The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WNYC, others cover filing of class action

The Bronx Defenders filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and the NYPD for illegally using and sharing information from sealed arrest records in defiance of long-standing privacy laws. The class action was announced in a press release and covered by the publications: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Law Journal, The New York Daily News, amNewYork, WNYC, NY1, and Courthouse News Service.

“There’s such a push in New York to get people disentangled from the criminal justice system for crimes of poverty like jumping a turnstile,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, Deputy Director for Impact Litigation. “The N.Y.P.D. is overriding it based on sealed arrests that, under longstanding privacy rules, are supposed to not be used in any way, particularly in ways that continue to harm people when they’ve already had their cases dismissed.”