CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire began making public Wednesday its long-secret list of police officers with possible credibility issues.
The “Laurie list” tracks officers whose credibility may be called into question during a trial because of something in their personnel records.
Prosecutors are required to turn the information over to defendants before trial, but public access has been limited to heavily redacted versions of the list. But under a new state law, the Department of Justice is required to gradually release the list after a period during which officers can contest their placement on it.
The first batch of 90 names was made public Wednesday, along with brief descriptions of the officers’ alleged wrongdoing. Truthfulness was listed for 60 of the officers. Twelve were cited for criminal conduct, with smaller numbers cited for excessive force, falsification of records or dereliction of duty.
The list includes officers from more than 50 agencies, including four county sheriff’s offices and the state police. The attorney general’s office noted that some of the officers may no longer be employed by the agencies listed, and some may have died.
The new law’s provisions match a recommendation by the Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency that was established in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The list’s official title is the “exculpatory evidence schedule.” It is often called the “Laurie List” after Carl Laurie, whose murder conviction was overturned in 1995 after a court determined that defense attorneys were not told about poor behavior by a detective involved in his confession.
Several media outlets and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire sued seeking access to the list in 2018.
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