The Right To Know Act is a legislative package that aims to protect the civil and human rights of New Yorkers while promoting communication, transparency and accountability in everyday interactions between the NYPD and the public. New Yorkers want to live in a safe city where the police treat all residents with dignity and respect, and where police are not considered to be above the law.
Starting Friday, New York City police officers must inform civilians of their right to refuse a search if an officer has no warrant or lacks reasonable suspicion of a crime. Officers will also be required to hand a business card to civilians who they stop to question, frisk, or search.
The New York Police Department ordered 10 million business cards that officers must hand out to people they stop on the street. The cards will include the officers’ names and ranks, and are required under the new Right to Know Act.
Public officials and police reform advocates pledged to hold the NYPD accountable for their encounters with the public as new legislation goes into effect Friday.
Holding signs and banners reading "I do not consent to this search," activists rallied on the steps of City Hall to celebrate the implementation of the Right to Know Act. The legislation has two components: a requirement for officers (in certain instances) to identify themselves when approaching the public, and a mandate to inform a person of their right to refuse to consent to a search when the officer doesn't have probable cause.
Ni el paso de los años, 24 para ser más precisos, han podido borrar el dolor que sintió Iris Baez el día que encontró muerto a su hijo Anthony. El joven fue sometido a una llave de estrangulamientopor el oficial del Departamento de Policía de Nueva York (NYPD) Francis Livoti el 22 de diciembre de 1994.
New laws requiring NYPD officers to identify themselves and receive consent before conducting some searches are set to go into effect Friday — and police reform advocates are worried the de Blasio administration is already trying to wriggle out of the rules.
In December 2017, the New York City Council passed two police reform measures, collectively known as the Right to Know Act, which aimed to improve communication and transparency during police stops and searches. On Friday, both bills will take full effect, and the New York Police Department will be tasked with implementing the council’s mandate to become more transparent and accountable. But there are good reasons to be skeptical that the NYPD will implement the law faithfully.
The mayor hastily added a hearing for a controversial police reform bill to his schedule Monday — at a time when many of the activists opposed to it were mourning Erica Garner.
Mayor de Blasio added the Right to Know Act to a slew of other, less contentious, bills getting hearings Monday — slipping the bills into an updated advisory he issued two hours before the event was to begin. Meanwhile, a funeral was being held for Garner, whose father Eric Garner was killed as a police officer used a chokehold while trying to arrest him on Staten Island in 2014.
Police-reform advocates on Monday slammed the de Blasio administration for waiting until the last minute before adding controversial police reform bills to a public hearing hosted by the mayor.
One measure in the Right to Know Act requires cops to get proof of consent from a person before searching them without a legal basis.
A second bill requires cops to ID themselves and provide business cards to suspects.
Melissa Mark-Viverito, the first Latina to preside over the 51-member New York City Council, leaves office having shepherded a progressive shift in the city’s direction, in conjunction with fellow Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio, a philosophically aligned partner in government who was the deciding factor in her winning the powerful speaker position four years ago.