REMARKS
Council member's inquiry on the rationale for redacting officer disciplinary records
1:29:12
·
108 sec
The excerpt involves an unnamed council member seeking clarification on why the NYPD redacts disciplinary records of officers involved in cases, especially when these records could significantly impact cases including indictments, bail requests, and trials. The council member shares a personal anecdote from their time as a public defense attorney, highlighting the detrimental effects of withholding such information. Despite multiple attempts to get a direct answer to why this practice occurs, responses from other speakers are generic, focusing on NYPD's compliance with the law, without directly addressing the core of the inquiry.
Tiffany Cabán
1:29:12
Why?
1:29:12
What is what is the basis for doing that when that disciplinary record tied to that officer who is likely the arresting officer who likely generates the DD Fives and all of the the evidence that then gets handed over to the DA that they rely on for everything from an indictment to a bail request to a a a trial, right, to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt where a person's liberty is at stake.
1:29:37
Why?
Andrew Botelho
1:29:38
Council member I'm hearing you.
1:29:39
However because
Susan Gottlieb
1:29:40
that that case
Tiffany Cabán
1:29:41
gets thrown out.
1:29:41
I because let let me give you a scenario.
1:29:43
Right?
1:29:43
In my almost decade of practice as a public defense attorney, I had a situation where I had a client The client, we got what we thought was all the discovery.
1:29:51
A year later, this person lost their housing.
1:29:53
They lost their kids.
1:29:54
They were facing losing everything.
1:29:57
We get the trial.
1:29:58
It's time to do the the suppression hearings, and the DA hands over disciplinary records of the officer that were held fact by the NYPD, and the judge calls it up and says, get rid of this case.
1:30:08
There's no way you can put this cop on this on the stand.
1:30:10
The damage has been done.
1:30:12
Why is it that the NYPD reacts disciplinary reports before they're provided to the DEA.
1:30:17
Why isn't that given from jump when an adjudication begins?
Andrew Botelho
1:30:21
So that's an unfortunate scenario, and
Tiffany Cabán
1:30:23
it's a regular scenario, but I wanna know why.
1:30:25
I don't wanna know that it's unfortunate or whatever.
1:30:27
I wanna know why.
Andrew Botelho
1:30:28
NYPD's priority is to be compliant with the law.
Tiffany Cabán
1:30:32
I thought it was to get it right.
Josh Levin
1:30:35
It's both.
1:30:37
Those things often go hand in hand and counts counts on my just one other thing.
1:30:40
Let's just be very clear.
1:30:41
You you were a public defender.
1:30:43
You understand the difference between redacting and then not providing in the scenario you gave
Tiffany Cabán
1:30:47
Timing is everything.
1:30:49
And so I'm out.
1:30:49
I wanna know why it's redacted from the beginning, why it's not handed over, why it's not transparent from the beginning.
Josh Levin
1:30:54
So so you started.
Tiffany Cabán
1:30:56
I got my answer, so I'm gonna move on because I only have 45 seconds left.