-a doesn’t apply to allegations that didn’t result in formal discipline, claiming that releasing those records would violate officers’ privacy and potentially put them at risk.
Suffolk police say they oppose the ruling, and have still not handed over the records to the paper.
“We disagree with the court’s decision,” Suffolk County PBA president Lou Civello told The Post. “This ruling allows for bogus complaints to be weaponized against officers to impeach their character.”
A recent report by the Suffolk Human Rights Commission, the county’s police watchdog, revealed that the department reported nearly 400 misconduct complaints between March 2023 and May 2024 alone — but it still doesn’t know exactly how many officers were disciplined in this time frame.
In the report, the HRC’s Administration of Justice Subcommittee, tasked with monitoring the SCPD’s internal affairs investigations, stated that although it agreed with the department’s findings in most misconduct cases, it flat-out disagreed with the outcomes in 14.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine attacked the court’s decision.
This law allows officers “to be subjected to public attack for alleged acts of misconduct that were deemed to be unfounded or unsubstantiated, while those who commit crimes are shielded from responsibility,” he said.
