Mayor Adams Vetoes Council’s Solitary Ban and Police Accountability Bills

Both pieces of legislation now go back to the Council where they previously passed veto-proof majorities

Mayor is hoping to coax new members and flip old ones to vote no.

By Katie Honan

The City

January 19, 2024

NEW YORK - Mayor Eric Adams on Friday vetoed two law-enforcement focused bills that would have required cops to document more interactions with the public and banned solitary confinement at city jails.

The move sets up another fight between the mayor’s office and the City Council, where both pieces of legislation passed last year with enough majority to override a veto. Adams is hoping that some of the four newly sworn-in members vote no, or others reverse their vote.

The mayor first vetoed the police transparency bill known as “How Many Stops” following a rally outside City Hall Friday morning attended by the unions who represent police officers, along with small business and neighborhood watch groups before blasting it again at a press conference. That followed a week of public relations pushes from Adams’ office — including an animated video — saying the law would make the streets less safe.

Later in the day he quietly vetoed the solitary ban — after noting the Department of Correction denies using the practice anyway — marking four vetoes since he took office in 2022. 

“My legacy is on ensuring we have police transparency and also accountability, but part of that legacy that’s often ignored is my desire to have communities and police officers build a bond, a bond that they know public safety is a trust that is something that is something that we build together,” he said at the press conference about the reporting bill. 

The “How Many Stops” act would require the police department to note and share most interactions with the public, including quarterly reports with information on low-level encounters and when people don’t consent to a search. 

Adams had until 11:59 p.m. Friday to veto the solitary confinement ban and the police reporting bill before they lapsed into law. 

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who co-sponsored the low-level stops and encounters bills alongside Councilmember Alexa Aviles from Brooklyn, said on NY1 Thursday that “the mayor frankly should be pretty ashamed of himself.”

The bill “does not add a significant amount of work. It does not prevent police work. It is police work.”

Nonnegotiable

With the vetoes, the bills return to the City Council for another vote, after already passing with a veto-proof majority. Although City Hall hopes to whip up more “no” votes, a Council source said it’s unlikely. 

“All of this shows that they are incompetent at the basic functions of legislative negotiations,” the source told THE CITY. “A fundamental part of the mayor’s office is to negotiate with the City Council.”

A City Hall official said that they did negotiate on the bills, but the Council ultimately passed a bill they disagree with. 

Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, in a joint statement with newly-appointed public safety chair Councilmember Yusef Salaam, a Democrat from Harlem, said the veto of the police accountability bill was “deeply disappointing.” 

“At a time when one out of every four stops made by the mayor’s new police unit has been found to be unconstitutional, and civilian complaints are at their highest level in more than a decade, the mayor is choosing to fight to conceal information from the public,” they wrote.

“Rather than focusing on governing our city, the mayor and his administration have sought to mislead and incite fear through a propaganda campaign, wasting government resources and creating division.”

A spokesperson for Speaker Adams said the council negotiated with and made changes to the bill at the behest of the NYPD, in August, November, and December.

But they didn’t agree with the police department’s attempts to exempt level 1 encounters, which are general requests for information from an officer, according to the patrol guide.

Speaking about the solitary ban, Speaker Adams and criminal justice chair Sandy Nurse, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said they sought input from the federal monitor overseeing the DOC but were “completely ignored.” 

“Solitary confinement, by any name, has been proven to cause physical, psychological, and emotional harm, and its use has contributed to continued violence and deaths on Rikers Island,” they wrote in a statement. 

The mayor’s previous two vetoes include a bill last year that would expanded the eligibility for housing vouchers, which the council then overrode.

He also killed a bill that would have increased fines to non-artists living in lofts in the SoHo/NoHo artists district. HellGate reported months later that vetoing that bill could benefit Scott Sartiano, the owner of Zero Bond, a nightclub frequented by the mayor. The Council did not override that one.

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