§ 14-151 Bias-based profiling prohibited.

   a.   Definitions. As used in this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

      1.   "Bias-based profiling" means an act of a member of the force of the police department or other law enforcement officer that relies on actual or perceived race, national origin, color, creed, age, immigration or citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or housing status as the determinative factor in initiating law enforcement action against an individual, rather than an individual's behavior or other information or circumstances that links a person or persons to suspected unlawful activity.

      2.   "Law enforcement officer" means (i) a peace officer or police officer as defined in the Criminal Procedure Law who is employed by the city of New York; or (ii) a special patrolman appointed by the police commissioner pursuant to section 14-106 of the administrative code.

      3.   The terms "national origin," "gender," "disability," "sexual orientation," and "immigration or citizenship status" shall have the same meaning as in section 8-102 of the administrative code.

      4.   "Housing status" means the character of an individual's residence or lack thereof, whether publicly or privately owned, whether on a temporary or permanent basis, and shall include but not be limited to:

         (i)   an individual's ownership status with regard to the individual's residence;

         (ii)   the status of having or not having a fixed residence;

         (iii)   an individual's use of publicly assisted housing;

         (iv)   an individual's use of the shelter system; and

         (v)   an individual's actual or perceived homelessness.

   b.   Prohibition.

      1.   Every member of the police department or other law enforcement officer shall be prohibited from engaging in bias-based profiling.

      2.   The department shall be prohibited from engaging in bias-based profiling.

   c.   Private Right of Action.

      1.   A claim of bias-based profiling is established under this section when an individual brings an action demonstrating that:

         (i)   the governmental body has engaged in intentional bias-based profiling of one or more individuals and the governmental body fails to prove that such bias-based profiling (A) is necessary to achieve a compelling governmental interest and (B) was narrowly tailored to achieve that compelling governmental interest; or

         (ii)   one or more law enforcement officers have intentionally engaged in bias-based profiling of one or more individuals; and the law enforcement officer(s) against whom such action is brought fail(s) to prove that the law enforcement action at issue was justified by a factor(s) unrelated to unlawful discrimination.

      2.   A claim of bias-based profiling is also established under this section when:

         (i)   a policy or practice within the police department or a group of policies or practices within the police department regarding the initiation of law enforcement action has had a disparate impact on the subjects of law enforcement action on the basis of characteristics delineated in paragraph 1 of subdivision a of this section, such that the policy or practice on the subjects of law enforcement action has the effect of bias-based profiling; and

         (ii)   The police department fails to plead and prove as an affirmative defense that each such policy or practice bears a significant relationship to advancing a significant law enforcement objective or does not contribute to the disparate impact; provided, however, that if such person who may bring an action demonstrates that a group of policies or practices results in a disparate impact, such person shall not be required to demonstrate which specific policies or practices within the group results in such disparate impact; provided further, that a policy or practice or group of policies or practices demonstrated to result in a disparate impact shall be unlawful where such person who may bring an action produces substantial evidence that an alternative policy or practice with less disparate impact is available and the police department fails to prove that such alternative policy or practice would not serve the law enforcement objective as well.

         (iii)   For purposes of claims brought pursuant to this paragraph, the mere existence of a statistical imbalance between the demographic composition of the subjects of the challenged law enforcement action and the general population is not alone sufficient to establish a prima facie case of disparate impact violation unless the general population is shown to be the relevant pool for comparison, the imbalance is shown to be statistically significant and there is an identifiable policy or practice or group of policies or practices that allegedly causes the imbalance.

   d.   Enforcement.

      1.   An individual subject to bias-based profiling as defined in paragraph 1 of subdivision a of this section may file a complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights, pursuant to Title 8 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, or may bring a civil action against (i) any governmental body that employs any law enforcement officer who has engaged, is engaging, or continues to engage in bias-based profiling, (ii) any law enforcement officer who has engaged, is engaging, or continues to engage in bias-based profiling, and (iii) the police department where it has engaged, is engaging, or continues to engage in bias-based profiling or policies or practices that have the effect of bias-based profiling.

