NYC Council Overrides Mayor’s Veto of Bill Requiring Cops to Document Race of People They Interact With

The New York City Council voted to override Mayor Eric Adams’s veto of a bill that will force police officers to document most interactions they have with the public.

The bill will require officers to record details on the apparent race, gender, and age of people they stop, including when they are only asking for information from someone who may be a witness to a crime. Officers would also have to note the reason for the interaction.

While advocates claim the “How Many Stops Act,” will hold police accountable for unlawful stops and prevent racial profiling, Adams, who is a former police captain, and other critics say the bill threatens to swamp officers with paperwork and is a threat to public safety. 

“If you talk to the victim of a crime or law enforcement professional, they will tell you: in public safety, seconds matter,” Adams said earlier on Tuesday at City Hall. “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.”

But the mayor failed to win over the two council members he needed to help him thwart the council’s override of his veto, with the council voting to pass the bill 42–9 on Tuesday. 

“Today’s over-ride is one more step toward the city council goal: destroy the world’s best police department,” NYPD Detectives Endowment Association president Paul DiGiacomo told the New York Post. “Thanks to the politicians the divide between the police and citizens will grow. And so will retirements of our best most experienced detectives. Heartbreaking.”

The bill would essentially expand a policy that has been in place since 2001 that has required officers to document scenarios in which they have asked someone “accusatory” questions as part of an investigation.

The council first passed the bill in a 35–9 vote in December, with seven council members abstaining.