Legal Aid Society

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LAS Condemns City’s Failure to Comply with Disclosure Laws on Reporting Police Misconduct Data

The Legal Aid Society condemned the New York City Law Department for failing to comply with Local Law 166, which requires the disclosure of all “actions, claims, complaints, and investigations” regarding civil actions alleging misconduct brought against officers, as reported today by the New York Post.

The Post also reported that the Law Department also failed to include 432 claims and civil actions brought against the NYPD that were settled prior to court intervention or filed more than five years ago. These settlements total a combined $22 million. In July, CAPstat found over 300 civil actions against New York City police officers that were not included in the Law Department’s reporting. The Legal Aid Society alerted the New York City Law Department of this omission. The Law Department responded by admitting its error in excluding some of the actions and committed to rectifying it on future disclosures.

“[The city] shouldn’t be able to hide big police misconduct because either the case took too long or it was never filed as a lawsuit or may be filed under a different tort nature. I think that’s a problem with the wording in the law that can be changed,” said Julie Ciccolini, Data Scientist with the Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society.