Mayor Eric Adams, Republican State Committee Chairman Ed Cox become allies in fight to alter How Many Stops Act
NEW YORK -- There are new developments in the fight over the controversial How Many Stops Act.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams picked up an unexpected ally.
You would never call Republican State Chairman Ed Cox a natural ally of Democrat Adams, and you can bet the ranch on the fact that he'll field a Republican challenger when the mayor seeks re-election next year, but for now they're playing on the same team in seeking a way to undo some of the effects of the How Many Stops Act.
"Gov. Hochul, do something," Cox said.
It was a plea born of frustration. Cox called on the governor and state lawmakers to pass legislation to override the How Many Stops Act, which requires police to report and document all encounters with the public, including casual investigative actions.
Cox admits it is just a tad unusual for the Republican chairman to side with the Democratic mayor, but he's a New Yorker first and foremost.
"Look, we're all for safety and quality of life here in New York City. People are leaving this city because of the degradation of the quality of life here," Cox said.
The mayor fought the act right up until the City Council humiliated him on Tuesday by overriding his veto.
Supporters believe the bill will prevent racial profiling. A federal monitor over seeing the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics last year found that 97% of people stopped were Black or Hispanic.
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The mayor is not against police reporting high-level stops, just the Level 1 stops that are classified as non-criminal encounters. He said it will slow down response times and take away from policing on the street.
Cox agrees with that.
"The mayor was elected, foremost, on a safe streets platform and this is not ... this is going right at the heart of what he is for," Cox said.
This as NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban sought a compromise with Council members to remove the low-level stops from the bill before it takes effect this summer.
"We're still hopeful that before this bill is laid out in July there's still room for us to come to the table and work on language that is both transparent and doesn't effect public safety, allows police to do their job and help protect New Yorkers," Caban said.
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Supporters say it's not a big deal for cops to use smartphones to report low-level stops. Police disagree, citing the millions of stops they make.
"If that's one person per job, which we know it's not, that's a lot of thumbing on a phone and it's gonna take time and it's going to effect some aspects of our job," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said.
As for the mayor, he hosted an interfaith breakfast where he announced a new public safety push to prevent gun violence. It involves $1.5 million in grants to faith leaders to expand community intervention programs.