The “How Many Stops Act” will get one more vote in the City Council this Tuesday, as lawmakers will attempt to override Mayor Eric Adams’ veto of the controversial police reporting bill.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced the impending vote late on Friday afternoon in a statement, saying that the legislature has no need to waste any further time debating the legislation that would require NYPD officers to file reports on specific interactions with the public.
While proponents say the How Many Stops Act is essential to police accountability and deterring racial profiling, Mayor Adams and NYPD brass have argued that it would bog down cops in bureaucracy, as they would be required to document almost every interaction they have while on duty — and take time away from their main duties of keeping the city safe.
Debate over the How Many Stops Act has contributed to a growing rift between Mayor Adams and the City Council leadership, with both side accusing each other of peddling misinformation regarding the legislation’s meaning and potential impact on the city’s future. It even led to gamesmanship at City Hall on Jan. 23, when the City Council attempted to hold a press conference in the rotunda about the matter — and City Hall staff, at the mayor’s direction, attempted to stymie the proceedings because the Council had allegedly failed to notify them about the event in a timely manner.
But the time for talking is over, according to Speaker Adams. The Council, she noted, also intends to override another Adams’ veto — that of Intro. 549-A, which would outlaw the Correction Department from engaging in solitary confinement to segregate unruly detainees in their facilities.
“We should all be united in advancing our city by recognizing the harmful legacies of injustice that undermine the health and safety of our city and its neighborhoods,” Speaker Adams (D-Queens) said in a Jan. 26 statement. “The Council has no interest in prolonging a conversation that has been made unnecessarily toxic by the spreading of fear and misinformation, and we plan to override the mayor’s recent vetoes on Tuesday.”
What the bill means
Regarding the How Many Stops Act, Speaker Adams said Friday that the legislation is essential toward ensuring police transparency “at a time when Black and Latino New Yorkers continue to be disproportionately subjected to unconstitutional stops that go unreported, and civilian complaints of misconduct are at their highest level in over a decade.”
Under the legislation, police officers would be required to document the demographics of people they interact with— even when they make stops to ask basic information, in what are known as “Level 1” stops. Currently, cops are only mandated to report on “Level 3” stops — otherwise known as “stop, question and frisk.”
Level 1 stops are where officers can ask individuals for information, like their identification or where they are going, as long as the cops have an “objective credible reason.” The legislation would also require cops to record “Level 2” stops, which involve asking “more pointed questions” based upon “founded suspicion that criminal activity is afoot.”
“Police transparency is a prerequisite to public safety because it fosters the community trust that is necessary to make our neighborhoods safer,” Speaker Adams said Friday. “Intro. 586-A of the How Many Stops Act is a simple data bill that the mayor and the most technologically advanced police department in the world can easily implement by building on their existing practices that require recording and classifying of ‘Level 1’ and ‘Level 2’ stops.”
Mayor Adams, however, has repeatedly insisted the legislation the inclusion of Level 1 stops in the How Many Stops Act documentation requirements will drown police officers in paperwork. NYPD brass have said a Level 1 stop would include millions of minor interactions officers have with the public every year for reasons that have nothing to do with criminal activity — and requiring those interactions to be reported would take away from the officers’ primary crime-fighting duties.
“Their hearts are in the right place,” Adams said during a Jan. 23 briefing at City Hall. “But the wording of Level 1 stops, we agree with Level 2 and Level 3’s, but the Level 1 stops is the area where they are misunderstanding the rule.”
The mayor invited City Council members to take part in a police ride-along this weekend to see how the How Many Stops Act would impact the day-to-day duties of police officers in a given community. He also suggested on Jan. 23 that a number of City Council members have confided they privately oppose the legislation but feel they have not been allowed to “vote their conscience.” A City Council spokesperson flatly denied the suggestion.
Two-thirds of the City Council members in attendance for Tuesday’s stated meeting must reapprove the How Many Stops Act in order to override Mayor Adams’ veto. The legislation passed in December with a veto-proof majority in the last session, before several new members took office this month.
Another tabloid reported that it could take as few as two Council members to flip their yes votes to no to derail the override effort.
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