After a failed and unusually protracted effort to convince the New York City Council to rescind a bill requiring the police to document more of their interactions with the public, Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the legislation Friday, arguing that it would harm public safety.
“We cannot handcuff the police,” Mr. Adams said at a news conference at City Hall, where he was surrounded by community supporters and police officials. “We want to handcuff bad people for violence.”
Hours later, the mayor also vetoed a bill that would ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails.
That Mr. Adams, a former police captain who ran for mayor on a platform of public safety, would oppose the bills is not surprising. But it was unusual for the mayor to be so fervently opposed — he commissioned a public-relations campaign that included an animated video — to the bills, considering they were approved by the Council with veto-proof majorities.
The mayor said on Friday that he had conversations with numerous Council members about the bills, suggesting that he may have persuaded some to oppose the policing legislation, in particular.