Personnel and disciplinary record, subject: Captain Eric Adams (ret.)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

The complete personnel record of retired Captain Eric Leroy Adams and disciplinary records that identify Adams as a subject. For specificity and to rule out duplicates, the subject's date of birth is September 1, 1960. Per biography on Wikipedia, his service record began 1984 and concluded in 2006.

Divisions that may hold responsive records include Internal Affairs and Employment Management; however, any record used to evaluate performance toward the subject's continued employment or promotion should be considered responsive.

It is the requesting party's understanding that pursuant to legislation signed by the Governor of the State of New York, the law that prevented disclosure of this material (Civil Rights Law Section 50-a) has been repealed and all such records are now covered by the Freedom of Information Law.

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Law as it has been amended by aforementioned legislation, records that may be released include "the complaints, allegations, and charges against an employee; the name of the employee complained of or charged; the transcript of any disciplinary trial or hearing, including any exhibits introduced at such trial or hearing; the disposition of any disciplinary proceeding; and the final written opinion or memorandum supporting the disposition and discipline imposed including the agency's complete factual findings and its analysis of the conduct and appropriate discipline of the covered employee."

Under the standard set by multiple court rulings, Freedom of Information Law uses a "balancing test" method of weighing privacy interests favoring redaction/denial vs. the public interest in disclosure. Full disclosure is of clear public interest for the following reasons: the subject is a public figure, serving as Borough President of Brooklyn and having served as State Senator. He is presently a candidate for higher office in the City of New York (presumably Mayor) in 2021.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

T. McElwee

To whom it may concern:

I hereby appeal on grounds that my request, for the disciplinary record of Eric Adams (assigned 2020-056-08604) has not been given a prompt or fair response.

Upon information and belief, the Department has released Eric Adams's records to another (unknown) requester. I cite the attached Politco story stating this. I have no reason to believe that the request that is mentioned is any earlier than mine, which was made over a year ago (6/15/2020 to be precise), the signing of the law repealing CRL 50-A.

This disparate treatment of similar FOIL requests violates Equal Protection Clause. There are simply no grounds for my request not receiving response.

My prayer for relief is for fair and reasonable treatment of my FOIL request and release of the records to this email address.

-T. McElwee