Exposing the past: Why we’re writing about NY police misconduct records
Why we’re writing about NY police misconduct records
Column: Three years after 50-a repeal, we’re still fighting for police records.
A joint investigation between the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Central Current and USA TODAY Network-New York.
Hidden in New York’s police misconduct records are accounts of an officer who crashed his duty vehicle a dozen times while on the job.
There is also the tale of an officer who stole riot gear and knives from his department, and details of how another officer stalked a local woman and threatened to use his influence to send her husband back to jail.
Five years ago, none of this information was public.
It was shielded behind a statute in New York Civil Rights Law called Section 50-a that kept reports about mistakes and malfeasance among police, firefighters and correctional officers out of view. Because of that, reporters weren’t able to dig into how these missteps occurred, or how departments may have improved their policies in response to misconduct. Meanwhile, regular New Yorkers had no idea these incidents ever happened.
Section 50-a was repealed in 2020, the same year when questions about policing boiled over in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Now, you have a right to read these records yourself and come to your own conclusions about whether your hometown officers are prioritizing your public safety.
Now, we’re working to publish a series of stories, in partnership with a group of Syracuse University students, on what we’ve found in these records so far. Stories published already include an account of an officer who left his gun on the floor of a school bathroom, and a look at the rise in use-of-force incidents among police officers across the state.
The goal of our publication and analysis of these records isn’t to despair about New York’s state of policing or to tear down any one department’s reputation. It’s to look at problems facing our police agencies with clear eyes, and to fuel discussion of solutions to overcome barriers to more accountable, more professional policing.
How we built a database of police misconduct records
USA Today Network-New York journalists filed over 450 public records requests for these documents in 2020, and so far, hundreds of departments have responded, contributing records to our searchable database where you can look up officers in your own New York community.
Since then, our journalists have been scouring these records for data and trends that would paint a picture of policing across New York — what officers and departments do well, and what they can improve upon.
In 2024, we published Driving Force, an investigation into police officers’ reckless driving and crashes, based on findings from this cache of documents. It resulted in state lawmakers introducing a bill in the legislature to increase driving training for police officers working in New York.
You can find that database here: data.democratandchronicle.com/new-york-police-disciplinary-records/
It is searchable by officer name, county, town/village/city, or type of incident.
Syracuse University students digging into 50-a records
This year, we’re partnering with Syracuse University students studying data and investigative reporting at the Newhouse School to tackle more stories revealed in these records. The students have found that officers flouted department rules, misused their influence invade the privacy of vulnerable individuals in custody and left firearms unattended in public. In many cases, officers receive little internal discipline for these and other infractions, often through a verbal or written reprimand.
Further reporting revealed some departments aren’t interested in releasing their records, and have fought the legal obligation to hand them over to journalists and regular New Yorkers.
These stories will appear on The NewsHouse, Central Current and USA Today Network-New York sites, including DemocratandChronicle.com and lohud.com, in coming weeks and months, as part of a project called Good Cop Bad Cop: Inside Police Discipline in New York State.
Whenever possible, we give officers or departments a chance to share their own account of the incidents recorded in misconduct documents.
Our aim is to help our departments and government officials see a path toward a high standard of integrity and public protection among their ranks. Police officers have difficult jobs and often put themselves in harm’s way. Improvements in training, standards of conduct and discipline procedures when standards are ignored can only help New York police agencies better serve the public interest.
This project presents a unique opportunity for Newhouse journalism students, who hail from all over the U.S. and beyond, to report on an almost one-of-a-kind set of documents — New York is one of only two states (the other being California) that have released these police records to the public under law.
The up-and-coming reporters are learning how to interview police sources, comb through official documents and analyze data to find trends over time and geographic location; all skills they’ll need to begin careers as working journalists someday.
And this reporting serves you, our readers, by providing a behind-the-scenes view into how your local policing agencies operate, and how that directly affects what’s happening in your schools and businesses, on the side of local highways during traffic stops and inside your local police stations.
By pushing for more professional, more nuanced policing, we’re fighting for a safer community for everyone, both now and into the future.
About this project
This story is part of Good Cop Bad Cop, an investigative project from the USA Today Network, Central Current and Syracuse University. Over 30 reporting students from the Newhouse School dug into decades of New York police misconduct records to uncover policy and safety missteps among officers from Buffalo to Westchester County, and explain why these infractions matter to the public.