By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — The city agency that investigates police misconduct is publicly releasing “stigmatizing” unsubstantiated claims of sexual misconduct, racial profiling and perjury made against NYPD cops — unfounded allegations that can wreck an officer’s career and reputation even after proven false, a bombshell lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal court Tuesday claims.
The Police Benevolent Association lawsuit alleges that the Civilian Complaint Review Board admits that, until they are substantiated, these claims “do extreme prejudice to the reputations of police officers” and warrant confidential treatment until the claims are confirmed.
| DOWNLOAD: The patrol car checklist: A veteran-to-rookie field guide
Yet the union says that, according to a policy put in place last October, the CCRB is “knowingly disseminating those life-altering smears in response to Freedom of Information Law requests,” the lawsuit claims.
Many of these FOIL requests come from the website 50-a.org, a searchable online database of NYPD officers that includes lists of substantiated allegations, discipline cases, and lawsuit settlements. The information is disseminated even if the allegations were proven false, which violates the officers’ constitutional rights, the lawsuit claims.
PBA President Patrick Hendry believes the CCRB is colluding with 50-a.org and other anti-police activists to “smear cops with false complaints.” The union has frequently criticized the CCRB as being hostile to police officers.
The releasing of these unsubstantiated claims is “a calculated effort to end proactive enforcement and drive cops away from the job,” Hendry said Tuesday.
“CCRB has admitted that these baseless allegations will destroy a cop’s career and life outside of work, yet the agency still made the deliberate choice to dump them into public view,” Hendry said.
“Through this federal lawsuit, we intend to put a stop to this destructive practice and expose CCRB’s radical agenda to ‘Abolish the Police’ by trampling cops’ rights.”
While these claims are redacted on the CCRB’s website, they’re given over to anyone who files a FOIL request. Cops have no control over false complaints being filed against him, the lawsuit states.
Once this information is shared online “they are published for the lifetimes of the officers and beyond and are available to employers, landlords, educational institutions, banks, and the public at large, despite affording officers no process to challenge such disclosures or remove the defamatory content from the database.”
The lawsuit is not demanding the CCRB stop giving out information about police misconduct, but to tighten up their disclosure policy when it comes to what the union calls “stigmatizing unsubstantiated complaints,” particularly when it comes to claims of sexual misconduct, racial profiling and perjury.
“Such stigmatizing unsubstantiated complaints are particularly inflammatory, stigmatizing, and damaging to the reputations, safety, and employment prospects of police officers, including unsubstantiated accusations of serious criminal conduct such as rape, sexual assault, and perjury,” the lawsuit notes.
An email to both the CCRB and the city’s Law Department for comment on the lawsuit was not immediately returned.
©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
