Dear Supporters of our Police Reform Project, This month, we are so excited to announce that the bill we have supported has been introduced into the Senate and has a bill number for the new session. The bill is Senate Bill 3662A of 2025. Senator Hoylman Sigal is sponsoring the bill. We expect the bill to be introduced to the Assembly in the coming weeks. As a refresher, this bill has five components that the literature suggests will reduce racial disparities in traffic enforcement. They are: - Barring police from stopping motorists, cyclists and pedestrians solely for violation of one of 24 different low-level, non-safety stops, referred to as “secondary stops;”
- Barring racial profiling and providing a remedy for criminal defendants if evidence was seized from them based on a stop primarily motivated by the defendants’ membership in a constitutionally protected class;
- Barring stops for two types of low-level warrants;
- Requiring additional procedural protections for vehicle searches based on the consent of the motorist to help ensure consent is knowingly and voluntarily given;
- Data collection on traffic stops including racial demographic data, as well as analysis and transparency.
The state legislature is currently involved in the budget process. At Empire Justice Center, we advocate for legislation and budget allocations for programs that benefit New Yorkers in various areas. Once the budget process is over, we plan to have a lobby day on this bill, and seek your support in promoting it through letters, visits and calls to your state legislators, letters to the editor, participating in lobbying, and educational programs to help people understand why this bill is so important. To stay updated, sign up for our Advocacy Alerts. Click the "Sign up for Advocacy Alerts" button below and select "Advocacy Alerts" on the form. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Jill Paperno, Esq. Katie Blum, Esq. | |
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