Relates to establishing reporting duties of law enforcement agencies with respect to police misconduct allegations and outcomes; requires the division of criminal justice services to establish and maintain on its official website a public, searchable database of alleged infractions and police misconduct complaints.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4778
SPONSOR: Epstein SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill requires police department chiefs, county sheriffs, and the
superintendent of state police to regularly report to the Division Of
Criminal Justice Services instances in which a police or peace officer
is brought up for potential disciplinary action.
The bill expands the type of information that must be publicly reported
by the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
The bill also requires the commissioner to update a public, searchable
database of police disciplinary data and outlines dataset's form.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Governor proposed Article VII legislation as part of the FY2020
budget to make the Division of Criminal Justice Services responsible for
publishing a periodic report of police officers' use of force in the
course of their duties. This bill expands on the Governor's proposal by
also requiring information about disciplinary charges brought against
officers to be publicly available. Transparency in policing increases
accountability for officers, increases public trust in our criminal
justice system, and helps rebuild the relationship between the public
and law enforcement. By making this information publicly available auto-
matically, police officers are further incentivized to abide by relevant
laws and department policy as they carry out their duties.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022: A4563A (Epstein) - referred to governmental operations /
S5248 (Brisport) - referred to codes
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
Unknown.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
90 days after becoming law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
4778
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 23, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. EPSTEIN, SEAWRIGHT, SIMON, MEEKS -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation establishing reporting
duties of law enforcement agencies with respect to police misconduct
allegations and outcomes
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 837-x
2 to read as follows:
3 § 837-x. Reporting duties of law enforcement agencies with respect to
4 police misconduct allegations and outcomes. 1. Definitions. For the
5 purposes of this section:
6 a. "Action pending investigation" means an action taken by a law
7 enforcement agency in response to the opening of an investigation into
8 an alleged infraction, including but not limited to placing an officer
9 on modified duty, unpaid suspension, or paid suspension.
10 b. "Encounter" means the contact between the subject officer and an
11 individual that resulted in either a police misconduct complaint or an
12 alleged infraction.
13 c. "Alleged infraction" means any alleged violation of agency rules or
14 policies or violations of law by an officer. An alleged infraction
15 includes any rule violation regardless of whether it is associated with
16 a police misconduct complaint. The term alleged infraction does not
17 include technical infractions as defined in section eighty-six of the
18 public officers law.
19 d. "Disciplinary action" means any action taken by the law enforcement
20 agency as a result of an investigation concerning an alleged infraction.
21 Disciplinary action includes but is not limited to charges and specifi-
22 cations, termination, forced separation, probation, suspension, loss of
23 vacation days, training, instructions, mandated drug screenings,
24 mandated counseling, divesture of interest, command discipline, or any
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00144-01-3
A. 4778 2
1 other such category of discipline maintained by the law enforcement
2 agency. The term "disciplinary action" also includes a recommendation or
3 decision not to impose any penalty.
4 e. "Investigating agency" means the agency responsible for investigat-
5 ing the alleged infraction.
6 f. "Law enforcement agency" means a police agency or department of the
7 state or any political subdivision thereof, including authorities or
8 agencies maintaining police forces of individuals defined as police
9 officers in section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or a sheriff's
10 department.
11 g. "Officer" means a police officer, as defined in subdivision thir-
12 ty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or a peace offi-
13 cer as defined in section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law.
14 h. "Originating agency" means the agency that first identified an
15 alleged infraction or that received a police misconduct complaint.
16 i. "Police misconduct complaint" means any complaint of misconduct
17 alleged by a member of the public or an employee of a law enforcement
18 agency where the subject of such a complaint is an officer. Police
19 misconduct complaint includes any complaint made to the law enforcement
20 agency or any other agency authorized to investigate misconduct by an
21 officer. Police misconduct complaints may be brought against one or more
22 officers and may contain one or more alleged infractions.
23 j. "Subject officer" means an officer who is alleged to have committed
24 an alleged infraction. There may be multiple subject officers involved
25 in a single police misconduct complaint.
26 k. "Unique, permanent, and stable identifying number" means a number
27 that is assigned to each officer by the employing agency, municipality,
28 or the division that is unique, permanently associated with the officer
29 and which does not change during the officer's lifetime. Such number
30 shall be the tax identification number assigned to the officer by the
31 agency where such number is issued.
32 2. The division shall establish and maintain on its official website a
33 public, searchable database of alleged infractions and police misconduct
34 complaints. Such database shall consist of the information described in
35 subdivision three of this section. Such database shall include all
36 records described in subdivision three of this section regardless of
37 when those records were produced or created, and regardless of the
38 disposition of any investigation into an alleged infraction or police
39 misconduct complaint.
