US governor to sign into law State's Police discipline records

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign into law a measure that opens up the state’s police discipline records to the public.

The files had been kept secret under a controversial section of New York's civil rights law, known as 50-a. It made law enforcement personnel records exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Lawmakers voted Tuesday to revoke Section 50-a. Earlier this week, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press wrote a letter urging legislators to repeal the statute. The letter called the measure “an insurmountable barrier to press and public access to law enforcement records of police misconduct in New York.”

The action to open officer records and misconduct complaints to FOIL requests is part of a larger package of police reform bills making their way through the

Democratic-dominated State Assembly and Senate in the capital, Albany. 

The measures include bills to provide body cameras to state troopers and ensure officers provide medical and mental health attention to people in custody.