Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s schedule should be made public, the New York Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit filed today.
Our Rocco Parascandola reports:
Requests for Kelly’s schedule have been routinely denied throughout his tenure.
Inquiries filed under the Freedom of Information Law are typically met with an explanation that revealing his whereabouts would threaten his security.
But the NYCLU, filing on behalf of Leonard Levitt, a former Newsday reporter who covers the NYPD in an online column, scoffed at the explanation and said police can easily withhold sensitive information and still release his schedule.
“There is no good reason for Commissioner Kelly to withhold this information from the public,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “Even President Obama’s public schedule appears every day on the White House’s website. If it’s safe for the leader of the country to disclose his schedule, then it’s safe for the NYPD commissioner to do the same.”
Levitt, who writes
each week, filed a FOIL request in February. After it was denied in May, the NYCLU appealed on Levitt’s behalf.
That, too, was denied, with police citing concern for Kelly’s safety, the integrity of ongoing investigations and the privacy rights of those with whom he meets, the suit said.
The NYPD had no immediate comment.
