The New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a sweeping package of legislation Thursday that will make it a criminal offense for cops to use chokeholds and imposes new oversight requirements on the Police Department by veto-proof margins.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD brass fiercely opposed many portions of the package for years — but reversed course in recent days as City Hall was rocked by the fallout from Hizzoner’s handling of the mass protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
“These bills are important bills, they are good bills, we are glad that we’re doing these bills, but these bills are not what is going to transform policing in New York City,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a press conference before the vote.
“It is a good, small, first step in the right direction,” he added, before pointing to the now-public brawl between lawmakers and de Blasio over slashing and reallocating up to $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget.
“But, the real structural change will be from moving money away from the NYPD and putting that into social services.”
New Yorkers took to the streets for nearly two weeks of massive protests to demand a massive overhaul of policing in the Big Apple, including calls for ‘defunding’ the department.
Lawmakers have responded to the marches by examining transferring the NYPD’s school safety and parking enforcement units back to the Education and Transportation departments, slashing overtime spending and shrinking the force through attrition.
It would be the first time in at least two decades that the NYPD’s budget has faced cuts, the latest in a slew of developments that demonstrate just how much the political winds have shifted in Gotham in recent weeks.
Lawmakers in Albany recently passed their own legislative package aimed at improving transparency at police departments across the state by requiring the disclosure of personnel records, which had been stalled for years before the mass protests.
That package also included a ban on chokeholds that result in serious injury or death.
The city legislation goes further by banning chokeholds in all situations and by barring officers from sitting, kneeling or standing on a suspect’s chest and back during an arrest, according to its chief sponsor Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens).
Chokeholds were banned by the NYPD’s patrol guide nearly three decades ago, but the tactic came under intense scrutiny after Officer Daniel Pantaleo was caught on tape using the maneuver during the fatal apprehension of Eric Garner for selling untaxed cigarettes in 2014.
The Staten Island man’s death set off months of protests across the city, helped to ignite the national Black Lives Matter movement — and created a political conundrum that ensnared de Blasio’s City Hall for five years, which was only resolved when Police Commissioner James O’Neill fired Pantaleo in 2019.
City Hall opposed Lancman’s legislation until reversing their stance last week — and even the late endorsement came with a caveat, as the NYPD brass insisted in public testimony that the Council add an exemption for if cops use chokeholds unintentionally.
But, Johnson and Lancman refused to add the provision, and — facing down a veto-proof Council majority — a politically besieged de Blasio ducked the fight and bowed to the inevitable.
“I’m now convinced this is the right legislation to move forward with and I will sign it,” Hizzoner told reporters during his Thursday morning briefing. “This legislation makes sense it’s the right thing to do.”
Still, some opposition remained.
“It’s insane. A police officer will be guilty even if there’s no intent,” Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “The bill was written by people who clearly have never been in a fight in their lives, never mind a fight for their life.”
He added: “The message to the NYPD is that it’s now better to take a hit for failure to take police action than take police action.”
A Brooklyn police source provided similar commentary.
“This is insanity, cops are not going to know what to do. Cops are going to get hurt. Arrests will go definitely go down which is de Blasio and his cohorts’ ulterior motive,” the source claimed. “This is just another reason to close Rikers, because there will be no one under arrest.”
The measure passed by a vote of 47 to 3.
The package of laws passed by the Council will also require the NYPD to:
- Issue yearly reports on how it uses surveillance technology and steps it takes to shield personal information from collection;
- Establish a centralized system to identify officers with a history of complaints and disciplinary problems;
- Standardized police discipline and release the guidelines for punishment to the public;
- Orders officers to ensure their badge numbers and rank are clearly visible.
The package also includes legislation from Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) that codifies the public’s right to film police activity.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh, Craig McCarthy and Larry Celona