How Many Stops Act: NYC Mayor Eric Adams makes last pitch for veto on CBS News New York
NEW YORK -- The New York City Council will vote Tuesday on the controversial How Many Stops Act, which has been vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams.
The bill would require police officers to document all stops, including casual inquiries. Critics say it would slow down police work, but supporters believe it will bring more transparency to the NYPD.
Adams spoke with CBS News New York ahead of Tuesday's vote, along with the mother of Angellyh Yambo, who was killed by gun violence on April 8, 2022.
"I want to be clear, I support the concept of the bill. We already do proper documentation on Level 2s, Level 3s, Level 4s, those are different levels of stops and interactions, particularly around criminality. Like the stopping of the Councilman Yusef Salaam, that was already documented - it was on video, and a documentation had to be done," the mayor said. "Here's the issue - the Level 1s. If someone calls the police to state, 'my mother is suffering from dementia, and she's missing,' that police officer goes out with a photo or any other information and asks people, 'did they see this person?' Every person he or she stops and asks that, they're going to have to document it. To some, they say, 'well, that's just a matter of minutes.' You judge response time and public safety in seconds and minutes, every second and every minute should go to finding bad people, not doing paperwork."
We asked whether there is a compromise to move the bill forward.
"Yes, that is why I took a group of council people out on the ride-along. They rode with police officers, they saw how this is going to be operationalized. I'm hoping that if my veto is overrode by the City Council -- which I'm hoping it doesn't, but if it is -- between the time of actually implementing the law in July, let's sit down and let's fix the one part of this bill that I believe would have a serious impact on police overtime, on police interaction with the public, because we should not be guessing the gender and the race of the public. We should not be spending time trying to fill out the reason for every time we ask someone for that missing person-type interaction," Adams replied. "This is not a police stop bill, this is a police interaction bill, which is different, and I don't think that's what the council people had in mind when they introduced this."
So does he have the votes to prevent a veto override?
"We don't know that until the votes get to the floor. We're hoping that everyone explains their votes. We're hoping that those who went on the ride-along with us will bring a level of understanding to this, that we can do both - we can get the public safety we want, we can get the justice that we want," he said. "But we cannot in any way take seconds or minutes away from police ensuring that we catch people who are doing harmful things to innocent people."
Yambo's mother, Yanely Henriquez, said she supports the mayor's veto.
"As a mom, I want to do something with my pain, I want to make sure that I help other families. I was blessed that the cops were working 24/7 to catch the criminal that did this to my daughter. But at the end of the day, there's other situations where the cops don't have to stay hours and hours in the precinct just doing paperwork instead of going out and catching people that are doing bad things... That gives that person a gap that they can either commit another crime or they can run away, and you're not going to be able to catch [them]," she said. "So I completely agree with the mayor. Everything is in the body cam, we don't need to write it on paper. We have to make sure that every minute counts, because every minute you could save a life."
Adams was asked how the law will be put into practice if his veto is overruled.
"We have to have a plan A and a plan B, and our desire is to look at those 8.5 million 311, 911 calls that we receive not having to actually do this form of documentation. We're hoping, again, that the window before implementation, if the bill is overrode by the council, we're hoping that there's a way to address this issue," he replied. "But I cannot emphasize enough, every second we need in this city with our police that is already monitored. Every second should go to fighting crime to continue this success that we have had bringing down shootings, bringing down homicides and making this city the safest big city in America."
The mayor was also asked about restoring trust between police and the public.
"I think it has. I think when you look at and listen to the overwhelming number of New Yorkers, they're happy to see that police officer in that subway station, or on their blocks responding to the calls of service. It has become one of the most diverse police departments in the country of different ethnic groups that have now joined the police department," he said. "I think that trust was really emphasized, believe it or not, even in the car stop with Councilman Yusef Salaam and the police officer. That police officer walked up to the car, identified himself, used terminology like 'sir' and other terminology. We saw what we would not have seen years ago in this police department in a civilian interaction, and I think we're in a good place, we need to continue to do so. Having to guess people's gender, ethnicity and all of those items, I think that is going to erode the interaction with police and civilians."