How to use our police car crash database to explore records
How to use our police car crash database
Police records released after the repeal of 50-a in New York helped journalists probe cop car crashes.
A joint investigation between the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Central Current and USA TODAY Network-New York.
A Civil Rights Law reform in New York in 2020 proved key to uncovering the human and societal costs of police officers crashing their vehicles.
Sparked by protests against police abuse, that pivotal moment for police transparency nearly four years ago kickstarted USA TODAY Network’s investigation of police involved crashes, in partnership with Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and the Central Current.
That is because the revelatory reporting on cop crashes, in many ways, stemmed from public records obtained due to the repeal of section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law in June 2020.
Armed with those records, a team of career journalists, data experts and students spent months investigating police crashes. They revealed many cops crashed police vehicles with impunity, while civilians injured in the wrecks faced massive barriers to
justice.
Push for police transparency ongoing in NY
The push for more transparency around police actions is ongoing, including court battles spearheaded by USA TODAY Network seeking to reaffirm the public’s right to access police, firefighter, and probation officer misconduct records.
Each new set of disciplinary records released is also being added to USA TODAY Network’s exclusive and searchable database of departments across the state.
How we created a police discipline database
New York police disciplinary records had long been shielded from public view, not subject to disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information laws.
That all changed in 2020 when the state Legislature and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved the repeal of 50-a, which was initially intended to protect police officers from attacks on their credibility but evolved into a way of shielding officer disciplinary files from the public.
The USA Today Network and partners filed requests with every police agency in the state, and the results are presented in our database of police disciplinary records.
How many departments and records included?
Close to 115 police departments to date, with more than 35,000 records released as of the dawn of 2024.
How many departments we’re still awaiting records from?
Close to 300, including 60 agencies that have rejected our FOIL requests.
How to search the database
Searching the database will return two sets of results.
First will be a list of individual records that match your search criteria. Second are additional details about which agencies have responded to FOIL requests for documents. The following illustrates some common ways to use the database.
Search by location
A search for “Onondaga County” or “Westchester County” will return a list of all of the available disciplinary reports obtained from police agencies in the county.
The results summarize each report, listing the type of incident that occurred, the officer involved, and the outcome of the disciplinary process, if known. To view the full report, click on the officer’s name, and the document will appear on a new page.
Below that will be a list of each police agency in the county and the status of their response to our FOIL request. Agencies that have not provided any disciplinary reports are marked in red, with some detail about the nature of their response.
Other Searches
You can search the database by entering any keywords. The use of quotation marks or operators (eg, “and”) is not necessary. Some examples:
- Search by town or police agency: “Gates”
- Search by officer name: “Coughlin”
- Search by date: “2020”
- Search by type of incident: “reckless driving“
About this project
This story is part of Driving Force, a police accountability project meant to expose and document the prevalence of police vehicle accidents in New York.
This joint investigation between USA TODAY Network-New York and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications was supported with funding from the Data-Driven Reporting Project. That project is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University-Medill.
This reporting was completed in partnership with Central Current, a Syracuse-based nonprofit newsroom.
Reporters, visual journalists, editors, designers and project partners include Maria Birnell, Evan Butow, Kayla Canne, Daniel DeLoach, Anna Ginelli, Jon Glass, Seth Harrison, Nausheen Husain, Hayden Kim, Annabella Leuzze, Chris Libonati, Beryl Lipton, Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Peter Pietrangelo, William Ramsey, David Robinson, Kyle Slagle, Eden Stratton, Sarah Taddeo and Jodi Upton and Marili Vaca.
is the lead reporter for the Driving Force, a joint investigation between the USA TODAY Network-New York and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.