Mayor Eric Adams, elected officials, media join NYPD for ride-along as mayor defends vetoing How Many Stops Act
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams invited elected officials and the media on a ride-along with police Saturday night in an effort to defend his veto of the How Many Stops Act.
The bill would require officers to document all encounters with public, including casual inquiries.
It's the first time elected officials, Adams and the media were together for a ride-along with the NYPD.
"When you're asking someone, 'Did you anything?' You don't want to pause for a moment, you want to keep moving if somebody says no," Adams said.
On one stop in East Harlem, there was a call for a robbery suspect spotted in a car. There were flashing lights, sirens and a full-out canvass for the suspect in front of city leaders and rolling cameras.
On another stop in the Bronx, police responded to a 911 call for an assault.
"The local precinct's gonna canvass for the four males with the best description we have, and over here, we spoke to the two security guards, we spoke to the store right there. These will all be those level one encounters that we have to document," NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said.
"They spoke to five, six people walking up and down the block -- 'hey, did you see anything? Did you see anything? Did you see a male attacking a female?' They spoke to several different people over there. That would be a prime example of a form that they would have to fill out," NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said.
The ride-along was an effort from the mayor to convince City Council leaders not to overturn his veto on the How Many Stops Act, a bill that would require officers to document every interaction they have with New Yorkers, including level one stops police classify as non-criminal encounters or interactions.
"We're not talking about just a one-time interaction. We're talking about throughout the night, if you're answering 17 jobs, you're talking to a substantial amount of people," Adams said.
"We believe in the important role that police officers have in improving safety, but at the same time, we believe in transparency, which is also important to achieve that safety," Councilmember Oswald Feliz said.
Police say it would create an overwhelming amount of additional paperwork and discourage the public from interacting and cooperating with police.
At the 28th Precinct in Harlem, before everyone jumped into the police sprinter vans, officers did a presentation to show how they end their tour every day. They say it already takes a lot of time.
But councilmembers who overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill say the law is a tool to provide accountability and prevent racial profiling.
"I don't think it will change my mind," Councilmember Gale Brewer said.
Cops would have to complete additional information including age, race, gender, what led to the encounter, if force was used and did it lead to other stops.
Back on the streets, capturing policing in real time, officers say it's unclear how much time it would take per officer per shift.
The mayor is hoping this ride-along will change the minds of those elected officials who voted for the How Many Stops Act. It's unclear if that will happen.
At least one councilmember, Yusuf Salaam, declined to join the ride-along after he was pulled over by an NYPD officer while driving Friday night. In a statement, he said in part, "This experience only amplified the importance of transparency for all police investigative stops, because the lack of transparency allows racial profiling and unconstitutional stops of all types to occur and often go unreported."
In response, the NYPD released body camera footage of the interaction and said Salaam was pulled over for driving a vehicle with dark tint beyond legal limits.
The City Council plans to meet on Tuesday to override the mayor's veto.