In 2013 Mayor Bill De Blasio was voted into office with pledges to reign in police violence and stop-and-frisk policing targeted at blacks and latinos.
Police departments would have to report more about arrests and the deaths of people in custody under legislation pending in the New York state Legislature.
Advocates for criminal justice reform and their legislative allies detailed the bill Tuesday.
The measure sponsored by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and Sen. Daniel Squadron, both Democrats, would require police departments to follow a single, statewide process for reporting information about everyday arrests — as well as cases in which a person is killed while in custody.
Two proposed City Council initiatives aimed at changing law-and-order practices that critics say unfairly target minorities and the indigent have taken different paths, with one gaining steam as the other stalls.
The difference is a matter of politics and practicality, experts and stakeholders said.
NEW YORK — When New York City officials announced this week that Manhattan police would stop arresting most of the scofflaws who littered, drank in public, or took up two seats on the subway, and give them summonses instead, they were in many ways addressing a lot more than such penny-ante violations of the law.
Police officers in the five boroughs are struggling to adapt to changes to stop-and-frisk polices.
In a 94-page report released last week, attorney Peter Zimroth revealed that many New York Police Department officers still haven’t figured out the court-mandated changes made to its stop-and-frisk program.
The CCRB, the NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board issued a report which verifies what police reform advocates have known, that the NYPD has been carrying out illegal and improper home entries and searches. A case in point -- the death of Ramarley Graham.
Last week’s conviction of NYPD officer Peter Liang, the first conviction of a NYPD officer for killing a civilian in more than a decade, is an important step forward for justice for Akai Gurley’s family and police accountability. However, it hardly represents equal justice for our communities with respect to policing, or an end to the preferential double standard that most officers have experienced when they brutalize or kill.
Back in September, the New York City Police Department officially started giving people receipts when they stopped and frisked them. The procedure was designed to prevent dubious searches, increase officer accountability, and help repair the relationship between cops and minority communities.