NYPD parking placard records are at the center of a Freedom of Information Law dispute between the department and Streetsblog. More than a year after Streetsblog asked for a list of all active NYPD parking permits, roughly 35,000 of them, along with the names of the personnel who hold them, the department declined. It said the request was too vague to locate the records and, at the same time, that those records reveal non-routine law enforcement techniques and could endanger someone’s safety. Michael Linhorst of Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic, who filed the appeal on September 4, put the problem in one sentence: “You can’t know the records are exempt unless you know what the records are.” The city has until September 21 to answer the appeal.
Read the full story: NYPD Refuses to Release Parking Placard Records — Streetsblog NYC, September 14, 2026.
A vague-request denial and an exemption claim for the same records do not fit together, and an appeal is the right response. See our Freedom of Information Law page and our earlier note on what to do when your records request comes back denied.
