NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed a package of police reform bills and issued an executive order requiring hundreds of local agencies across the state to “reinvent and modernize” their police strategies or risk losing state funds.
The package of bills previously passed by the state Legislature included a ban on chokeholds and a repeal of 50-A, a law that shielded police records from the public for decades.
The reforms come after two weeks of demonstrations across the state in which protesters took to the streets demanding justice for victims of police reforms and policy changes.
Cuomo said around 500 agencies across the state must now formulate a plan “addressing use of force by police officers, crowd management, community policing, implicit bias awareness training, de-escalation training and practices, restorative justice practices, community-based outreach, a transparent citizen complaint disposition procedure and other issues raised by that community.”
The agencies must work with communities and enact a plan by local law before April 1, 2021 to be eligible for state funding.
“It has to be done by April 1. If it’s not done by April 1, and if it’s not passed, they’re not going to be eligible for state funding,” Cuomo said.
The governor, who was joined by the Rev. Al Sharpton, Gwen Carr – Eric Garner's mother – and Valerie Bell – Sean Bell's mother— said the goal of the effort was to “restore trust” between police officers and residents across the state.
“There is no trust between the community and police,” Cuomo said. “And if there’s no trust, the relationship doesn’t work.”
“Sit down at the table with the local community, address these issues, get to the root of these issues, get a plan, pass that plan by your local government, and if you don’t, you’re not going to get any additional state funds—period,” Cuomo said. “We’re not going to fund police agencies in this state that do not look at what has been happening, come to terms with it and reform themselves. We’re not going to be, as a state government, subsiding improper police tactics.”
Cuomo also signed “the most aggressive reforms in the nation” for policing passed by the state Legislature.
The package includes the repeal of the 50-a law shielding police disciplinary records, a ban on choke holds, the appointment of the New York State attorney general as a special prosecutor in cases related to the death of unarmed civilians by law enforcement, and prohibits false, race-based 911 reports.
"This is systemic reform of police departments, this is sitting down and taking a look at exactly what they do and have been doing and looking at it through a new lens of reform and reinvention," Cuomo said.
"These bills mean some substantive change, so we won't be sitting here going over this after the next funeral," Sharpton said.
Sharpton also praised the governor's executive order to local agencies, saying "he has raised the bar on how we deal with policing."
"To say that every mayor must come up with a plan along these areas or they would withhold state money is a model for where we ought to be dealing with 21st century civil rights in this country. Make no mistake, this is a new level that all other 49 governors ought to look at."
The measures come amid widespread protests over policing and racism in America after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month.
Cuomo was also joined by State Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who said, "We know that this is a beginning, but it's a move to bring justice to a system that has long been unjust."
“We are at a moment of reckoning, there’s no question about it,” Stewart-Cousins said. “I’m just so thankful that I have a historic role at this moment. I have an opportunity of leading 40 Senate Democrats, who unanimously decided this was the time.”
State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who was also in attendance, said he thinks Floyd's death "struck a nerve" with people across the nation.
"I actually thought that the bill was going to be Democrat versus Republican," Heastie said. "We had many, many Republicans voting for these bills, because I think the entire world has just said, 'Enough is enough is enough is enough.' How much more bloodshed had to happen for the consciousness and the heart of this nation to finally open up and say, 'We need to do better and we need to be better?'"
New York PBA President Patrick Lynch criticized the signing of the measures.
"Governor Cuomo and our legislative leaders have no business celebrating today. New York state had been failing our communities for decades: failing to provide economic opportunity, failing to educate our youth, failing to care for the vulnerable and the mentally ill," Lynch said in a statement. "Police officers spend our days addressing issues caused by these failures. Now, we won't even be able to do that. We will be permanently frozen, stripped of all resources and unable to do the job. We don't want to see our communities suffer, but this is what Governor Cuomo and our elected leaders have chosen."