“We’ve had enough abuse of power by law enforcement…Black Lives Matter, and we’ve had enough of being told otherwise.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins

The New York State legislature passed, and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law, the repeal of 50a of the Civil Rights Law, which had provided additional protections to the personnel records of police officers, firefighters, and correction officers. This protection had been interpreted to include disciplinary records of law enforcement officers. This repeal would subject these records to FOIL, just as all other records kept by public agencies, while protecting the sensitive personal contact and health information of these officers.
In the peaceful protests across Westchester County since the killing of George Floyd, the call to repeal 50a protections had been made by many protestors and elected officials. Last week it happened.
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “The murder of George Floyd shined a light–yet again–on the injustice that pervades our justice. system and the structural racism that has cut countless black lives short in our nation. This latest, horrific example of police brutality unleashed a torrent of grief and outrage across. America – from Minneapolis to our very own communities here in Westchester.
“It is a time for momentous change and civic participation. It is also a time for those of us in positions of power to act. Change is necessary, and now is the time.
“In recent days, I was happy to stand and address hundreds of my constituents at rallies and vigils in Dobbs Ferry, Yonkers, New Rochelle, Hastings and Elmsford—and others—who want real change that has so far been denied even after the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Tony McDade, and so many others.
“But this time is different. This week is different. As Senate Majority Leader, I am proud to stand with my colleagues and pass legislation that will help stop bad actors and send a clear message that brutality, racism and unjustified killings will not be tolerated.
“We’ve had enough abuse of power by law enforcement. We’ve had enough of the lack of transparency and accountability. We’ve had enough of feeling our hearts break for families whose loved ones were taken by the very people who were supposed to protect them. Black Lives Matter, and we’ve had enough of being told otherwise,” said Sen. Stewart-Cousins.
Other items adopted with the repeal of 50a aimed at police reforms, include:
· Senate Bill S.2574B: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Jamaal Bailey, will create an Office of Special Investigation within the Department of Law, under the Attorney General, which will investigate, and, if warranted, prosecute any incident of a person whose death was caused by a police officer or peace officer.
“This is not a bill that is aimed against the police, it is a bill that increases transparency with the goal to improve community and police relations, and help regain trust in police,” said Senator Jamaal Bailey, Senate lead sponsor of the bill to repeal 50-a. “I would like to thank the families of victims, the advocates, and my colleagues in government for consistently and tirelessly advocating for this reform. Change is coming in New York, and I am proud that it is under the leadership of Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.” Sen. Bailey, represents Mt. Vernon and the Bronx in the 36th District.
· Senate Bill S.3253B: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Kevin Parker, will clarify that a person not under arrest or in the custody has the right to record police activity and to maintain custody and control of that recording, and of any property or instruments used to record police activities.
· Senate Bill S.6670B: This legislation, the “Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act,” sponsored by Senator Brian Benjamin, will prohibit the use of chokeholds by law enforcement and establish the crime of aggravated strangulation as a Class-C felony.
· Senate Bill S.8493: This legislation, the New York State Police Body-Worn Cameras Program, sponsored by Senator Kevin Parker, will direct the Division of State Police to provide all State police officers with body-worn cameras that are to be used any time an officer conducts a patrol and prescribes mandated situations when the camera is to be turned on and recording.
· Senate Bill S.2575B: This legislation, sponsored by Senator Jamaal Bailey, will require state and local law enforcement officers, as well as peace officers, to report, within six hours, when they discharge their weapon where a person could have been struck, whether they were on or off duty.

“The repeal of New York state’s infamous police secrecy law 50-a, is an important step towards ending an era of special rights for police and the ability of police departments to hide patterns of brutality, sexual violence and other police abuses,” said Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) spokesperson Carolyn Martinez-Class. “The public will no longer be blocked from seeing how prevalent police violence is, and what is or is not done in those cases. In spite of what police unions and police departments have falsely claimed for years, the goal of repealing 50-a has never been to make addresses or phone numbers of police publicly available through release of police misconduct and discipline records. In fact, separate from the 50-a statute, FOIL already provides police departments with the option of redacting that information, separate from the 50-a statute — and police departments routinely redact this info in their responses to records requests.”
“The obligation to admonish our brothers and sisters when they do wrong is sacred to our Jewish tradition. “Rebuke, yes, rebuke your brother lest you carry his sin.” (Leviticus 19:17) The NYPD has shown itself incapable of admonition, discipline or correction when it comes to crimes committed by officers and bears responsibility for those crimes. The values of our democracy demand a transparent institution that can be held publicly accountable for its mistakes,” said Leo Ferguson, Movement Building Organizer at Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
State Senator Shelley Mayer said during the debate, “I have decided Section 50-A of the Civil Rights Law, adopted over 40 years ago, can no longer be the standard for the release of disciplinary records of officers. Rather, law enforcement officers, like so many other public officials, must be accountable to the public in order for trust to be restored.
“In the military, there is an expectation that all officers are held “to a higher standard”; that they have an affirmative duty to speak up and stop unlawful behavior when they witness it, and that the disclosure of information about prior incidents is actually necessary to ensure fundamental trust in the military system of justice. We should take this comparison to heart as we move to change the laws that have contributed – unfortunately, but justifiably – to a fundamental distrust in our law enforcement system by black and brown Americans.
“These bills will not harm the tens of thousands of professional, compassionate and responsible officers I have supported, who have nothing to fear and with whom I will continue to stand. However, it will change the culture of secrecy, the patterns of illegality that have been allowed to fester and the legalized denial of accountability that have held us back for too long,” said Sen. Mayer.

“We think of Eric Garner today, as we celebrate the passage of the repeal of 50-a. We know that the full repeal of 50-a will expose the Daniel Pantaleos of the NYPD,” said Adilka Pimentel, Lead Organizer at Make the Road New York. “This is a critical step toward making systems of policing more transparent and accountable to the communities they are supposed to serve.”