Nassau PD fails to turn over docs Civil liberties group files court order

BY ROBERT PELAEZ

The New York Civil Liberties Union fled an order to show cause against the Nassau County Police Department last week in its ongoing eforts to obtain misconduct and personnel records.

The organization requested access to the department’s disciplinary records, use of force, feld interviews, civilian complaints and investigative reports, among others through a Freedom of Information Law request in 2020, according to court documents.

The police department has denied the requests despite the repeal of Civil Rights Law 50-a in 2020, which permitted police departments from disclosing misconduct and other personnel records.

Bobby Hodgson, supervising attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, told Blank Slate Media that the police department was ordered by the Nassau County Supreme Court to turn over disciplinary records after June of 2020 within 60 days from the order handed down on May 2, 2022.

Eforts to reach a representative from the police department for comment were unavailing.

Hodgson said the organization is requesting the police department to produce all of the documents requested in the New York Civil Liberties Union’s initial Freedom of Information Law request after the repeal of 50-a.

State Supreme Court Justice Roy S. Mahon denied the union’s motion to mandate the department provide all of the misconduct data requested prior to September 2020, when 50-a was repealed.

Obtaining these records from the police department, Hodgson said, is the frst step needed to provide transparency to the public and determine if real change is needed in Nassau and other municipalities in New York.

“Turning these records over is the frst necessary step in having any sort of informed public discussion about what police accountability looks like in Nassau County,” Hodgson told Blank Slate Media. “In a world where these records are secret, the public knows zero about how the police [department] police[s] themselves.”

Continued on Page 47 votes after running unopposed for her seat as well.

Plandome Mayor Thomas Minutillo, Deputy Mayor Don Richardson and Trustee John Kurkjian were all re-elected to two-year terms. Minutillo was frst elected after a successful write-in campaign in 2019.

Plandome Heights Trustees Daniel Cataldo, Gus Panopolus and Norman Taylor all ran unopposed and were elected to serve another two years on the board. Cataldo received

76 votes while Panopolus and Taylor each received 75 votes.

All three ran on the Alliance Party line.

Flower Hill Trustees Mary Jo Collins Max Frankel and Frank Genese were also all uncontested and were elected to serve two years on the board. Collins and Frankel received 73 votes each and Genese received 72 votes. There were a total of fve writein candidates.

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