Secrecy is travesty in Democracy

The public’s interest in the accountability of government employees is greater than ever. In general, the state’s Freedom of Information Law — or FOIL — gives the public the right to know about the actions and activities of those employees. If you want to know my salary, or the salary of any public employee in New York, from the governor on down, it’s public. If you want to know when I come to work or when I don’t show up, that’s public, too. If there’s a record about me, or a teacher, a sanitation worker or even a judge that indicates that any of us have engaged in misconduct, it’s public. But if I’m a cop or correction officer, it’s out of bounds. And now, the Daily News’ requests for the outcomes of recent disciplinary cases involving police — after being posted publicly for decades — have all of a sudden been denied. An exception to FOIL involves a separate provision of law, section 50-a of the state Civil Rights Law, which states that personnel records about police and correction officers that “are used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion” are confidential.

They can’t be disclosed unless the officer consents or a judge orders disclosure.

The Committee on Open Government, a small agency within the Department of State that oversees FOIL, has recommended for years that the exemption from disclosure should be repealed or modified.

The problem, very simply, is that the public has no right to know when a police or correction officer violates a rule or otherwise is found to have engaged in misconduct. That’s backwards.

Those public employees who have the most power over peoples’ lives should be the most accountable, not the least. It’s time to change the law to guarantee accountability.