New York Court of Appeals building. Photo: Rick Kopstein/ALM

The state's highest court denied a motion for leave to appeal Tuesday in a suit challenging what police reform advocates say is an inappropriate expansion of laws shielding disclosure of materials related to police officers' conduct.

The Court of Appeals gave no indication of why it declined to take the case, simply noting in a routine listing of dispositions that it was denying the motion.

The suit is among those moving toward the high court regarding the section of the state's civil rights law known as 50-a. Under it, law enforcement agencies are able to shield from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act records deemed to relate to law enforcement officials' “personnel records.” Advocates argue that, historically, the law was invoked in limited circumstances when the information was related to the evaluation of an individual's performance in an employment or promotion context, per the letter of the law.

But, they say, over time, the provision has been stretched. Now, it's being used to attempt to block handing over a video showing an altercation between an inmate and a correction officer, or, in the case of Legal Aid Society, the civilian complaint records against New York City Police Department Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

Pantaleo was seen on video applying what appeared to be a chokehold to Eric Garner on July 17, 2014. Garner can be heard on the video saying he couldn't breathe 11 times. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office ruled Garner's death a homicide as a result of, among other things, “compression of neck (chokehold).”

Advocates argue that summary complaint records requested from the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board were “routinely provided” in the past, before denying the Legal Aid Society's request for Pantaleo's records in 2014. The decision, advocates argue, is part of the ongoing expansion of 50-a invocations, especially under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration.

For their part, the mayor and the NYPD claim they are simply following the law as it was written—a law they've publicly stated they'd like to see changed to be able to release records.

While the New York County Supreme Court agreed with the legal defense organization, an Appellate Division, First Department, panel reversed the lower court's decision, finding that written decisions rendered by the NYPD in disciplinary cases are protected from disclosure. The high court's decision Tuesday leaves that interpretation in place.

Legal observers are unsurprised, in large part because Pantaleo's records were ultimately publicly leaked. Additionally, some observers felt there was a narrowness to the issue and questions about the law's applicability—specifically, whether 50-a even covered the CCRB—that made success seem unlikely.

“This decision is regrettable but not a surprise given the leak of Officer Daniel Pantaleo's CCRB history earlier this year,” Cynthia Conti-Cook, a Legal Aid staff attorney with the criminal special litigation unit, said in a statement. “We have several other strong 50-a cases percolating and we do believe that the Court of Appeals, in one case or another, will rule clarifying the city's overly broad interpretation of the law.”

In a statement, CCRB acting chair Fred Davie reiterated the city's position that state lawmakers needed to act on reform of the disclosure laws.

“The CCRB has had a long-standing belief in the need to reform Civil Rights Law 50-a,” Davie said. “This law makes it harder for communities to see when an officer has faced discipline for misconduct and only serves as a barrier to restoring public trust in policing.”