Police Union’s Lawsuit is a Brazen Attack on Transparency Wins

Police Union’s Lawsuit is a Brazen Attack on Transparency Wins

Rollbacks to 50-a would endanger communities and make police discipline even more difficult

Yesterday, the Police Benevolents Union (PBA) filed an outrageous lawsuit against the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) over the release of police misconduct records. In response, Loyda Colón (they/them), Executive Director of Justice Committee, issued the following statement:

"The PBA’s baseless lawsuit against the CCRB is a brazen attack on transparency and part of a broader, coordinated effort by police unions to rollback the repeal of 50-a, which families whose loved ones were killed by police, organizations, and advocates fought for and won in 2020.

New York already made a definitive decision on this issue when it repealed CL 50-a: by law police discipline records must be accessible to the public in the interest of civil rights, safety, and police accountability. Communities deserve to know officers’ patterns of misconduct, which may endanger their lives. Take NYPD Lt. Jonathan Rivera, who killed Allan Feliz during an unjust traffic stop in 2019 and has a record of 40 misconduct allegations. Five of those allegations were substantiated. If the PBA has their way, the other 35 would essentially disappear from public view. 

There is a critical misrepresentation at the heart of this lawsuit: the PBA wants the public to believe thatunsubstantiated complaints are synonymous with false ones. In fact, there are many reasons why a complaint may not result in substantiation, for example if a complainant becomes unavailable or, more insidiously, when NYPD appointees flip investigators’ findings, as happened in a shocking number of cases in recent years.

In short, the PBA is attempting to make it more difficult for organizers, advocates, and journalists to track patterns of abuse and intervene by further obscuring the messy and corrupt reality of police discipline. This lawsuit should be rejected for what it is: a blatant attempt to shield the full truth of police abuse and rollback hard won transparency measures."