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U.S.|How We Obtained 10,000 Police Disciplinary Records
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/new-york-state-police-records.html
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The New York Times and New York Focus gathered thousands of files from around half of New York State’s nearly 500 law enforcement agencies.
Sept. 9, 2025Updated 6:10 a.m. ET
In the immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020, New York State repealed a law that for decades kept the disciplinary records of its police officers secret.
The New York Times and New York Focus, a nonprofit newsroom, have since gathered over 10,000 such files from around half of New York State’s nearly 500 law enforcement agencies. The documents, most of which are from the past 10 years, provide a window into how some officers at the state, county and local levels have avoided accountability in court despite relatively clear evidence that they broke the law.
The files also highlight vast discrepancies in how departments have handled misconduct. Offenses considered fireable in some departments were handled with letters of reprimand in others. In some departments, officers who repeatedly committed misconduct were allowed to keep their jobs; in others, officers were fired or forced to resign.
Thousands of officers who committed misconduct remain on the job today.
While major New York news outlets have written about the records from larger agencies, including the New York Police Department, which began releasing its files in 2021, those from the State Police and local departments have received less scrutiny.
The Times and New York Focus are examining cases and patterns from these records. The first article in our series, published Tuesday, explored cases of officers who drove drunk.
