In the Media

NEW YORK -- The New York City Council on Wednesday approved a controversial bill that would mandate NYPD officers file reports on all low-level stops.

Mayor Eric Adams and the police union say it will be bad for public safety.

The How Many Stops Act is sponsored by city Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. 

"The bill we're actually passing is not controversial at all. It was actually part of the remedial process recommendations when we dealt with the abuses of stop, question and frisk," Williams said.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City Council overwhelmingly approved two measures on Wednesday that the mayor strongly opposes, including one that would ban most forms of solitary confinement at city jails in most cases.

The other measure would require officers to report all street stops.

Advocates of the bills maintain this is about accountability and addressing racial disparities in the use of solitary confinement and how police conduct their investigations.

New York City community advocates want to reduce the number of stop-and-frisk encounters with police.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New York City reported the city's police department made more than 15,000 stops so far in 2023, the most since 2015. Data also show police primarily stopped Black and Latino people, although they were mostly innocent or not given a summons.

Local leaders and advocates are proposing the How Many Stops Act, which would require the NYPD to be transparent about every encounter involving a stop and search. 

This comes over a decade after a federal ruling proclaimed the NYPD's practice of stop-and-frisk to be unconstitutional. The Community Safety Act passed in 2013 to ban discrimination practices by the NYPD, but advocates say they don't believe it was enough.