NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Mayor Eric Adams told 1010 WINS on Tuesday that "there's room for compromise" on the "How Many Stops" Act as the City Council was poised to override his veto of the legislation, which would require NYPD officers to log all public interactions, including low-level encounters.
Adams told 1010 WINS' Susan Richard that he agrees with the "concept of the bill" and that "it's just the level-one interaction that I am troubled about."
Adams and NYPD officials have said logging low-level encounters and general inquiries would be too time-consuming for officers, forcing them to fill out forms every time they speak to a person rather than focusing on solving a crime.
"We have 8.5 million 911, 311 calls to the police department, can you imagine spending even a minute on each one of those interactions?" the mayor said. "Our police should be on patrol, not doing paperwork and documentation."
Adams said "one minute difference in response time is the difference between life and death."
Supporters of the bill planned to rally outside City Hall on Tuesday to applaud the expected override. They've accused the mayor's office of engaging in a misinformation campaign, insisting the stops can be reported on officers' phones in less than a minute, possibly with dropdown menus that don't even involve writing.
“It’s not interrupting police work. It is police work,” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who sponsored the bill, said Monday.
Adams said he's open to compromise and that City Council members should work with him on an amendment for the bill addressing the concerns about level-one stops before it's implemented in July.
"There's room for a compromise to get the public safety and justice and oversight we're looking for," the mayor said. "You don't have to implement the bill in July. I say if you're going to override my veto, let's use that moment of time to sit down and address one aspect of the bill."
"I think conceptually the City Council heart was in the right place," he said, "but in order to operationalize this, we have to address the volume of interactions we're now asking police officers to document."
The bill has faced pushback from police unions, with Paul DiGiacomo, the president of the 18,000-member NYPD Detectives Endowment Association, saying in a statement Tuesday, "Today’s over-ride is one more step toward the City Council goal: destroy the world’s best police department."
"Thanks to the politicians the divide between the police and citizens will grow," DiGiacomo said. "And so will retirements of our best most experienced detectives. Heartbreaking."
The Council is also set to vote Tuesday to override Adams' veto of a bill that would ban solitary confinement in the city's jails.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.