NYC council members shoot down Adams’ police ride-along request as he tries to squash controversial cop reporting bill
A coalition of black City Council members on Thursday rebuffed Mayor Eric Adams’ offer of a police ride-along as part of his desperate bid to kill a controversial cop bill.
In a terse statement, the group of a dozen Big Apple lawmakers told the mayor they simply don’t need his help to understand how cops do their jobs.
“We don’t need a litmus test from this mayor about our work on behalf of the people who elected us,” said the statement, signed by the black subcommittee of the council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus, including subcomittee co-chairs Althea Stevens and Crystal Hudson.
“As elected officials who have long engaged with our local precincts and officers, we reject any premise that we lack an understanding of the day-to-day work of NYPD officers in our communities or how the people we represent are affected,” the lawmakers said.
Besides, they said, many city elected officials “have previously done some version of a ride-along.”
The tongue-lashing comes amid Adams’ attempt to sway two members of the City Council to flip their votes against the “How Many Stops Act,” which will require NYPD cops to write up reports on even the most menial encounters with New Yorkers — potentially bogging them down in more paperwork.
Adams vetoed the bill earlier this month, calling the proposal a potential disaster for cops after the council approved the measure by a veto-proof 35-9 vote at the end of last year.
The mayor needs to flip two council members to prevent a veto-proof majority from restoring the bill.
Last week, he urged the council to go on a ride-along with police on patrol, hoping that they might be swayed if they saw firsthand how police officers do their jobs and interact with the community.
He is not without supporters in opposing the proposal — among them the Rev. Al Sharpton.
City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-Queens) said on X on Thursday that she had just met with the controversial civil rights leader and that both agreed that the cop bill “would further handcuff our police with mountains of paperwork.”
But a majority of the council backs the bill as a necessary extra level of scrutiny of New York’s Finest.
“This legislation is a part of a multi-generational effort to increase transparency and accountability with support from communities most harmed by historical injustices,” City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said in support of the bill last week.
Other council members whose name were signed to the statement included Chris Banks, Selvana Brooks-Powers, Rita Joseph, Farah Louis, Sandy Nurse, Chi Osse, Kevin Riley, Yusef Salaam, Nantasha Williams and Darlene Mealy.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
