New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed new police reform bills into law on Friday consisting a sweeping package of police accountability measures. The same includes the release of the officer’s long withheld disciplinary following the impacts of and protests over the George Floyd’s murder.
The measures were previously approved earlier this week by the Democratic-led legislature of the state. Some of these reforms have even been proposed back in the days but had not been approved.
But, with the new urgency in the country following the death of a 46-year old unarmed Black American George Floyd’s death at the hands of the police officers on duty.
“Police reform is long overdue, and Mr. Floyd’s murder is only the most recent murder,” said Cuomo.
Cuomo completed the signing ceremony by the Reverend Al Sharpton, Valerie Bell, who is the mother of Sean Bell, a victim of police brutality in 2006 along with Gwen Carr, who is the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed by an officer in 2014.
“It was a long time coming, but it came,” said Carr.
As per the new laws, it will ban police chokeholds and make it easier for people to sue people who call police on others without any reason. It is also going to set up a special prosecutor’s office to further investigate the deaths of people during the encounters with police officers.
“These bills mean some substantive change, so that we won’t be sitting here going over this after the next funeral and after the next situation,” said Sharpton.
Some of the bills including the body camera legislation drew a chunk of Republican support that focused on repealing the state law to block the police disciplinary records over the concerns of the officer’s privacy.
This law, titled under Section 50-a was eliminated, which would make complaints against the officers along with transcripts and final dispositions of the disciplinary proceedings, made public for the first time in decades.
“It will review the final version of the legislation and utilise it in a manner that ensures greater transparency and fairness,” said the New York police department spokesperson.
Approximately 500 police departments in New York will now have to come with their plans to address everything in terms of the use of force and the implicit bias awareness training by April 2021. This was issued under an executive order that Cuomo said will be released Friday.
The governor further clarified that this is the first change that New York is bringing along out of all the 50 states in U.S. He further said that the police departments that fail to cooperate will not be getting the aid.
While these new police reforms have been praised and accepted by several, it has been frowned upon by some as well.
Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association said that Cuomo and the government don’t have any reason celebrating today.
Lynch further reported saying the police officers already work consistently to address the failures of the elected officials.
“Now, we won’t even be able to do that. We will be permanently frozen, stripped of all resources and unable to do the job,” said Lynch.
Cuomo now has 10 days to act on the other bills passed by the state lawmakers this week. One of the most important ones amidst them is the legislation that prohibit police from using racial profiling. Another important bill is allowing the ones in custody to get essential medical and mental health needs.
The lawmakers also passed a bill that requires New York to collect and then report the race and some of the other demographic details of every individual that is charged. The legislation has also asked the police departments to report immediately in case any individual dies in police custody and also provide with a demographic breakdown.
