NEW YORK -- The New York City Council on Wednesday approved a controversial bill that would mandate NYPD officers file reports on all low-level stops.
Mayor Eric Adams and the police union say it will be bad for public safety.
The How Many Stops Act is sponsored by city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
"The bill we're actually passing is not controversial at all. It was actually part of the remedial process recommendations when we dealt with the abuses of stop, question and frisk," Williams said.
It means cops will now have to report encounters with New Yorkers with several questions digitally for each pedestrian street stop. We're told it will not apply to those asking basic questions for things like directions.
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"It's literally four or five questions, one of which the police department asked us to put on, on a dropdown menu that people can just tap on their phone after the stop has occurred. It's literally 20 to 30 seconds," Williams said.
But opponents, including the Police Benevolent Association, say it will slow down response times even more for the NYPD, which is already short-staffed. The PBA had a digital board outside City Hall during the vote with a message reading, "More police paperwork...? Or more public safety?"
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"Whether it's paperwork, whether it's digital, it's still more time on each person -- that's on each person that we deal with. That's time, every second matters when someone's calling, when it's their life on the line. So those extra seconds, that could be someone's life," said PBA President Patrick Hendry.
According to mayor's management report, from July 2022 to this past June, there were over 297,000 calls for crimes in progress.
The mayor appeared on The Point with CBS New York's Political Reporter Marcia Kramer over the weekend and told her the bill would endanger public safety.
"The more and more you have police officers handle paperwork, they're not going after perpetrators. That is not how you keep this city safe. That is not how we drove down crime in this city to having removed 6,000 guns off the street -- 13,000 over the two years that I've been here," Adams told Kramer on Sunday. "We did it by allowing our police officers to do their job and not to get in the way of that."
This comes as the need for greater transparency was outlined in a report this summer by a federal monitor overseeing the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics. It found about 97% of people stopped were Black or Hispanic.
"What I would really ask is that the mayor help us with better policing and public safety," Williams said.
The mayor released a statement Wednesday evening saying in part:
"The New York City Council has taken action today that, if implemented, will unquestionably make our city less safe.
"Since day one, our administration has made public safety our top priority, and we have delivered results: Overall crime is down, shootings are down, and New Yorkers are safer than they were two years ago ...
"When I was a police officer, I fought for transparency and against abusive policing tactics that targeted communities like the one where I grew up. Intro. 586-A would not advance those goals — it will slow down police response times and divert our officers from responding to emergency incidents. In every City Council district in this city, our officers will be forced to spend more time in their cars and on their phones, and less time walking the streets and engaging with New Yorkers. And as the city faces significant budget challenges, with an unprecedented $7 billion gap that must be closed next month by law, the City Council's choice to pass this bill will mean millions of dollars in additional overtime costs that will force us to make further painful cuts ...
"We are reviewing all options."
Lawmakers who voted for the bill say it will provide accountability and address racial disparities on how police conduct their investigations.