Starting Friday, New York City police officers must inform civilians of their right to refuse a search if an officer has no warrant or lacks reasonable suspicion of a crime. Officers will also be required to hand a business card to civilians who they stop to question, frisk, or search.
Public officials and police reform advocates pledged to hold the NYPD accountable for their encounters with the public as new legislation goes into effect Friday.
Holding signs and banners reading "I do not consent to this search," activists rallied on the steps of City Hall to celebrate the implementation of the Right to Know Act. The legislation has two components: a requirement for officers (in certain instances) to identify themselves when approaching the public, and a mandate to inform a person of their right to refuse to consent to a search when the officer doesn't have probable cause.
Ni el paso de los años, 24 para ser más precisos, han podido borrar el dolor que sintió Iris Baez el día que encontró muerto a su hijo Anthony. El joven fue sometido a una llave de estrangulamientopor el oficial del Departamento de Policía de Nueva York (NYPD) Francis Livoti el 22 de diciembre de 1994.
New laws requiring NYPD officers to identify themselves and receive consent before conducting some searches are set to go into effect Friday — and police reform advocates are worried the de Blasio administration is already trying to wriggle out of the rules.
In December 2017, the New York City Council passed two police reform measures, collectively known as the Right to Know Act, which aimed to improve communication and transparency during police stops and searches. On Friday, both bills will take full effect, and the New York Police Department will be tasked with implementing the council’s mandate to become more transparent and accountable. But there are good reasons to be skeptical that the NYPD will implement the law faithfully.
Four years ago the NYPD killed my son, Eric Garner. We demand justice.
Right before they came for him, Eric had broken up a fight. But the NYPD lied about that from the very beginning, telling the press he was being arrested for selling loose cigarettes — all to somehow justify their violence that led to his death.
A Manhattan judge has ordered the NYPD to turn over internal documents surrounding the 2012 police shooting of 17-year-old Ramarley Graham, a ruling that could have implications that transcend this particular case.
Police officer Richard Haste shot Graham after bursting into his apartment thinking the teen was armed. No gun was found. Haste quit after his departmental trial on misconduct charges in 2017.
A Manhattan judge has ordered the New York City Police Department to release a trove of documents from the case of Ramarley Graham, who was shot and killed in 2012 by an officer who has since left the department.
As the blue-ribbon panel created by the city’s top cop to review how the NYPD punishes police for misconduct begins its work, history has shown that the disciplinary system is stubbornly resistant to change.
Way back in 1972, for example, the Knapp Commission — formed to probe a police bribery scandal — urged the NYPD to increase penalties for misconduct. The recommendation was not heeded.
The father of Saheed Vassell demanded more accountability of the police officers who killed his son.
Last Friday evening, 16 weeks after New York City Police Department officers shot and killed Saheed Vassell, the department leaked the names of the officers involved in the shooting. The officers identified were Leon Dinham, Anthony Bottiglieri, Bekim Molic and Omar Rafiq. Everyone but Rafiq was assigned to the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights, Vassell’s district.
