White Plains, NY — Members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators have written to Westchester's state legislative delegation, urging lawmakers to pass legislation pending in Albany that will end secrecy of disciplinary records of police officers.

"We, the undersigned members of the Westchester County Legislature, urge you to work to pass Senator Bailey & Assemblyman O’Donnell’s bill (S.3695/A.2513) regarding 50-a. We also call on you to stand firmly in opposition to any attempts to water down this legislation or offer partial measures that will continue to shield abusive officers and brutality from public view," the letter reads.

"We write to you as our Westchester State leaders at an unprecedented time. As you know, against the backdrop of a pandemic disproportionately killing and economically devastating Black, Latinx and other communities of color, our communities are also facing escalating police violence," the County lawmakers wrote.

The letter continued, "The continued police secrecy in New York State enables police violence and allows abusive officers to continue to act with impunity. We should be able to look up the misconduct and disciplinary records of every officer who mass-pepper sprayed, assaulted, blatantly covered their badge numbers and engaged in other abuse of authority and violence against New Yorkers. Instead, we are left in the dark and abusive police officers are shielded because of 50-a. The time for change is now."

The letter was signed by all 16 members of the Board's Democratic majority. The full text of the letter can be read here.