The New York City Council voted today to pass two police reform bills, collectively known as the Right to Know Act. One bill, Intro 541-C, supported by the NYCLU will require police to secure voluntary consent before searching people who they stop. This common-sense reform has been a long time demand of community advocates for police reform. The NYCLU, along with dozens of community groups, opposed the passage of the second bill, Intro 182-D, which removed the majority of protections and added loopholes that fail to protect New Yorkers from police abuses in the most common forms of daily encounters.
The following statement is attributable to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU: