City Council Bill Would Make Gun Offender Registry Public
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New Yorkers would have access to an online registry of people convicted of gun crimes if a City Council bill proposed Thursday is approved.
Councilman Costa Constantinides, D-Astoria, one of the legislation's co-sponsors, said the bill would make the NYPD's gun offender registry, already in existence, available to the general public in a searchable database.
Users would simply enter their ZIP codes, the councilman said.
City Council Bill Would Make Gun Offender Registry Public
"It gives you the name of the individual," Constantinides told reporters, including WCBS 880's Rich Lamb. "It gives you the street name -- so let's say 34th Street in that ZIP code. It'll give you the general description of the individual. It'll give you the crime that they committed and their sentence."
The bill would also allow people to sign up for monthly emails to update them when gun offenders move into their neighborhood, officials said.
"We all know that most of the gun violence in our city is committed by a small percentage of the population, and we have a right to know who those few people are," said Councilman Ritchie Torres, D-Bronx, who is also co-sponsoring the measure. "Who are the people in our city who are driving almost all the gun violence in our neighborhoods?"
While overall crime -- including murders -- is down in the city this year, shooting incidents have climbed 13 percent compared to 2013, according to NYPD statistics.
Last weekend, 23 people were shot, two fatally, the NYPD said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he's addressing the issue "aggressively," WCBS 880's Monica Miller reported.
"I give Commissioner (Bill) Bratton tremendous credit. He is the guy, of course, who brought us the CompStat system," the mayor said, referring to the statistical system largely credited for cutting crime in the city in the 1990s. "The whole notion is to quickly and agilely make moves and adjustments, and that's being done as we speak."
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