DENIAL OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW REQUESTS REVERSED, CASE REMITTED TO DETERMINE IF REDACTION CAN ADEQUATLEY PROTECT PRIVACY.
The Third Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that the requests for information about former public employees who applied for positions in state college police departments should not have been denied. The argument that redaction of identifying information from the documents (to which petitioner agreed) would not protect the applicants’ privacy was rejected. The matter was remitted for court review of the documents:
… [R]espondents argue — and Supreme Court agreed — that, given the prominent nature of the positions and the limited number of applicants, disclosure of the requested documents, even with appropriate redactions, could lead to the identification of the unsuccessful applicants. Such speculation, however, “does not rise to the level of ‘a particularized and specific justification for denying access’ to the [entirety of] the records requested” … . Respondents have failed to demonstrate any factual basis for their assertion that the requested documents cannot be redacted in such a manner as to protect the identity of the individual applicants … . …
… [T]he matter must be remitted to Supreme Court for an in camera inspection of the requested documents to determine the extent to which they contain information exempt from disclosure and whether such information can be redacted while still protecting the personal privacy of those individuals … . Matter of Police Benevolent Assn. of N.Y. State, Inc. v State of New York, 2016 NY Slip Op 08918 3rd Dept 12-29-16
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) (DENIAL OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW REQUESTS REVERSED, CASE REMITTED TO DETERMINE IF REDACTION CAN ADEQUATLEY PROTECT PRIVACY)