NYC Mayor Says ‘How Many Stops Act’ Will Handcuff Cops, Hurt Morale

NYPD officers respond as people demonstrate calling for a cease-fire amid war between Israel and Hamas, at Grand Central Station in New York City, on Oct. 27, 2023. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

New York City Council members have pledged to override the veto of Mayor Eric Adams to push through controversial legislation dubbed the “How Many Stops Act,” which, if passed, would have a disastrous effect on New York Police Department (NYPD) morale as well as exacerbate the city’s already high crime rate, according to critics.

If enacted, the controversial legislation would require police to officially document any encounter they have with the public, including logging the race, gender, and age of any person to whom they speak.

Mr. Adams, a former police captain who ran for mayor on a platform of public safety, vetoed the bill last Friday, claiming the legislation would saddle already overburdened NYPD officers with paperwork while costing the cash-strapped city several million dollars in overtime and also having a negative impact on public safety.

The mayor offered to take his fellow democrats on a patrol with him so they could witness the heavy burden already being shouldered by officers.

“With a bill pending that could make the city less safe, city councilmembers deserve to see firsthand how our NYPD officers are keeping the public safe and building relationships in our communities—and they deserve to understand how this bill would force those officers to spend more time filling out paperwork instead of protecting New Yorkers and keeping our streets safe,” Mr. Adams said in a statement.

“We cannot handcuff the police … We want to handcuff bad people who are violent. That’s the goal.”

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The City Council needs 34 votes to override Mr. Adams’s veto, and many council members intending to vote that way rallied inside City Hall on Tuesday, including Speaker Adrienne Adams, who said the proposed law is a positive step toward racial justice.

“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 stop,” Ms. Adams wrote in a statement.

“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,” she continued.

“Rather than focusing on governing our city, the Mayor and his administration have sought to mislead and incite fear through a propaganda campaign, wasting government resources and creating division.”

A majority of over 51 percent of NYPD officers are non-white.

Public advocate Jumaane Williams, who co-sponsored the bill, claims that having officers document each encounter will result in greater transparency that will help put an end to what he claims is a racial bias in policing.

“A full understanding of the legislation makes it clear that enacting these reforms will be good for public safety, while preventing them will make our city less safe,” Mr. Williams wrote in a Jan. 18 press release.

“Mayor Adams is following in the path toward the wrong side of history where Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg have gone before.”

The public safety records of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg show crime at near-historic lows. Meanwhile, recent years have seen an increasing number of New Yorkers, including police, being assaulted, beaten, stabbed, and punched. From Jan. 1 to March 31, 2023, citywide, 1,251 on- and off-duty police were hurt by people using physical force against them, compared to 949 in the first quarter of 2022, according to newly released NYPD crime statistics.

The proposed legislation also comes as record numbers of NYPD police officers have handed in their badges, raising concerns that residents of the nation’s largest city could see already sky-high crime rates spiral further out of control.

A total of 2,516 officers resigned from the department in 2023, according to police pension data previously obtained by The Epoch Times. It is the fourth largest number in the past decade and 43 percent more than the 1,750 who resigned their positions in 2018. Further, the data show that the number of cops quitting before they reach the 20 years required to receive their full pensions has increased by 104 percent since 2020.

‘A Disaster’

The recent exodus comes on top of years of officer attrition, eroding the ability of the nation’s largest police force to protect and serve to dangerous levels, according to Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.

“This is truly a disaster for every New Yorker who cares about safe streets,” Mr. Hendry previously told The Epoch Times. “Cops are already stretched to our breaking point, and these cuts will return us to staffing levels we haven’t seen since the crime epidemic of the ‘80s and ‘90s,” said Mr. Hendry.

An NYPD source told The Epoch Times that residents should expect to see even more officers leaving the force if this legislation passes.

“When have you ever seen these jokers pass a law in support of the department?” said the source, who works primarily in south Brooklyn. “Every single law and rule they make only makes our lives more difficult, and we are the ones expected to protect and serve?

“This is clown world. There are no other words for it. Straight up clown world,” the source added.

Republican New York City Councilman Joe Borelli said that all New Yorkers should support the democratic mayor, telling The Epoch Times, “It’s preposterous that New Yorkers should have to call their council members and weigh in on the side of their mayor for this new bill.”