In this Article 78 proceeding, petitioner New York Civil Liberties Union (“NYCLU”) seeks an order directing respondents New York City Police Department and Raymond Kelly, in his official capacity as Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (collectively, the “NYPD”) to respond to its October 22, 2007 Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) request for “documents identifying the race of all persons shot by police officers either in ‘gunfights’ or ‘other shootings vs. subjects’ (as those terms are used in the Firearms Discharge Report) for the last ten years (since January 1, 1997). It is not disputed that after the commencement of this proceeding, the NYPD agreed to provide petitioner with data as to the race of persons shot and struck by NYPD officers between 1997 and 2006, and the parties executed a stipulation to that effect on December 17, 2008. On January 16, 2009, the NYPD produced tables listing such information, which was compiled from the individual firearms discharge reports that the NYPD prepares after individual shooting incidents. For some time thereafter, the parties were engaged in discussions as to whether the NYPD would produce information about the race of persons shot at, but not struck by NYPD officers between 1997 and 2006. When the parties could not reach an agreement as to that issue, the NYPD filed its answer to the petition, and that is the only issue remaining for this court’s determination.
The policy underlying freedom of information laws is that all government agency records are presumptively available for public inspection and copying, notwithstanding the status, need, good faith or purpose of the person requesting the records, unless the agency can demonstrate that the documents in question fall squarely within one of the enumerated exemptions. See Matter of Gould v. New York City Police Department, 89 NY2d 267, 274-275 (1996); Matter of M. Farbman & Sons, Inc. v. New York City Health & Hospitals Corp., 62 NY2d 75, 79-80 (1984); Matter of City of Newark v. Law Department of the City of New York, 305 AD2d 28 (1st Dept 2003).
