On January 30, 2024, the New York City Council voted to override Mayor Adams’ vetoes on Introduction 586-A and Introduction 549-A, with a vote of 42-9.
“Today, the Council answered decades-long calls from communities most impacted by police stops and the harmful legacy of stop-and-frisk, to deliver much-needed transparency to policing and advance true public safety for New Yorkers,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams. “By collecting and disclosing data on investigative stops, the How Many Stops Act will bring forth a fuller picture of these encounters, fostering accountability and trust between the police and the communities they serve. The Council was also proud to override the Mayor’s veto to ban solitary confinement in city jails and advance a new approach to reduce violence and prioritize safety for both staff and those detained. As government, we have a responsibility to do right by New Yorkers who have been persistently harmed and failed by these unjust policies. We are proud to override the Mayor’s vetoes and hold our government accountable for delivering transparency and true safety to all New Yorkers.
Int. 586 of the How Many Stops Act requires public reporting of basic data on Level I and II police investigative stops of civilians. The data reported would include apparent age, gender, race, the reason, and outcome for the stop. A federal court-appointed monitor from the 2013 Floyd v. City of New York court decision that found NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk to be unconstitutional has consistently shown unlawful stops have continued and many go underreported. A recent report by the monitor revealed that one out of every four stops made by the mayor’s newly constituted police unit to be unconstitutional, and 97 percent of those stopped were Black and Latino New Yorkers, despite their making up less than half of the city’s population. The federal monitor and NYPD’s own audits have also shown the department to persistently underreport stops. A December report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board revealed that NYPD misconduct complaints rose 51% last year to their highest level in over a decade.
Int. 549-A bans the use of solitary confinement of all forms in city jails. All people in city custody would have at least 14 hours of out-of-cell time in shared spaces. The new disciplinary process established by this bill would allow separation from the general population in instances where a person engages in a violent incident in custody, but prohibit isolation that is shown to cause physical and psychological harm and increase violence. Solitary isolation, even only for a few days, leads to significantly heightened risk of death by accident, suicide, violence, overdose, and other causes. Research shows that people placed in solitary confinement are over seven times more likely to self-harm and six times more likely to commit fatal self-harm. Solitary confinement has also been shown to induce acute anxiety, depression, psychosis, and other impairments which may seriously reduce one’s capacity to reintegrate upon release. In New York City, these disastrous effects are felt almost exclusively by Black and Latino New Yorkers, who make up over 90% of all people in city jails.
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