On Dec. 29, 2021, Governor Hochul signed into law an amendment to what is known as New York's Freedom of Information Act (FOIL).

The amendment made changes to the "law enforcement exemption" of FOIL (Public Officers Law §87(2)(e)(i)) under which agencies could claim an exemption from having to release information requested on the grounds that they were compiled for law enforcement purposes and which, if disclosed, would interfere with law enforcement investigations or judicial proceedings.

The original exemption, prior to the amendment, was extremely unique in that it allowed for wholesale and complete withholding of all requested records whenever the agency invoked the law enforcement exemption, not just redactions of the record which then had to be provided to the requester. In contrast, when an agency claims other exemptions, such as that the request would constitute an invasion of privacy or are inter-agency or intra-agency materials, the agency needed to provide the records, redacted to delete the material claimed under the exemption. Furthermore, agencies were not required to give a specific justification for each document they withheld; they could simply withhold an entire file under this exemption.