Mayor Adams’s Attempt to Bar Immigrants from Traveling to NYC Ruled Unconstitutional
Civil Liberties Union
Councilmember Perkins announced his bill at a press conference at City Hall; the NYLCU appeared at the press conference in support of the bill. 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement and the Latino Officers Association also support the bill and appeared at the press conference.
In several highly-publicized cases in recent years law enforcement obtained confessions to serious crimes in New York after which it was established that the confessions were false or coerced. Indeed, invalid confessions are a national problem in law enforcement, and several jurisdictions have implemented or are studying programs for recording custodial interrogations.
NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said, “Coerced confessions wholly undermine the criminal-justice system and violate the constitutional rights of defendants. The videotaping of interrogations is a simple and straightforward way of dealing with this problem.”
NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn stated, “Videotaping will protect the accused from coercive interrogations and the Police Department from false claims of coercion. Everyone benefits from this reform.”