New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he vetoed the "How Many Stops Act," a City Council bill that would require the police to provide an official paper document about all lower-level interactions with civilians, as well as a bill that would ban solitary confinement in jails.
The "How Many Stops Act" looked to require officers to fill out forms for all kinds of public interactions. Current law requires police to file paperwork when they stop someone while investigating a crime.
The mayor said this bill will "handcuff our police by drowning officers in unnecessary paperwork that will saddle taxpayers with tens of millions of dollars in additional NYPD overtime each year, while simultaneously taking officers away from policing our streets and engaging with the community."
Many council members cried foul on both vetoes, including Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilman Yusef Salaam.
“It is deeply disappointing that the mayor is sending the message that Black and Latino communities do not deserve transparency regarding interruptions to their daily lives from investigative police stops,” a statement from Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilman Yusef Salaam said. “At a time when one out of every four stops made by the mayor’s new police unit has been found to be unconstitutional, and civilian complaints are at their highest level in more than a decade, the mayor is choosing to fight to conceal information from the public.”
Brooklyn council member Sandy Nurse said solitary confinement should be banned as it has been proven to cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm.
"The Council passed Intro. 549-A to ban solitary confinement with more than a veto-proof majority because it is imperative to make the city’s jails safer for those who are detained and staff alike. We cannot allow the human rights and safety crisis on Rikers to continue by maintaining the status quo of failed policies and practices," she said through a release.
