More than 35 years’ worth of police disciplinary records can now be found online, readily accessible after an appellate court lifted an order barring the New York Civil Liberties Union from publishing them.

"Critically important for the first amendment and for our effort to shine a light on police abuse and how the police department has been handling it for decades or mishandling it," said Donna Lieberman, executive director.

Lieberman hopes the data will usher in a new era of police accountability. The non-profit compiled this searchable database of more than 320,000 misconduct complaints like excessive force and abuse of authority that were investigated by the Civilian Complaint Review Board.  The records date back to before 1985.

"Of the 81,000 or more officers against whom complaints were substantiated there are only 12 officers in the 35-year period covered by this data, who were either terminated or dismissed as a result of those complaints," said Lieberman who called the results shocking.

The ruling is a setback for the city's police, fire and correction unions which filed a lawsuit to stop the release after the repeal of the law that once kept disciplinary records secret.

In a statement, Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for the unions says the battle to protect due process for public safety workers is not over vowing to "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.”

But, the head of the CCRB says the agency stands ready to meet the demand for greater police accountability.  And, the Legal Aid Society welcomed the ruling saying the data will benefit the mostly Black and Latinx New Yorkers that have suffered from what they call "the culture of impunity" and help their attorneys defend clients in court.