      2.   The remedy in any civil action or administrative proceeding undertaken pursuant to this section shall be limited to injunctive and declaratory relief.

      3.   In any action or proceeding to enforce this section, the court may allow a prevailing plaintiff reasonable attorney's fees as part of the costs, and may include expert fees as part of the attorney's fees.

   e.   Preservation of rights. This section shall be in addition to all rights, procedures, and remedies available under the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Constitution of the State of New York and all other federal law, state law, law of the City of New York or the New York City Administrative Code, and all pre-existing civil remedies, including monetary damages, created by statute, ordinance, regulation or common law.

(Am. L.L. 2020/058, 6/29/2020, eff. 8/28/2020)

Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 2013/071.

§ 14-152 School activity reporting.

   a.   Definitions. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 

      Data. The term "data" means final versions of statistical or factual information in alphanumeric form that can be digitally transmitted or processed. 

      Department personnel. The term "department personnel" means police officers and school safety agents employed by the department. 

      Force. The term "force" includes but is not limited to the use of (i) a firearm; (ii) physical force; (iii) a chemical agent; (iv) a baton; (v) mechanical restraints, except when used in the course of making an arrest; or (vi) a conducted energy device. 

      Mechanical restraints. The term "mechanical restraints" means any device or material attached or adjacent to the body that restricts freedom of movement or normal access to any portion of the body and that the individual cannot easily remove, including handcuffs and nylon/Velcro restraining devices. 

      Violation. The term "violation" means alleged student misbehavior occurring within a New York city public school or on school grounds that does not constitute a felony or misdemeanor and that, if committed by an adult, would constitute an offense defined by a section of the penal law. 

   b.   Report of activity relating to schools. The department shall submit to the council on a quarterly basis, a report based on data reflecting criminal summons, civil summons, arrest, and non-criminal incident activity from the preceding quarter. Such report shall be disaggregated by patrol borough and include, at a minimum:

      1.   the number of individuals arrested and/or issued a criminal summons by school safety agents or police officers assigned to the school safety division of the department;

      2.   in those cases where arrests were made or criminal summonses were issued: (i) the charges (including penal law section or other section of law), and (ii) whether the charge was a felony, misdemeanor or violation;

      3.   the number of individuals issued a civil summons by school safety agents or police officers assigned to the school safety division of the department; and

      4.   the number and type of non-criminal incidents that occurred.

   c.   For the data provided pursuant to paragraphs one and two of subdivision b, such report shall include: (i) the charges (including applicable section of law); (ii) whether the incident occurred in connection with metal detector or magnetometer scanning; and (iii) whether department personnel used force and the type of force used. The data provided pursuant to paragraph one of subdivision b shall also specify whether the charge was a felony, misdemeanor or violation and whether the incident with respect to which the arrest or issuance of a summons occurred was school related, in that it occurred within a New York public school or on school grounds or was otherwise related to the public school community.

   d.   The data provided pursuant to paragraphs one through three of subdivision b shall, for each such paragraph, where practicable based upon the manner in which the applicable records are maintained, be disaggregated by race/ethnicity, year of birth, gender, and, where the individual is a student, whether the individual is receiving special education services and whether the individual is an English Language Learner, provided that such disaggregated data reported pursuant to this subdivision shall not be reported for each school building but rather shall be reported by patrol precinct.

   e.   Use of permanent and temporary metal detectors. The department shall submit to the council on a quarterly basis a report including: (i) a list of school buildings with permanent metal detectors; (ii) a list of school buildings subjected to random scanning; (iii) a list of schools that have requested the removal of metal detectors; and (iv) a list of schools for which a requested removal of metal detectors has been honored. In addition, the department shall on an annual basis report on the amounts and types of contraband seized as a result of metal detector scanning, disaggregated by school building. Such types shall include but not be limited to firearms, knives, boxcutters and laser pointers. 

   f.   Report of complaints against school safety agents. The department shall submit to the council on a quarterly basis a report of complaints against school safety agents from the preceding quarter. Such report shall include, at a minimum, disaggregated by patrol precinct: 

