On the public records search website 50-a.org, anyone can search through the roughly 523,000 misconduct allegations made against NYPD officers through the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). The third-party database compiles the complaint history of around 96,500 past and present cops, often with data provided by the police oversight agency through its website or in response to public records requests.
However, a new federal lawsuit against the CCRB from the city’s largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), challenges what exactly the watchdog website should pass on to the public through the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Namely, the complaint points to how 50-a.org (which was not named as a defendant) identifies sexual misconduct, racial profiling, or untruthful statements allegations when the officer is cleared or the CCRB investigates and cannot substantiate.
These entries often show up in a simple Google search, and the PBA, which represents the NYPD rank-and-file, say they affect the accused officers’ professional and personal lives. Through the lawsuit, the union wants the CCRB to stop disclosing when unsubstantiated allegations stem from sexual misconduct, racial profiling, or untruthful statements when FOIL compels the watchdog to provide personnel records.
“CCRB is in a position to mitigate some of the adverse effects of its self-made problem of false and meritless complaints being filed against officers by appropriately protecting officer privacy and safety when it comes to public disclosure of such unsubstantiated accusations,” reads the filing. “CCRB itself acknowledges that public disclosure of unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct, racial bias/profiling, and false statements — i.e., the Stigmatizing Unsubstantiated Complaints at issue — is ‘very prejudicial’ to officers’ character.”
According to the PBA, the CCRB’s website does not disclose sexual misconduct, racial profiling, or untruthful statements in unsubstantiated complaints. Instead, the agency employs a generic “other” category. However, the information provided in a FOIL request also includes why the allegation was unsubstantiated, such as if the claim was unfounded or the officer committed the act within the police department’s guidelines. In addition, the CCRB can also close cases due to an unavailable or uncooperative complainant or victim. What the public chooses to do with the information is another story.
In a recent interview with amNewYork, one anonymous upper Manhattan cop recounted how a rescinded sexual misconduct complaint ended up under his name on 50-a.org allegedly while transporting a woman to a hospital psych evaluation. Demonstrators reportedly found the allegation without seeing the recantation and called him a “rapist.”
Jurisdiction over the three “Stigmatizing Unsubstantiated Complaints” categories only recently fell into CCRB hands. Sexual misconduct allegations and untruthful statement investigations date back to 2020 while city council passed a bill granting the agency power to conduct racial profiling probes in 2021. Previously, the NYPD’s own Internal Affairs Bureau handled these complaints.
CCRB spokesperson Dakota Gardner said the agency does not comment directly about pending litigation like this lawsuit, but provided a statement maintaining that the watchdog “continually reviews all applicable laws and regulations regarding the public release of its records, including disciplinary histories of members of service, to ensure it is fully compliant.”
While PBA president Patrick Hendry accused the CCRB of “under-the-table collusion with anti-police activists to smear cops,” a source familiar with the agency said the watchdog is simply complying with state law. For decades, Civil Rights Law §50-a — the ironic namesake for 50-a.org — shielded NYPD personnel records from the public eye until a repeal after the George Floyd protests during the summer of 2020.
Notably, the section denied Eric Garner’s family from obtaining disciplinary records through FOIL requests about the cop who killed the Black Staten Island resident. The NYPD ultimately fired the officer, but his history remains published on the 50-a.org database and shows a pattern of misconduct complaints, both substantiated and unsubstantiated, dating back to 2009.
The PBA told the Amsterdam News that the lawsuit is not intended to roll back the §50-a repeal. Rather, the union claims the case will hold the city to privacy and safety protections originally promised to members of service.
“Whereas unsubstantiated complaints are categorically withheld for licensed professionals, teachers, and judges, Plaintiffs here are not asking for categorical withholding,” the complaint reads. “Rather, Plaintiffs seek only redaction of officer identifying information, and only for three categories of Stigmatizing Unsubstantiated Complaints (or, alternatively, neutral characterization of such Stigmatizing Unsubstantiated Complaints), to prevent unnecessary and unwarranted prejudice and damage to the reputations, employment prospects, and safety of police officers and to protect their due process rights.”
However, Bobby Hodgson, deputy legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), said the current arguments strongly mirror previous attempts by the PBA to undermine the §50-a repeal by shrouding “basic factual information” about police misconduct investigations and disciplinary actions. Personnel records go beyond the 50-a.org database — investigative journalists and concerned citizens regularly file FOIL requests about officer history for accountability and oversight, not only on the NYPD, but also the CCRB.
“This is information that is important to the public,” said Hodgson. “It’s at the core of the public’s understanding of what happens when someone alleges that ‘the police mistreated me.’ The public has to know because historically, the police have not done a good job when things are kept secret, of having processes in place that actually result in accountability.
“We are now in a post-§50-a repeal world where these are the types of records that agencies around the state have to release. Because the law says they have to release them. A new version of this lawsuit saying that officers don’t want that material out in public [is] understandable, but that’s simply not what our law says.”
50-a.org did not respond to a request from the AmNews to comment.
It’s interesting how lawsuits can influence transparency. Makes you wonder if accountability gets lost in the process.