Bill Text: NY S05248 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: 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.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-06-22 - PRINT NUMBER 5248A [S05248 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-S05248-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5248--A 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE February 26, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sens. BRISPORT, SALAZAR -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes -- recom- mitted to the Committee on Codes in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee 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- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD08062-03-2S. 5248--A 2 1 cations, termination, forced separation, probation, suspension, loss of 2 vacation days, training, instructions, mandated drug screenings, 3 mandated counseling, divesture of interest, command discipline, or any 4 other such category of discipline maintained by the law enforcement 5 agency. The term "disciplinary action" also includes a recommendation or 6 decision not to impose any penalty. 7 e. "Investigating agency" means the agency responsible for investigat- 8 ing the alleged infraction. 9 f. "Law enforcement agency" means a police agency or department of the 10 state or any political subdivision thereof, including authorities or 11 agencies maintaining police forces of individuals defined as police 12 officers in section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or a sheriff's 13 department. 14 g. "Officer" means a police officer, as defined in subdivision thir- 15 ty-four of section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law, or a peace offi- 16 cer as defined in section 2.10 of the criminal procedure law. 17 h. "Originating agency" means the agency that first identified an 18 alleged infraction or that received a police misconduct complaint. 19 i. "Police misconduct complaint" means any complaint of misconduct 20 alleged by a member of the public or an employee of a law enforcement 21 agency where the subject of such a complaint is an officer. Police 22 misconduct complaint includes any complaint made to the law enforcement 23 agency or any other agency authorized to investigate misconduct by an 24 officer. Police misconduct complaints may be brought against one or more 25 officers and may contain one or more alleged infractions. 26 j. "Subject officer" means an officer who is alleged to have committed 27 an alleged infraction. There may be multiple subject officers involved 28 in a single police misconduct complaint. 29 k. "Unique, permanent, and stable identifying number" means a number 30 that is assigned to each officer by the employing agency, municipality, 31 or the division that is unique, permanently associated with the officer 32 and which does not change during the officer's lifetime. Such number 33 shall be the tax identification number assigned to the officer by the 34 agency where such number is issued. 35 2. The division shall establish and maintain on its official website a 36 public, searchable database of alleged infractions and police misconduct 37 complaints. Such database shall consist of the information described in 38 subdivision three of this section. Such database shall include all 39 records described in subdivision three of this section regardless of 40 when those records were produced or created, and regardless of the 41 disposition of any investigation into an alleged infraction or police 42 misconduct complaint. 43 3. The database described in subdivision two of this section shall 44 include the following: 45 a. the name of the subject officer for each alleged infraction; 46 b. the law enforcement agency that employees the subject officer; 47 c. the shield number of the subject officer at the time of the alleged 48 encounter; 49 d. the unique, permanent, and stable identifying number of the subject 50 officer; 51 e. the rank of the subject officer at the time of the alleged encount- 52 er; 53 f. the command of the subject officer at the time of the alleged 54 encounter; 55 g. the precinct of the subject officer at the time of the alleged 56 encounter;S. 5248--A 3 1 h. whether the subject officer is currently on active duty, retired, 2 or has been terminated; 3 i. demographic information on the subject officer, including race, 4 ethnicity, gender, and age; 5 j. whether an allegation is concerning an improper use of force; 6 racial profiling; biased policing; sexual misconduct; an unlawful stop; 7 an unlawful search; an unlawful arrest; falsifying official statements; 8 unlawful entry; interfering with documenting police activity; tampering 9 with evidence; failure to provide aid or medical attention; interfering 10 with investigations into alleged infractions; an officer's failure to 11 identify themselves; or other; 12 k. the alleged infraction; 13 l. the date of the encounter; 14 m. the date of the alleged infraction; 15 n. the location where the encounter occurred; 16 o. whether the contact was officer-initiated or in response to a 17 dispatch or a request for assistance by a member of the public; 18 p. whether the encounter was a result of a pedestrian stop, car stop, 19 aided request, execution of a warrant, witness interview, police 20 dispatch to respond to a person experiencing a mental health or 21 substance use emergency, or other; 22 q. demographic information of the alleged victim, including race, 23 ethnicity, gender, and age, to the extent that such information is 24 recorded; 25 r. a unique serial case identification number; 26 s. the originating agency; 27 t. the investigating agency; 28 u. the date the investigating agency began its investigation; 29 v. the status of an investigation (open or closed); 30 w. whether witnesses to the alleged encounter or other witnesses were 31 interviewed. If so, the database shall indicate whether the witnesses 32 were officers, civilians, or both; 33 x. whether the investigating agency reviewed video footage, photo- 34 graphic images, or other recordings of the alleged encounter; 35 y. the date of the finding by the investigating agency; 36 z. the finding of the investigating agency, including any disposition 37 category maintained by the agency regardless of the nature of such 38 disposition; 39 aa. the disciplinary action recommended by the investigating agency; 40 bb. any action pending investigation taken by the law enforcement 41 agency; 42 cc. whether the subject officer was subject to an administrative pros- 43 ecution. If so, the database shall also include and be searchable by the 44 following: 45 i. the charges against the subject officer; 46 ii. the finding per charge, including guilty or not guilty; and 47 iii. the disciplinary action recommended by the person presiding over 48 such prosecution; 49 dd. the disciplinary action taken by the law enforcement agency; and 50 ee. the justification for any divergence between the disciplinary 51 action taken by the law enforcement agency and the disciplinary action 52 recommended by the investigating agency. 53 4. Where the name of an officer is unknown at the time of the initial 54 complaint or opening of an investigation, the database shall indicate 55 "officer unknown". If an officer's name is discovered in the course of 56 an investigation, the investigating agency shall provide that informa-S. 5248--A 4 1 tion to the division within thirty days. The division shall update the 2 database with such officer's name within thirty days of receipt of such 3 information. 4 5. The information in the database required by subdivision two of this 5 section shall be updated monthly. 6 6. The database described in subdivision two of this section shall not 7 include the name of or any other individually identifying information 8 for any person other than the subject officer. 9 7. The information included in the database required by subdivision 10 two of this section shall be available in a format that permits auto- 11 mated processing and shall be available without any registration 12 requirement, license requirement or restrictions on their use, provided 13 that the division may require a third party providing the public any 14 data from such database, or any application utilizing such data, to 15 explicitly identify the source and version of the data, and a 16 description of any modifications made to such data. 17 8. The chief of every police department, each county sheriff, and the 18 superintendent of state police shall report to the division on a monthly 19 basis all information described in subdivision three of this section. 20 9. For records in existence prior to the effective date of this 21 section, the chief of every police department, each county sheriff, and 22 the superintendent of the state police shall provide all information 23 described in subdivision three of this section to the extent such infor- 24 mation exists. 25 10. The division shall promulgate regulations to effectuate the 26 reporting of information from law enforcement agencies sufficient to 27 establish the database described in subdivision two of this section. 28 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 29 have become a law.
