WGXC-90.7 FM
State police slow to comply with FOIL request
Diane Pineiro-Zucker is reporting for the Daily Freeman that the New York State Police have missed the deadline it set to indicate whether the agency would comply with the Daily Freeman’s request for records under the state’s Freedom of Information Law. The request, for the name and rank of all state police personnel patrolling in Ulster and Greene counties, is still awaiting a response, despite multiple asks since December 2021, and a recent administrative appeal. The Freeman's original correspondence asked for “a record of complaints, lawsuits and investigations and their outcomes (including written and video records of such outcomes), whether or not they resulted in disciplinary action or reprimand, from 2019 to the present” from Troop F, Zone 3, under the state Freedom of Information Law. Troop F, Zone 3, patrols Ulster and Greene counties. Initially, state police Major William H. Gorman said the request had been forwarded on to the appropriate official in the agency. Disciplinary records for police, firefighters, and corrections officers in New York have theoretically become more accessible since the repeal of state Civil Rights Law in response to nationwide demands for transparency concerning police records. To date, the Kingston and Saugerties police and the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office have complied with the same request. Ultimately, state police said the ask was too burdensome. In response, the paper made a more limited request for the names of troopers who patrol the region. The town of Ulster police have also failed to comply with a Freeman FOIL request for a record of complaints, lawsuits, and investigations and outcomes since 2019. That request was submitted in February. An appeal has been filed in that matter, but no response has been received to date. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.