An online news organization posted a searchable database Monday of the disciplinary records of about 1,800 New York City police officers accused of wrongdoing, showing that many officers who lied under oath or assaulted civilians were able to keep their jobs.
The publication of the database was quickly assailed by the head of the patrol officers union as a breach of privacy and potentially dangerous to the officers who were named. NYPD, FDNY and city corrections officers have had their disciplinary records shielded from public view over the past 40 years by section 50-a state's 1976 Civil Rights Law.
The website, BuzzFeed, said it found 319 instances between 2011 and 2015 in which an officer had committed an offense serious enough to merit firing, but was allowed to keep his or her job. In one case, an officer working at a school touched a female student on the thigh and kissed her on the cheek while the two were in his car.
A spokesman for the NYPD, Peter Donald, told the news site, "The overwhelming majority of New York City cops come to work every day to do good, fight crime, and help people, making this city the safest it has been since the 1950s. For the few who commit violations, the NYPD’s disciplinary process is more rigorous today than ever before.”
In some cases highlighted by BuzzFeed, the punishments seemed incongruent for the misconduct. In one instance, three school safety officers each lost only five vacation days after using excessive force against a student; in another instance, an officer who had a child got was punished for being discourteous to a supervisor after she asked for more time to adjust to a new schedule; she was suspended for 122 days.
"We've learned that the department doles out a huge variation of penalties," BuzzFeed reporter Mike Hayes told WNYC host Jami Floyd in an interview. WNYC reporter Robert Lewis, who has covered the NYPD's policy on shielding disciplinary records, also took part in the interview.
The editorial staff at Buzzfeed, which received the records from an unnamed source, had long talks about whether or not to make the records public, Hayes said.
"It wasn't an easy decision. It's not one we came to lightly," he said. "Officers walking the streets of New York everyday wield tremendous power over New Yorkers. They can arrest people everyday and we felt that those people had a right to know...what's in their disciplinary history."
Following it's publication, PBA President Patrick J. Lynch demanded the police department find and punish the leaker of the documents.
“BuzzFeed either doesn’t realize or doesn’t care how their ‘database’ of illegally leaked police personnel records will be used," Lynch said. "They are creating the perfect tool for unstable individuals with a grudge against cops to identify and go after police officers and their families."
The mayor's office declined to comment. The police department hasn't returned WNYC's requests for comment.