BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
A court order issued at the
end of September prohibits the
NYPD from using a decadesold
practice of using sealed arrest
information — mugshots,
arrest history, fi ngerprints
and other identifying information
— in active investigations.
At the center of a year-long
class action lawsuit fi led by
The Bronx Defenders, was a
Latino man identifi ed only as
R.C., who was arrested for a
2015 robbery in the Bronx after
NYPD detectives showed
his photo from a 2011 sealed
arrest to a victim.
R.C., the lead plaintiff,
claimed in the suit that by
the time prosecutors dropped
charges against him the following
year because he had an
alibi, his life had been largely
disrupted. R.C. had to make
roughly 10 court appearances,
and was required to make
while living 75 minutes by car
from the Bronx courthouse
caused him to lose his job at
a restaurant, his complaint
says.
In the sweeping court order
issued at the end of September,
New York State Supreme
Court Justice Lyle E.
Frank said NYPD offi cers
can no longer access sealed
arrest records of millions of
New Yorkers for law enforcement
purposes. Public defenders
and criminal defense attorneys
have long claimed that
the practice violates state law.
“The best way to ensure
this conduct is not repeated
is for this court to issue an order
enjoining such future conduct,”
Frank said in the order,
adding that “once a sealed document
is seen it cannot be unseen.”
According to 1976 state law,
the records which are kept in
at least 14 NYPD databases,
can only be accessed via a
court order. The prosecution
laid out in their arguments
and evaluation of NYPD training
materials, that offi cers are
encouraged to use information
from sealed fi les.
R.C. also claimed the emotional
distress he suffered
from the proceedings made
him abandon his plans to attend
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So far, the NYPD has not
made plans to appeal the
judge’s decision and did not
provide comment to the Bronx
Times.
New York City Police
Commissioner Dermot Shea
penned an op-ed in the New
York Daily News, calling the
court order, “a very bad idea.”
“Sealing of criminal records
does not always equate
to a determination of innocence,
and there are a number
of legitimate reasons for cops
to know the records exist,”
Shea said, noting that the decision
poses a “serious setback
for public safety.”
Representing the plaintiffs,
attorneys with The Bronx Defenders
are also seeking additional
records, including
more than fi ve years’ worth of
emails sent or received by the
Offi ce of the Deputy Commissioner,
Public Information, the
NYPD’s division in charge of
working with media organizations,
that have mentioned the
word “seal.”
A court order issued at the end of September prohibits the NYPD from
using a decades-old practice of using sealed arrest information in active
investigations. At the center of the correpsonding lawsuit was a Latino
man who was arrested for a 2015 robbery in the Bronx. Photo courtesy
Getty Images
The attorneys’ intent is to
identify offi cers who leaked arrest
information to the press.
In April 2019 as part of the
same case, Justice Alexander
M. Tisch said the police could
only access sealed arrest records
with a court order. During
the case, evidence uncovered
by the Bronx Defenders
attorneys shows the NYPD
had continued to access such
information without court orders
and had trained its offi -
cers to do so.
During the litigation, the
NYPD admitted that about 800
people within its ranks have
access to approximately 6 million
sealed records linked to
about 3 million people. While
police offi cers on patrol and
detectives don’t access sealed
records, they were able to obtain
them from their supervisors,
usually sergeants or
higher-ranking offi cials, according
to the prosecution.
Bronx case at center of NYPD
sealed records decision
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