      1.   The total number of complaints originating at or relating to public schools, alleging excessive use of force, abuse of authority, discourtesy or use of offensive language, with abuse of authority complaints disaggregated by specific allegations of disputed arrest and confiscation of student property;

      2.   The number of open complaints at the end of the preceding quarter and the number of days each complaint has been pending and the result of the complaint;

      3.   The number of school safety agents with open complaints who have been the subject of a prior complaint; and

      4.   The number of injuries sustained by department personnel resulting from student misconduct, including the number of times that department personnel have as a result of such misconduct been transferred by emergency medical services, whether provided by the fire department or another authorized ambulance service, for medical evaluation or treatment.

   g.   Public education. Operators of the 311 system shall inform any caller seeking to make a complaint against a school safety agent that the complaint will be electronically transferred to the internal affairs bureau of the New York city police department. 

   h.   Disclosure limitations. The information, data, and reports required by this section shall be subject to the disclosure limitations of section 14-150 of this chapter. 

   i.   Reports due at end of reporting period. The information, data, and reports required by this section shall be provided to the council and posted to the department's website within thirty days of the end of the reporting period to which the reports correspond or for which the relevant data may be collected, whichever is later. Where necessary, the department may use preliminary data to prepare the required reports and may include an acknowledgment that such preliminary data is non-final and subject to change. 

(Am. L.L. 2015/093, 10/13/2015, eff. 1/1/2016; Am. L.L. 2016/071, 6/13/2016 and 6/13/2017)

Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 2011/006, L.L. 2015/093 and L.L. 2016/071.

§ 14-153 Traffic data.

   a.   The department shall publish on its website the following traffic-related data: (1) the number of moving violation summonses issued, disaggregated by type of summons; (2) the number of traffic crashes, disaggregated by (i) the type of vehicle or vehicles involved and (ii) the number of motorists and/or injured passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians involved; and (3) the number of traffic-related fatalities and injuries disaggregated by (i) the number of motorists and/or injured passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians involved; and (ii) the apparent human contributing factor or factors involved in the crash, including, but not limited to alcohol, driver inattention/distraction, speeding, failure to yield and use of cell phones or other mobile devices.

   b.   The data required pursuant to subdivision a of this section shall be published on the department's website for the whole city and disaggregated by borough and police precinct, and shall be searchable by intersection, except for the data required under paragraph one of subdivision a, which shall be disaggregated by borough and police precinct only. Such data shall be updated at least once every month.

   c.   For the quarter beginning July first, two thousand fifteen and quarterly thereafter, the department shall provide a report, in writing, to the speaker of the council regarding: (1) the number of traffic-related incidents during the prior quarter that involved at least one vehicle and resulted in critical injury and where the driver of a vehicle involved in such incident left the scene of such incident without reporting, in violation of section six hundred of the vehicle and traffic law; (2) the number of such incidents the department closed during the prior quarter resulting in an arrest being made for violation of such section of the vehicle and traffic law; (3) the number of such incidents the department closed during the prior quarter without an arrest being made for violation of such provision of the vehicle and traffic law; and (4) the number of notices of violation issued pursuant to section 19-191 as a result of such incidents. The data in such report shall be disaggregated by precinct and the cross streets of the incident and the department shall also publish such data on the department's website. Additionally, the department shall provide to the speaker of the council in writing a brief description of what steps were taken to investigate each such incident, noting the cross streets of the incident. For purposes of this subdivision, "critical injury" shall mean any injury determined to be critical by the emergency medical service personnel responding to any such incident.

   d.   No later than July 1, 2016, and annually thereafter by May 1, the department shall provide to the speaker of the council and post on the department's website a report regarding: (1) the number of complaints recorded in connection with traffic-related incidents during the prior year that involved at least one vehicle and resulted in property damage, personal injury, or death and where the driver of a vehicle involved in such incident left the scene of such incident without reporting, in violation of section six hundred of the vehicle and traffic law; and (2) the number of such incidents resulting in personal injury or death that the department closed during the prior year resulting in an arrest being made for violation of such section of the vehicle and traffic law.

(Am. L.L. 2016/005, 1/5/2016, eff. 7/3/2016)