40 3. The database described in subdivision two of this section shall
41 include the following:
42 a. the name of the subject officer for each alleged infraction;
43 b. the law enforcement agency that employees the subject officer;
44 c. the shield number of the subject officer at the time of the alleged
45 encounter;
46 d. the unique, permanent, and stable identifying number of the subject
47 officer;
48 e. the rank of the subject officer at the time of the alleged encount-
49 er;
50 f. the command of the subject officer at the time of the alleged
51 encounter;
52 g. the precinct of the subject officer at the time of the alleged
53 encounter;
54 h. whether the subject officer is currently on active duty, retired,
55 or has been terminated;
A. 4778 3
1 i. demographic information on the subject officer, including race,
2 ethnicity, gender, and age;
3 j. whether an allegation is concerning an improper use of force;
4 racial profiling; biased policing; sexual misconduct; an unlawful stop;
5 an unlawful search; an unlawful arrest; falsifying official statements;
6 unlawful entry; interfering with documenting police activity; tampering
7 with evidence; failure to provide aid or medical attention; interfering
8 with investigations into alleged infractions; an officer's failure to
9 identify themselves; or other;
10 k. the alleged infraction;
11 l. the date of the encounter;
12 m. the date of the alleged infraction;
13 n. the location where the encounter occurred;
14 o. whether the contact was officer-initiated or in response to a
15 dispatch or a request for assistance by a member of the public;
16 p. whether the encounter was a result of a pedestrian stop, car stop,
17 aided request, execution of a warrant, witness interview, police
18 dispatch to respond to a person experiencing a mental health or
19 substance use emergency, or other;
20 q. demographic information of the alleged victim, including race,
21 ethnicity, gender, and age, to the extent that such information is
22 recorded;
23 r. a unique serial case identification number;
24 s. the originating agency;
25 t. the investigating agency;
26 u. the date the investigating agency began its investigation;
27 v. the status of an investigation (open or closed);
28 w. whether witnesses to the alleged encounter or other witnesses were
29 interviewed. If so, the database shall indicate whether the witnesses
30 were officers, civilians, or both;
31 x. whether the investigating agency reviewed video footage, photo-
32 graphic images, or other recordings of the alleged encounter;
33 y. the date of the finding by the investigating agency;
34 z. the finding of the investigating agency, including any disposition
35 category maintained by the agency regardless of the nature of such
36 disposition;
37 aa. the disciplinary action recommended by the investigating agency;
38 bb. any action pending investigation taken by the law enforcement
39 agency;
40 cc. whether the subject officer was subject to an administrative pros-
41 ecution. If so, the database shall also include and be searchable by the
42 following:
43 i. the charges against the subject officer;
44 ii. the finding per charge, including guilty or not guilty; and
45 iii. the disciplinary action recommended by the person presiding over
46 such prosecution;
47 dd. the disciplinary action taken by the law enforcement agency; and
48 ee. the justification for any divergence between the disciplinary
49 action taken by the law enforcement agency and the disciplinary action
50 recommended by the investigating agency.
51 4. Where the name of an officer is unknown at the time of the initial
52 complaint or opening of an investigation, the database shall indicate
53 "officer unknown". If an officer's name is discovered in the course of
54 an investigation, the investigating agency shall provide that informa-
55 tion to the division within thirty days. The division shall update the
A. 4778 4
1 database with such officer's name within thirty days of receipt of such
2 information.
3 5. The information in the database required by subdivision two of this
4 section shall be updated monthly.
5 6. The database described in subdivision two of this section shall not
6 include the name of or any other individually identifying information
7 for any person other than the subject officer.
8 7. The information included in the database required by subdivision
9 two of this section shall be available in a format that permits auto-
10 mated processing and shall be available without any registration
11 requirement, license requirement or restrictions on their use, provided
12 that the division may require a third party providing the public any
13 data from such database, or any application utilizing such data, to
14 explicitly identify the source and version of the data, and a
15 description of any modifications made to such data.
16 8. The chief of every police department, each county sheriff, and the
17 superintendent of state police shall report to the division on a monthly
18 basis all information described in subdivision three of this section.
19 9. For records in existence prior to the effective date of this
20 section, the chief of every police department, each county sheriff, and
21 the superintendent of the state police shall provide all information
22 described in subdivision three of this section to the extent such infor-
23 mation exists.
24 10. The division shall promulgate regulations to effectuate the
25 reporting of information from law enforcement agencies sufficient to
26 establish the database described in subdivision two of this section.
27 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
28 have become a law.
