NYPD to document race of people questioned under new law opposed by Mayor Adams

The NYPD will be required to record the race, gender and age of most people they stop for questioning under a law passed by the New York City Council, which Mayor Eric Adams tried and failed to veto.

The new law, known as the How Many Stops Act, will require officers to document basic information in low-level encounters in which police ask for information from people who aren’t necessarily suspected of a crime. 

Officers also will have to report the circumstances that led to stopping a particular person. The NYPD will also have to record whether an officer used force against a person they questioned.

The data will be made public on the police department’s website.

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Adams has veto power over bills that cross his desk, but a two-thirds majority can override such actions.

The 51-member council, 45 of whom are Democrats, overrode the mayor’s veto with 42 votes in favor and nine against. The bill takes effect in June.

Advocates for police reform say the bill will reduce racial profiling and bring transparency to policing.

“At a time when Black and Latino New Yorkers continue to be disproportionately subjected to unconstitutional stops that go underreported, and civilian complaints of misconduct are at their highest level in over a decade, the need for basic transparency is clear,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is not related to the mayor, said in a statement.

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City Council member Kevin Riley, a Bronx Democrat who is Black, was among the council members who conveyed how many New Yorkers feel while interacting with police on the streets as he voted in favor of the measure.

“When we see those red and blue lights, our hearts drop into our stomachs,” he said.

However, Mayor Adams and top police brass say it could slow NYPD response times, undermine community-oriented policing and add tens of millions of dollars in overtime to the NYPD budget.

The mayor said the bill would force NYPD officers to spend more time on paperwork and filling out reports with the public instead of patrolling the street and keeping the public safe.

“If you talk to the victim of a crime or law enforcement professional, they will tell you: In public safety, seconds matter,” Adams said Tuesday at City Hall as he implored the council to let his veto stand.

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“Anyone who has wrestled with a dangerous person and waited for help to come, anyone who’s tried to disarm someone with a knife, disarm someone with a gun, fighting on a platform, on the roadbed of the train, or inside an apartment and wrestling with someone who is dangerous, seconds matter.”

Meanwhile, the department’s largest police officers’ union warned in a statement after the vote that the council would have to answer to constituents for “rising 911 response times and diminished police presence” in city neighborhoods.

“New York City police officers will comply with the new law and do the job the way the City Council wants it done,” said Patrick Hendry, president of the Police Benevolent Association. “Despite the increased workload and the NYPD’s critically low staffing levels, we will continue to protect our communities to the best of our ability.”

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.