NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s mayor vetoed bills Friday aimed at banning solitary confinement in city jails and requiring more transparency in police encounters with civilians, setting up a faceoff with the City Council, which says it has enough votes to override him.
Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said the solitary confinement restrictions would make jails more dangerous and that the expanded reporting requirements for police would only bog down officers in paperwork, putting public safety at risk.
The former police captain announced his veto of the police stops bill during a City Hall news conference, where he was joined by law enforcement officials and community leaders.
Adams argued that the new mandates would harm the police work that led to an overall drop in crime last year, including a 12 percent decline in homicides and a 25 percent decrease in shootings.
“We don’t want to handcuff police. We want to handcuff bad people. That’s the goal,” Adams said. “It’s about making sure we’re not preventing them from doing their job.”