In response to the Repeal of Section 50a Of NYS Civil Service Law, the City will make records available without a FOIL request
The City of Rochester announced that its Police, Law and Communications departments are working to create an online database of police department disciplinary records in response to the repeal of Section 50a of New York State Civil Service Law.
Under the recent legislation, such records are accessible by filing a Freedom of Information Request. The City has already received a number of requests for disciplinary records. The new database will ultimately make access to such records much more expedient for the public.
“We have already received a number of FOILs asking for such records, including one for all RPD disciplinary records,” said Justin Roj, city communications director. “This new database will allow everyone to access these records without the delay of processing a FOIL request.”
The City hopes to have the database up and running as soon as possible, but no later than year-end. In addition to creating a user interface, all disciplinary records for the police department must be digitized and indexed for inclusion in the database.
“There is a large effort underway to digitize and index disciplinary records for inclusion in the database,” said Roj. “However, this upfront effort will pay dividends once all of the files are available to the public online.”
