Hundreds of thousands of misconduct complaints against NYPD officers have been released today in a database that was tied up in a legal battle between police unions and the City over what types of complaints should be made public.

The database, which the New York Civil Liberties Union had intended to make public last month, looks at police misconduct going back to 1985. It includes 323,911 complaint records involving 81,550 active or former police officers filed to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the city's police oversight agency. The database is searchable by the officer's name, rank, or command, the type of allegation, and what both the police and oversight agency's findings were. The public can also sort by penalty handed down to an officer.

According to NYCLU, 8,699 complaints led to an NYPD officer facing departmental punishment. Twelve officers were terminated or dismissed. Nearly 20,000 officers had five or more complaints.

"Until now, the police accountability process has been at the discretion of the NYPD, which determines which CCRB investigations result in discipline and what information is revealed from that process," the NYCLU's legal director Christopher Dunn said in a statement.

Last month, the city was expected to roll out its own database of NYPD records after state lawmakers repealed New York Civil Rights Law section 50-A, which shielded certain police misconduct records from the public. But a state judge blocked that request after unions sued to stop the release and force the decision to be heard in federal court. As that case was being heard, a federal judge blocked the NYCLU from releasing the CCRB misconduct records, which the NYCLU obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request. The NYCLU argued the order violated First Amendment rights. (The NYCLU was not named in the unions' lawsuit against the city).

During a virtual hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for the unions accused the CCRB of engaging in an "unlawful scheme" to distribute the police misconduct records under the 50-A repeal.

But the panel of appellate court judges was skeptical.

"Where is the concern?" Judge Rosemary Pooler, presiding over the case, asked during the hearing. "You imply that there's something really malevolent of CCRB responding to this perfectly legitimate request for public information."

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals Second Circuit lifted the order, allowing the NYCLU to proceed with publishing the database.

"History has shown the NYPD is unwilling to police itself," Dunn said. "The release of this database is an important step towards greater transparency and accountability and is just the beginning of unraveling the monopoly the NYPD holds on public information and officer discipline."

The NYCLU database follows the publication of a smaller dataset of complaints against NYPD officers with at least one substantiated CCRB complaint that was released by ProPublica. That data revealed that one in nine NYPD officers have a confirmed record of misconduct—meaning, at least one substantiated complaint was filed against an officer.

About half of the CCRB's cases between 2010 and 2019 resulted in the complaint being "unsubstantiated." CCRB investigators are often burdened with handling some 30 cases at the same time, and the NYPD has made it "untenable" for investigators to access body-worn camera footage, according to an internal memo written by top investigators. .

The unions have argued that unsubstantiated complaints, which NYCLU's database also includes, would damage officers' reputations and safety.

The spokesperson for the police, correction, and fire unions said their fight against the "improper dumping" of such documents continues.

"The court decision this morning in no way means the battle to permit constitutionally guaranteed right to due process for public safety workers ceases," union spokesperson Hank Sheinkopf said in a text message on Thursday. "In fact, we continue to fight the de Blasio administration and the improper dumping of thousands of documents containing unproven, career damaging, unsubstantiated allegations that put our members and their families at risk."

"And we're not done," Sheinkopf added, though he did not specify what exactly the unions plan to do next.

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, a spokesperson for the city Law Department said, "The repeal of Civil Rights Law Section 50-a made clear that certain disciplinary records can now be made available to the public. This enhanced transparency is the law, and we are vigorously defending it in the District Court.."

The CCRB Chair Fred Davie said in a statement: "From voting for a stronger CCRB in November to taking to the streets throughout this summer—and working toward reform for decades before that—New Yorkers have demanded greater police accountability. The CCRB stands ready to meet that demand."

The Legal Aid Society said the data would help lawyers defend their clients and lead to reforms in the department.

"With this data now public, New Yorkers will be better able to hold NYPD officers who commit acts of misconduct and betray the public’s trust accountable," the Legal Aid Society's attorney-in-charge of the special litigation unit with the criminal defense practice, Corey Stoughton, said in a statement. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the culture of impunity enjoyed for decades at precincts around New York City—at the expense of our clients, largely Black and Latinx New Yorkers—is slowly beginning to change."

With Jake Offenhartz.