City Council overrides Mayor Adams' veto of NYPD reporting, jail bills

The New York City Council on Tuesday overrode mayoral vetoes of bills to require the NYPD to log all investigative encounters and curb solitary confinement in the city jails.

The vote was 42-9.

Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, has said the laws will jeopardize safety in public and in lockups — burdening cops with pointless red tape at the expense of crime-fighting and depriving jail guards of a necessary tool to punish violent inmates.

Council leaders say that the stops law is needed, among other reasons, because the NYPD has long been failing to document unconstitutional stops as required, and that the questions officers will need to complete are short and simple and can be done on a smartphone and even at a later time.

Those backing the jails law say that solitary confinement is barbaric and tantamount to torture and leads to suicide.

Due to council rules, there were several hearings crammed unusually into one day to conduct the override — including a hearing to formally receive the vetoes and another to formally actually do the override of the bills, Introduction 586-A and Introduction 549-A.

Council members voted one by one, some choosing to explain their votes on the floor of the Council Chamber.

Speaker Adrienne Adams of Queens, a Democrat, led the override effort.

“Public safety is a collective effort but can only be achieved when there is transparency and accountability in policing,” she said, adding: “Solitary confinement is globally recognized as torture. The isolation of solitary confinement by any name has been proven to cause physical, psychological and emotional harm.”

A minority of council members voted against the override.

“Intro 586 will needlessly tie down our already-overstretched police department, and Intro 549 will remove one of the last remaining tools that our corrections officers have to enforce rules within their facilities,” said Councilwoman Joann Ariola of Queens.

"Both of these things equate to less safety — less safety for the average New Yorker on the street, less safety for our corrections officers and staff, and less safety from other inmates who can now be attacked at will with no repercussions or too low of a repercussion available to deter their assailants.”

The police law mandates that cops log all investigative encounters with civilians, beyond a decades-old requirement to document only those stops in which someone has been detained and not free to leave.

The jails law limits the isolation of inmates to four hours; only those who pose an immediate, violent risk could be isolated. The law means those involved in violent incidents must generally be allowed out of their cells for at least 14 hours a day in congregate settings.

Hours before the override, Adams promised the administration would comply with the laws if the vetoes were overridden.

“We are going to follow the law,” said Adams. “This administration is going to live by that.” 

The jails law goes into effect in 180 days; the police stops law requires data to be aggregated and made public, and the first report is due within 30 days of the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2024.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.