New York City Mayor Eric Adams lost in a legal feud after the City Council rejected his veto on two reform bills, including what is known as the "How Many Stops Act."
The City Council is led by a relatively moderate Democrat who is aligned with the body's progressive members who delivered a striking rebuke to Adams. This was by overriding two of the mayor's vetoes by an overwhelming margin.
The votes on the bills capped weeks of lobbying and media appearances from officials on both sides of the debate. A flurry of activity was exacerbated over the weekend when law enforcement personnel pulled over a Council member who had spent seven years in jail after being wrongly convicted as part of the "Central Park Five."
After the vote on Tuesday, the City Council punctuated the most significant clash yet between the two Democratic-led branches of city government. It could also potentially complicate Mayor Adams' 2025 re-election bid, as per Politico.
One of the bills in question would require police officers to report demographic data on low-level interactions with civilians. Supporters have said that this is necessary to hold the New York City Police Department (NYPD) accountable. This is because it has had a history of racially motivated police officers.
The other bill seeks to limit the amount of time a detainee spends in isolation in the city's jail system, which is a policy that has been criticized by a federal monitor who oversees the notoriously violent Rikers Island facility.
In a statement, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said that they were standing together as a united front, which includes council members, advocates, and directly impacted families. She said that they were sending a clear message that New Yorkers need and deserve transparency.
The rejection of the vetoes came as Adams failed to sway the two council members that he needed to maintain his opposition to the reform bills. Following the vote, the mayor argued that the bills would only make New York less safe for people on the streets, according to the New York Post.
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Increasing Reporting of Police-Civilian Encounters
He added that one of the bills would force police officers to fill out additional paperwork rather than focus on helping the people of the city and strengthening community bonds. Adams said that it would make staff in jails and those who are in custody less safe by impairing their ability to hold those who commit violent acts accountable.
Under one of the bills, the NYPD's officers will have to record the "apparent" race, gender, and age of nearly every person they question. This includes someone who could just be a potential witness to a crime and those involved in the lowest-level encounters.
Furthermore, law enforcement personnel will have to report the reason for the interaction as well as the circumstances that led to stopping a particular person. The data that they record will be made public on the police department's website.
The City Council speaker said that Black and Latino New Yorkers continue to be disproportionately subjected to unconstitutional stops that go on to report. She added that civilian complaints of police misconduct are at their highest level in the past decade, said ABC7NY.
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