Right to Know Act

The Right To Know Act is a legislative package that aims to protect the civil and human rights of New Yorkers while promoting communication, transparency and accountability in everyday interactions between the NYPD and the public.  New Yorkers want to live in a safe city where the police treat all residents with dignity and respect, and where police are not considered to be above the law.

Criminal Justice Reforms Stall in a Liberal Capital: New York

08/21/2016
New York Times

Utah, a state where even regular beer is considered too intoxicating, has made possession of heroin or cocaine a misdemeanor rather than a felony. Mississippi has reduced its prison population by 15 percent with new legislation.

Several states have decriminalized marijuana for recreational use. More than a half-dozen states have passed laws restricting the use of cellphone-tracking technology by the police.

La lucha por el ‘Derecho a Saber’ sigue

La Policía debe rendir cuentas
08/04/2016
El Diario

La comunidad latina tiene que ser parte del movimiento nacional por la rendición de cuentas en los departamentos policíacos. Sufrimos abuso, brutalidad y asesinatos policiales de miembros de nuestra comunidad también, como parte de la manifestación de la violencia sistémica anti-Negro. En la ciudad de Nueva York, esa historia es trágicamente larga y continúa – Anthony Baez, Iman Morales, Noel Polanco, Jayson Tirado, y demasiados más han muerto a manos de la policía.

Council got played in its deal with the police

We need a law, not the NYPD's word, to change the way cops search New Yorkers
08/16/2016
Crain's New York
Richard Aborn’s op-ed “Give the NYPD a chance to reform itself” is perplexing, describing City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito’s backroom deal as both weaker than what the speaker has portrayed and stronger than its factual impact. Either he is confused or being disingenuous. The speaker’s deal does not “adopt most” of the Right to Know Act as Mr. Aborn insinuates. In fact, it adopts very little because it has removed the most important reforms, including those highlighted by Mr. Aborn as recommended by President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (which he misnames and incorrectly implies took a position opposed to legislation).

Good-government groups blast backroom deal that sank police-reform bills

Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito mothballed two police-reform bills after reaching a private agreement with police leaders last month
08/15/2016
Crain's New York

Good-government and police-reform groups blasted the City Council’s “handshake agreement”with the Police Department Monday as “irresponsible” and “not how the City Council should act,” in the words of Citizens Union’s Dick Dadey.

Watchdog: NYPD needs more transparency on misconduct cases

08/15/2016
Newsday

A government watchdog laid out a proposal Monday for greater transparency of NYPD operations and accountability for officer actions.

Citizens Union released an 18-point policy statement that, among other goals, seeks to establish consistency across the police oversight system and expand the range of disciplinary options for cases of officer misconduct.

The group’s executive director, Dick Dadey, said the introduction of a new police commissioner, James O’Neill, next month opens a door to improved NYPD-community relations.

Procedural Move Could Lead to Vote on Right to Know Act

08/12/2016
Gotham Gazette

Last week, City Council Members Ritchie Torres and Antonio Reynoso sent out a joint statement in which they addressed the ramifications of the impending retirement of NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton. “With the departure of William Bratton,” the statement reads, “we are reminded that administrative agreements are every bit as short-lived as commissioners themselves, coming and going in the moments we least expect.”

New NYPD Commissioner's Focus on Community Policing is a Distraction, Not a Solution

08/11/2016
The Intercept_

WHEN NEW YORK MAYOR Bill de Blasio introduced incoming Police Commissioner James O’Neill last week, he praised him as the “architect” of neighborhood policing — the city’s version of the “community policing” approach being implemented across the country as a solution to the increasingly contentious relationship between law enforcement and people of color.

State of siege: What Bratton’s legacy looks like to a kid from Flatbush

08/09/2016
New York Daily News

Growing up in Flatbush in the 2000s, I fell in love with the vibrancy of my community. I loved the way we gelled together — different cultures, with different layers of broken English sprouting from mouth to mouth, speaker to speaker.

One of the most vivid images I still hold on to, however, is the way police patrolled parties and community gatherings. They looked more like corrections officers walking down aisles of prison blocks than the agents of community safety they professed to be.

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