Members of the New York City Council geared up in bulletproof vests and rolled out in a convoy of police vans through Harlem and the Bronx Saturday to see the streets for themselves.
They also saw the paperwork the average officer fills out for every job.
It was Mayor Eric Adams' idea of showing lawmakers how much bigger that pile of paperwork will get if the City Council overrides his veto of the How Many Stops Act on Tuesday.
Officers would be required to document virtually every stop, logging things like race and gender for level-one interactions -- basic conversations with the public.
This would not just be additional paperwork at the end of an officer's shift. Police say officers would have to actively document their level-one encounters with the public while trying to find suspects, too.
Police say they responded to 8.5 million 911 calls in 2023. Virtually every call generates at least one level-one encounter. Supporters of the bill say they want transparency.
The mayor hoped the ride-along would help sway the vote of some council members by demonstrating how complex the process already is, arguing the new act would hinder the NYPD's ability to protect the public.
On Friday, Harlem Councilman Yusef Salaam was stopped by police for driving with window tints beyond the legal limit. Once he identified himself, the officer ended the stop. But Salaam says he was not given a reason.
Salaam said: "This experience only amplified the importance of transparency for all police investigative stops, because the lack of transparency allows racial profiling and unconstitutional stops of all types to occur and often go unreported."