Cop discipline may go public BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The public may get to watch the next hearing to terminate a Schenectady police officer. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that Schenectady has the right to conduct public disciplinary hearings of police offi cers. Police union officials had strongly fought to keep those hearings secret and got state Supreme Court Judge Barry Kramer to issue an injuction stopping the city in 2009. But the Appellate Division said Kramer “erred.” He should have dismissed the union’s complaint, the judges said. “Simply put, Civil Rights Law 50-A neither speaks of, nor was intended to, prohibit public police disciplinary hearings,” the judges wrote. “Indeed, the City of Schenectady already has the right to conduct public police disciplinary hearings under Second Class Cities Law.” They also said state law limiting access to police disciplinary records — which the union cited as a reason for keeping disciplinary hearings secret — was never intended to keep all matters secret. Citing other court decisions, the judges wrote that the law “was intended to apply to situations where a party to an underlying criminal or civil action is seeking documents in a police offi cer’s personnel file, and was apparently designed to prevent ‘fi shing expeditions’ to find material to use in cross examination.” The decision could be appealed. Police Benevolent Association attorney Michael Ravalli did not return calls seeking comment. ...................................>>>>...........................>>>>...........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00100&AppName=1
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