The NY City Council passed two bills to rein in the NYPD’s use of stop and frisk. The Council voted with veto-proof majorities for the bills to create an inspector general who will oversee the NYPD and to allow people to sue over racial profiling by police.
The inspector general bill passed 40-11, and the racial-profiling bill by 34-17.
Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) said the bill “will give every person subject to any police policy an automatic right to sue without any allegation of wrongdoing.”
“It will achieve the ultimate goal of this bill, to put judges in charge of the NYPD,” he said. “When the courts are in charge, we will become Chicago, we will become Detroit. Crime will soar, murder will rise, children will die.”
Mayor Bloomberg’s counsel, Michael Best, wrote in a letter to legislators that despite a series of recent changes, the bills “would seriously impede the ability of the Police Department and the City to protect 8.4 million New Yorkers” and invite an “avalanche of new lawsuits against police action.”
Mayor Bloomberg vowed to veto the bills and said he’d try to change minds before an override vote. “These dangerous pieces of legislation will only hurt our police officers’ ability to protect New Yorkers and sustain this tremendous record of accomplishment," he said. "We have demonstrated why these bills are bad for public safety, and I will veto this harmful legislation and continue to make our case to Council members over the coming days and weeks."