Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he wants to shine a light on the disciplinary history of cops.
He said he would immediately sign into law any measures to reform a state regulation that prohibits the disclosure of prior disciplinary actions against a police officer.
But any such measure will meet with strong resistance from the city’s cops.
“It is inconceivable that Governor Cuomo would want to arm those extremists with confidential police personnel records, so that they bring their weapons to our front doors,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said.
“We cannot protect New York if politicians won’t even provide the bare minimum protections for us and our families.”
The governor was asked about the regulation, called 50a, after a video showed a police officer throwing a demonstrator to the ground during protests in Brooklyn Friday night.
Cuomo, speaking Saturday at a press briefing, said if the state Legislature convened “by Zoom” and drafted the bill “I would sign it today.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday he supported repealing the regulation.
“It should be repealed and replaced with new legislation that is clear about protecting the lives of our officers, but allows for greater transparency. And the police commissioners of this city, the last three, have all agreed with that. And I wish we could get Albany to act, because that law as it’s written now is broken,” the mayor said.
But the governor on Saturday also said the regulation is not a huge roadblock to begin with.
“I do not believe 50a as an existing law prohibits the disclosure [of disciplinary records],” he said. “I have done counsel’s opinions that say that. I think local elected officials across the state could release disciplinary records even with the existing 50-a law if they wanted to. I think they don’t want to, so they say, ‘I can’t.’ The best way to say no as an elected official, a politician, is to say ‘I can’t.’ “