A convoy of seven police vans carrying Mayor Eric Adams, top NYPD brass, reporters and nine councilmembers traversed Harlem and the South Bronx on Saturday night, turning the heads of confused onlookers.
The ride-along came after Adams vetoed a bill earlier this month that would require NYPD officers to publicly disclose their “low-level” encounters with civilians. That bill passed following a 35-9 vote in December of last year. The Council is set to convene on Tuesday afternoon to override the mayor’s veto of this bill as well as another that would ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails.
The mayor has been vocal about his opposition to the legislation, and has argued it would burden officers with additional work and jeopardize public safety.
NYPD officials gathered councilmembers and news reporters in a room at Harlem’s 28th Precinct on Saturday, where they showed physical paperwork they say officers would have to complete if the bill passed.
The NYPD is currently required to document stop-and-frisk reports and arrests, where officers are legally required to have “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause” that someone is committing, has committed or is about to commit a crime, according to the NYPD training guide.
But the How Many Stops Act governs what are called “level one” or “level two” stops — encounters where the person being stopped is legally free to leave. This includes when police stop someone to ask where they are going or request identification. Some advocates and civil liberties groups said these seemingly innocuous stops can have catastrophic consequences, such as escalating to violence or unlawful arrests.