New York City lawmakers introduce NYPD transparency bill

Lawmakers from the City Council's progressive caucus on Thursday introduced legislation they said would improve frayed relations between the police and minority communities by requiring officers to identify themselves during stops and then inform the people they confront of their right not to be searched if there's no probable cause.

City Councilman Ritchie Torres says officers too often stop mostly young minority men without giving their names. He also says they conduct searches without affecting an arrest, or having a warrant or probable cause.

"We cannot improve police-community relations without first improving the on-the-ground interactions between police and civilians," said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat and bill co-sponsor who spoke at a press conference outside City Hall surrounded by other legislators, advocates and union members.

The bill, dubbed The Right to Know Act, requires officers to hand over business cards with their name, rank and command following stops that don't lead to arrests or summonses. It also requires them to articulate a person's right not to consent to a voluntary search and create a record in writing or by audio recording of a person's consent to a search and knowledge he or she can withdraw consent at any point.

Suspects cannot refuse a search if police observe suspicious behavior or a crime, or have a warrant.

But Torres said the proposed law, supported by the New York Civil Liberties Union and other groups, was designed to stop arrests and summonses that result from voluntary searches people don't know they can refuse and that end up leading to citations for marijuana possession or other crimes that disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods.

Police union President Patrick Lynch calls the law unnecessary, saying it sends a dangerous anti-police message.

"The political posturing by this Council is dangerous and destructive and not in the best interest of public safety," he said. "Educating the bad guys is not our job."

Supporters say the law simply applies the existing Constitutional Miranda warning to street encounters. But NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly is a critic.

"It would give the public a false impression that they have the ability to not respond to the police," he said. "And we already have too much of that underway at the moment."

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, has made improving police and community relations a top priority and earlier this week announced that people caught carrying small amounts of marijuana will be issued non-criminal summonses, rather than be arrested on misdemeanor charges.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)