When police break the law…

For over four decades, police and other uniformed services throughout New York State kept police disciplinary secret under Civil Rights Law 50-A. Starting June 12, 2020 that law is repealed and disciplinary records can be obtained by the public using a request under the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

This project is seeking a number of disciplinary files related to high-profile lawbreakers from law enforcement:

• The “Mob Cops” detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, convicted of killing and kidnapping for the mob.

• The Bronx Tix-Fix crew, which included a drug dealing lead defendant (Jose Ramos) and leaks by a lieutenant in Internal Affairs

• The NYPD vice scandal, led by Ludwig Paz, a detective turned pimp

• A lieutenant and detective who ran a protection racket on karaoke bars and massage parlors in Flushing, Queens

• Two narcotics officers who raped a woman in custody

• NYPD License Unit staff who pulled strings to give gun permits to convicted felons

• The late Inspector Michael Ameri, who killed himself as a corruption investigation into the NYPD Highway Unit began

• Officers from Southern Brooklyn precincts caught in a sting operation helping move untaxed cigarettes and firearms across state lines

• A former NYPD officer who went on to plunder the Municipal Credit Union by plying its CEO with illegal opioids

• The so-called “Cannibal Cop” Gil Valle who used a PBA card and NYPD computers to stalk potential victims. While a criminal trial fell through on a technicality, Valle’s firing has never been successfully challenged, and he now sells books based on his infamy.

• A trio of bulked up lawmen, Gerard “White Rhino” Benderoth, Joseph Biggs, and Nick Tartaglione, accused of a drug-related quadruple homicide in the Hudson Valley

• Suffolk County lawmen gone bad, Ed Walsh and James Burke

What can be obtained in NY under Freedom of Information Law now?

The legislation that revoked Civil Rights Law 50-A is fairly simple: 50-A no longer exists, and the Freedom of Information Act is now enhanced by language that explicitly adds “law enforcement disciplinary records” including the following explicitly stated categories of records:

• 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;

• 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.