In the Media

Advocates and Council members rallied outside City Hall today to call for the passage of a pair of police reform bills that have languished for two years, despite support from more than half the body’s members.

The bills, known collectively as the Right to Know Act, would require police officers to identify themselves to people they stop and to inform people that they have a right to refuse a search if the officer does not have probable cause. The identification bill has 32 sponsors; the consent to search legislation has 28—enough to pass the 51-member body.

 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.

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.

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.