In the Media

De Blasio Backs Revised Right to Know Act

12/12/2017
WNYC

Mayor de Blasio reversed course on Tuesday saying he now supports legislation that promotes greater police accountability. The Right to Know Act includes two bills — one that requires police to identify themselves, and another that requires a person's consent before certain police searches.

Until now, the mayor and the NYPD opposed the bills, arguing the department had already addressed these issues by changing their own policies.

Right to Know Act, policing NYPD interactions with public, heads to City Council vote

12/12/2017
AMNY

A deal between the NYPD and City Council would impose the council’s first day-to-day restrictions on how cops deal with the public.

Under legislation to be voted upon on Tuesday, an officer in certain nonemergency encounters would need to provide name, rank and command, explain the reason for the stop and hand out business cards when no one is arrested or issued a summons. Cops also would need to record explicit consent, either on audio or in writing, before searching a person absent a legal basis.

City Council, de Blasio come to agreement on police search reform bills

12/12/2017
New York Post

The City Council and the mayor have reached agreement on two bills that place strict requirements on police officers conducting stops or searches — legislation that police union leaders say would “unquestionably place New Yorkers and police officers in harm’s way.”

Known collectively as the Right to Know Act, the legislation would require cops to explain to individuals “using plain and simple language” that they have a right to refuse to be searched — except in cases where there’s a firm legal basis for doing so.

After Delay, City Council to Take Up Police Reform Bills

12/12/2017
New York Times

A pair of police reform measures vigorously opposed by New York City’s largest officers union is moving toward passage in the City Council, a last-ditch effort by its departing speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has staked her legacy on criminal justice reform.

After years of debate, false starts and back-room negotiations, the legislation, referred to in police reform circles as the Right to Know Act, is now set to be voted on during the Council’s final full meeting next week, just before new members and new leaders are sworn in January.

No Longer at the Mayor’s Flank, Mark-Viverito Charts a New Path

12/10/2017
New York Times

When Melissa Mark-Viverito was elected as City Council speaker, some feared that her loyalty to Mayor Bill de Blasio would curtail her independence and influence.

After all, it was Mr. de Blasio who helped engineer her victory so that he could have an ally at the helm of the lawmaking body.

While four years of relative comity have followed between the Council and Mr. de Blasio, Ms. Mark-Viverito, who leaves office at the end of the month, converted many of her doubters by standing up to the mayor when it counted.

Demonstrators protest acquittal of NYPD cop in Delrawn Small slay

11/09/2017
New York Daily News

With NYPD officers looking on, more than 100 people gathered on a Manhattan street corner to protest the acquittal of a cop cleared in the road rage shooting death of a Brooklyn father.

Demonstrators in Union Square said a jury put Officer Wayne Isaacs above the law when they failed to hold him responsible for the July 4, 2016 slaying of motorist Delrawn Small, who was killed in East New York after a clash with the off-duty officer.

Road Rage, Then a Shot. For a Police Officer, It is Called Self-Defense

11/09/2017
New York Times

Over the course of two days in early July of last year, three black men, each of them under 40, were killed by police officers in different parts of the country — Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La.; Philando Castile, outside of St. Paul, and Delrawn Small, in a case that drew far less national attention, in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn.

Pics appear to dispute ‘road rage’ cop’s self-defense claim

10/28/2017
New York Post

Brooklyn jurors on Friday were shown hospital photos taken of an off-duty cop just after he fatally gunned down an unarmed driver in a road-rage incident — and the images appear to contradict his claim of self-defense.

The portrait-style and full-body photos of Officer Wayne Isaacs wearing a stripped white golf shirt were taken by now-retired NYPD crime-scene Detective Vincent Falsitta at Jamaica Hospital at 1:30 a.m. — about an hour and a half after the East New York shooting on July 4, 2016.

NYPD cop who killed Delrawn Small didn't look injured: testimony

10/27/2017
New York Daily News

An off-duty NYPD officer who gunned down a Brooklyn father in what he claims was self-defense during a road rage encounter did not have any visible injuries to his face, according to trial testimony Friday.

Officer Wayne Isaacs told detectives and a 911 operator on July 4, 2016, that he shot Delrawn Small three times after he was punched in the face while at a red light on the corner of Atlantic Ave. and Bradford St. in East New York.

Isaacs, who was driving home about midnight after his shift at the 79th Precinct, had cut off Small’s car.

Pages