BILL NUMBER: S5500B
SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public officers law, in relation to the disclosure
of public employee disciplinary records
 
PURPOSE:
To provide all public employees with notice whenever their personal
information has been released to the public pursuant to a FOIL request.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill amends section 87 of the Public Officers Law by
adding a new subdivision 4-c to effectuate the purposes of the legis-
lation.
Section 2 of the bill provides for an immediate effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
During the 2020 Legislative Session, legislation was enacted to repeal
the provisions of § 50-a of the Civil Rights Law and to amend § 86,
§ 87, and § 89 of the Public Officers Law. These cumulative statutory
changes effectively removed privacy protections for our State's law
enforcement officers, and all public employees, by making their person-
nel records accessible to the public via a simple FOIL request. While
seeking to provide the public with greater access to personnel files of
police officers, corrections officers, firefighters and paramedics, the
Legislature failed to ensure that these dedicated civil servants whose
personal information is subject to a FOIL request be provided any form
of notice of such disclosure. This legislation simply recognizes that
these impacted public employees should have minimum notice when their
personal information has been released to the public.
This proposed legislation would not affect the release of information
that is now permissible following the changes to the Civil Rights Law
and the Public Officers Law in 2020. Rather, it would simply ensure that
if a public employee's personal information has been released to the
public, then such affected employee would have notice of such release.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

Statutes affected:
S5500: 87 public officers law
S5500A: 87 public officers law
S5500B: 87 public officers law