Most of Police Internal Investigation Report Deemed Immune from Disclosure

In determining that most of a police department’s internal investigation report need not be disclose pursuant to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, the Second Department wrote:

The Freedom of Information Law (Public Officers Law art. 6; hereinafter FOIL) was enacted “to promote open government and public accountability” and “imposes a broad duty on government to make its records available to the public” … . Under FOIL, government records are presumptively open for public inspection unless they fall within one of the exceptions specified by Public Officers Law § 87(2), which permits an agency to deny access, inter alia, to records which “are specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal statute” (Public Officers Law § 87[2][a]… ). One such statute exempting records from disclosure is Civil Rights Law § 50-a(1), which provides, in relevant part, that “[a]ll personnel records used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion” of police officers “shall be considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review.” However, “when access to an officer’s personnel records relevant to promotion or continued employment is sought under FOIL, nondisclosure will be limited to the extent reasonably necessary to effectuate the purposes of Civil Rights Law § 50-a to prevent the potential use of information in the records in litigation to degrade, embarrass, harass or impeach the integrity of the officer” … . Matter of Cook v Nassau County Police Dept, 2013 NY Slip Op 06364, 2nd Dept 10-2-13