BILL NUMBER: S425
SPONSOR: LIU
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to limiting the trans-
port of an arrested, detained or apprehended person in an unmarked
police vehicle or concealed identity police vehicle and the use of such
vehicles for stops and searches
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To prevent non-uniformed police in unmarked vehicles from apprehending
or otherwise detaining person
 
JUSTIFICATION:
On July 28th, 2020, NYPD officers in t-shirts and shorts tackled a teen-
age protestor, forced her into an unmarked minivan, and drove away.
Videos of the incident taken by witnesses showed no visible markings
identifying the officers or the vehicle as law enforcement. Some of the
witnesses described this as a "kidnapping".
This incident drew similarities to tactics used by law enforcement offi-
cers in Portland just days before, where protestors were forced into
unmarked vehicles by people in street clothes and driven away. Report-
edly, those law enforcement officers did not identify themselves and
even threatened violence on anyone who followed after them.
Though the officers in the above NYPD case say they were following stan-
dard procedures, the common and continued usage of these tactics damage
the public trust in our police and our criminal justice procedure. It
should be the right of an individual to know, unambiguously, when
they're being apprehended by law enforcement, and they are not actually
being kidnapped by unknown persons. Also, as with traffic stops by
unmarked vehicles, the common usage of these unidentified "kidnap-
ping"-style apprehensions undermines public safety rather than enhances
it. This bill seeks to limit the use of such apprehension tactics by
making it clear that the vehicle used to arrest or otherwise apprehend a
person must be a marked vehicle, or a uniformed officer must be in the
vehicle for the duration of the transport.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
01/03/24 REFERRED TO CODES
01/11/23 REFERRED TO CODES
01/05/22 REFERRED TO CODES
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.