PAX Centurion - Spring 2019

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Spring 2019 • Page 23 I n December of 2018, a decision was rendered In the Matter of New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) v. New York City Police Department (NYPD), et al. . The court was tasked with deciding whether documents requested by the NYCLU pursuant to the Freedom of Information Law (NewYork State’s version of the Freedom of InformationAct) are subject to disclosure. The NYCLU requested documents regarding police officer complaint and discipline proceedings, including: (1) final opinions from the department’s trial room (Deputy Commissioner of Trials) arising out of cases in which the NewYork City Civilian Complaint Review Board has substantiated charges against a member of the department and (2) documents identifying the formal and final discipline imposed in conjunction with each decision. The NYPD produced 700 pages of Disposition of Charges forms redacting officer and complainant information, but did not turn over any “final opinions” as requested. The NYPD relied on two state laws: Public Officers Law §87(2)(a) and Civil Rights Law § 50-a. The former allows agencies to deny access to records that are specifically exempted from disclosure by state or federal law, and the latter is the state law the NYPD relied on. Specifically, Civil Rights Law § 50-a provides that all personnel records (of police officers, On the topic of making personnel records confidential By Lawrence A. Calderone, BPPA Legislative Agent firefighters, and correction officers) used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion…shall be considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review. The statute has only two exceptions to this confidentiality: officer consent or court order (which is not easy to get and must be within the context of pending litigation). This statute was designed to protect police officers from the release of sensitive personnel records that could be used in litigation for the purpose of harassment or embarrassment. The legislative history of the statute showed that documents pertaining to misconduct or rules violations by an officer are the very sort of records the legislature intended to be kept confidential. The NYCLU made the typical arguments that public access to NYPD disciplinary decisions is critical to maintaining public confidence in the integrity of the police and ensuring that the disciplinary actions properly apply the relevant legal principles; that the redactions are adequate to protect officer confidentiality. The Court rejected these arguments. The Court appropriately held that the NYCLU’s interpretation would revoke civil rights protections afforded to police officers. The Court told the NYCLU to take it up with the Legislature if it wanted to change the law. The lesson in this case for Massachusetts may be that we should also look to the Legislature to protect police officers – our information, our personnel/disciplinary records – should not be used to harass, harm or embarrass us or our families. I will work diligently with the Massachusetts Legislature to help further protect first responders and their families. THE BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT PEER SUPPORT UNIT We are a peer-driven support program for police officers and their families. Our program is completely confidential and is available to ALL police officers and their families. Group or individual help with handling family and life issues, alcohol, drugs, anger and domestic issues. Referral for specialist as needed. 251 River Street, Mattapan, MA 02126 Office: 617-343-5175 (M-F 9 am-5 pm) Off-Hours, On-Call Peer Counselor: 617-594-9091 Sometimes even WE need a little help from our friends! s! Third time was a charm for this bill, as this was the third consecutive legislative session in which it was filed. Rep. Edward Coppinger of West Roxbury guided the bill through the committee process in the House, and Sen. Michael Moore carried it through the Senate. Also crucial to the process on the House side were Reps. Hank Naughton, Ted Speliotis, Dan Cahill, TimWhelan, Tom Walsh and John Lawn. Leaders of the legislative effort, including Larry Calderone of the BPPA, John Nelson of MassCOP and Michael Muse of the Boston Detectives, met with the Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka, among others, to shepherd this bill to success this December. Summary Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a new law that makes communications between first responders and critical incident counselors confidential and privileged. This will allow police, fire and EMS personnel to get effective help at the time of a critical incident. Public safety unions including BPPAand MassCOP led the charge to get this bill passed. Terms PTSD, critical incident, police, public safety, confidentiality, legislation, first responders, stress, counseling, MassCOP, BPPA. Massachusetts Public Safety Unions succeed in passing new law protecting confidentiality of stress counseling for first responders in critical incidents… From Public Safety on page 22

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