Thursday, July 28, 2016

NYC Council Right to Know Act


The Right to Know Act is an important Legislation that reinforces Fourth Amendment rights on the ground and has the potential to improve relations between the Police and Communities.

The main sponsors of the two bills are, Councilmen Antonio Reynoso, a Brooklyn Democrat, and Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat.

The bills intended to alter the interactions between Officers and People on the street in encounters when an Officer suspected a possible crime.

It’s composed of two bills:

- The “ID Bill” requires an Officer to identify themselves when having an interaction with a civilian. It would require Officers to identify themselves by name, rank and command after encounters that do not result in arrest or summons.

- The “Consent to Search Bill” requires Officers to inform Citizens of their right to withhold consent to be searched where probable cause or the absence of any legal basis for the search.

Council Officials said, Officers conducting a so-called consent search of a car, a home or a person will be required to ask a question such as “Can I search your pockets?” rather than “Hey, let me search your pockets.” Afterward, they will have to confirm that the person understood his or her right to refuse. If consent is declined, the officer will have to obtain a warrant or walk away.

After such a search, the officer will be required to provide a business card. The cards, which will be printed and provided by the Police Department, will also be handed over at checkpoint car stops and upon request during informational conversations on the street that do not legally constitute a police stop, the Council officials said. Officers will be retrained in the coming months on the new procedures.

Passing and implementing this legislation would go a long way toward normalizing police-community relations in this city and will allow us to take a step toward the justice that Communities of Color so richly deserve.

Sadly, the City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, is currently unwilling to bring this groundbreaking legislation to the Council floor for a vote, even though a majority of the Council has signed on to both bills. Instead, she made a deal with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and scrapped this bill in exchange for adding a watered-down version to the New York Police Department (NYPD) Patrol Guide.

Three other bills, requiring the Police Department to report certain data on the use of force and deployment of officers with substantiated civilian complaints, were expected to be adopted by the Council.

The de Blasio Administration and the Police Department had strongly urged the Council to accept the compromise position, according to the people at the meeting. Police Commissioner Bratton told the Council last year that he opposed measures like the Search bill as “unprecedented intrusions” into the management of the Police Department. Instead, he said at the time, the Department would have preferred to “collaborate” with the Council and reach common ground without Legislation.

Mark-Viverito did not rule out the possibility that Legislation could be passed in the future, but for now, the Council will see how the compromise plays out.

A police spokesman, J. Peter Donald, said the department would “continue working closely” with the Council.

The compromise eliminates any guarantee that individuals will be notified of their right to refuse a search when there is no legal basis for one and discards the requirement for officers to identify themselves in most instances, including when individuals are questioned without reasonable suspicion. This strips the teeth from what is outlined in The Right To Know Act and delivers none of the reforms that President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended.

The bottom line: we need The Right To Know Act to become law. We know from a long and painful past that Administrative prohibitions or protocols do not serve as true agents of change. For more than twenty years choke holds have been prohibited by the Patrol Guide, yet this did not stop officers from using that technique resulting in the killing of Anthony Baez in 1994 and, more recently, the killing of Eric Garner in 2014. Effective? I think not. There also happens to be Legislation making Police choke holds illegal, except in life-threatening situations, that is opposed by Commissioner Bratton and has not moved through the City Council.

Would passage of the Right to Know Act be the cure to police brutality? No. More is needed. Education, training, strict enforcement of NYPD rules, and real accountability instead of mere lip service, would also go a long way to eliminating police violence against citizens.

It’s also true we may never be able to eradicate all racial bias, and that some people can’t be educated or trained to be different. However, enacting laws that genuinely require the Police to respect all people including black people through proper communication will, in the process, respect everyone’s life, including the lives of Police Officers. The Right to Know Act would be a positive step on that road to de-escalation and reconciliation.

Let’s demand the Right to Know Act be brought to the City Council floor for a vote.

True democracy requires nothing less.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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