City records, the disclosure of which would invade a person's right to privacy, hinder law enforcement, endanger the public safety, or breach a legally recognized duty of confidence, or the nondisclosure of which is legally privileged, or which have been prepared for or by the Law Department for use in actions or proceedings to which the City is or may be a party, shall not be available for public inspection. Except as herein provided, all other City records shall be open for public inspection but the officer, department, board or commission or other governmental agency of the City having the care and custody of such records may make reasonable regulations governing the time, place and manner of their inspection and for the purposes of archival preservation, copies of City records may be substituted in lieu of original records.
ANNOTATION
Sources: New York City Charter, 1938, Section 894.
Purposes: Records of the City relate to the government of the City and for that reason those governed should have a right to inspect them. However, this right has to qualified by reasonableness as to the time, place and manner of inspection, by assuring adequate care for the records being examined, and by considerations for protecting the individual right to privacy, law enforcement, public safety, legally recognized duties of confidence legally recognized privileges and the interest of the City in any lawsuit in which it may be involved.
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