Legislating Police Transparency 

A Message from JUMAANE WILLIAMS, Public Advocate

Several weeks ago, the Mayor chose to veto the How Many Stops Act, our legislation to require basic reporting for police transparency. The bill passed the City Council in December with a veto-proof majority. By the time you read this the City Council will have overridden the veto.

The administration has since engaged in a concerted misinformation campaign against this simple reporting legislation – in fact, the bill the administration is vocally opposing does not exist. The How Many Stops Act is critical to getting data about how policing strategies are being used on our streets, to ensure we’re all working with the same reliable information as we craft public safety policy. Right now, stops are being underreported, the federal monitor over the NYPD indicates as many as a quarter of current stops are unconstitutional, and 97% of New Yorkers stopped are Black and Brown. It’s vital that we prevent the kinds of abuses of stop, question, and frisk we’ve seen in the past, and that we build, not damage, trust in our communities.

To correct the misinformation and help New Yorkers understand the purpose and practice of this bill, I wanted to share some basic facts about the legislation – this reporting can be done in seconds, on a smartphone, and is in line with existing requirements in the patrol guide to log Body-Worn Camera footage. Our bill also explicitly states that casual conversations with the public are not included in the reporting requirements.

WHAT INTRO 586-A REQUIRES 

OFFICERS TO REPORT 

● Without needing to ask and to the best of their ability: age, race and gender of Level I, II, III stops 

● Why they made the stop, how it began, and whether it escalated from one level to another

● The final level of the stop 

● Whether there was force used during the stop 

WHY INTRO 586-A AND THIS INFORMATION IS NEEDED 

● Transparency: Body-Worn Camera records show stops are being underreported and miscategorized, this bill fills that gap. 

● Education: The monitor believes “Officers may also be genuinely confused about the lawfulness of their interactions.” Greater documentation will help clarify this confusion while also increasing accountability. 

When the Council overrides this veto, I hope we can work with the administration to ensure that transparency is a point of collaboration, not contention. We want to implement this bill in the most streamlined way, because this isn’t preventing police work – it IS police work. This bill is good for public safety, and I look forward to it becoming law.